Dr Efundem Agboraw has a background in Economics and Finance from her BSc and MSc Economics (University of Buea, Cameroon), MSc Finance and Accounting (University of Wolverhampton, UK) and PhD in Economics and Finance (Anglia Ruskin University). Prior to her Masters degree in Finance and Accounting, Efundem worked as a health economist, collecting and analysing data on the impact of lack of mosquito nets in the suburbs of some regions in Cameroon, on general healthcare in those regions.
Current Research
Efundem is currently working as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate Health Economics, on a malaria themed project called Malaria in an Insecticide Resistant Africa (MIRA). Her role is to evaluate current and future malaria interventions on Burkina Faso and determine the most cost effective and affordable intervention which could potentially drive malaria to zero. The work involves collection of cost data on malaria control interventions in Burkina Faso, the development of a health systems economic cost model and a decision analysis framework. She is also responsible for the development of the survey tool for the collection of data on socioeconomic status and the analysis of the relationship between socioeconomic status and patient cost, access to treatment and LLIN use in Burkina. This is a collaborative project with partners and colleagues in CNRFP, Burkina Faso and mathematical modellers at Imperial College, London. Efundem is also currently part of team, led by Imperial College London, commissioned by WHO to carry out a systematic review on costs and cost effectiveness of malaria control and elimination strategies. Efundem is fluent in French.
PhD Research
Efundem’s PhD Consequences of Natural Resource constraint on Global growth: Evidence from the Finance sector (2016)was an evaluation of the risks that natural resource constraints pose to global growth. The research examined how scarcity of finite natural resources (food, oil and gas) will impact on the UK financial sector via influences on investments, insurance, pension schemes and banking activities. The UK finance sector is one of the most globalised economies worldwide and is therefore exposed to volatilities in global food, oil and gas prices which have had high rates of fluctuations in the last decade. Efundem conducted a quantitative analysis involving construction of over 11 economic models with different combinations of natural resource and finance variables. She used step-wise regression analysis and a Granger causality analysis (a statistical hypothesis test to examine how useful one time series is in forecasting another). Results showed that resources only affect the finance sector, with exceptional significant effects from food and gas prices on bank variables such as Overdraft lending, bank deposits and volume of loan demand. The Granger causality analysis identified a couple of 1 and 3-year unidirectional relationships between some finance variables which could indicate the possibility of systemic risks in the finance sector caused by natural resource scarcity. As such resource scarcity must be taken into serious consideration by financial regulations, the banking sector, insurance and pensions. This could be of interest to the UK Prudential Regulation Authority, in its regulation and supervision, using its forward approach to future risks, where more emphasis could be put on risks of natural resource scarcity.