Staff

Sukhwinder Singh

Director of the Africa Training Institute and AFRITAC South

Prior to Joining AFRITAC South and Africa Training Institute, Mr. Sukhwinder Singh was an Advisor in the African Department of the IMF. He has worked at the Fund for 24 years.He was the first Director of the IMF’s South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center

(SARTTAC) which he helped set up in New Delhi from 2016-2020. During his Fund career he has worked in the Strategy, Policy and Review, Asia and Pacific, and African Departments. During this time, he served as IMF resident representative in Nepal and in Ethiopia, and mission chief to Chad, Cape Verde, and Sierra Leone. He was also Director of IMF East AFRITAC in Tanzania from 2013-2016. He has served as Assistant to Antoinette Sayeh, former Deputy Managing Director of the IMF. Prior to joining the IMF, Mr. Singh worked at the Bank of England, was an Overseas Development Institute fellow at the Bank of Guyana, and worked at the Canadian International Development Agency. He is a national of the UK.

Andrea Salerno

Deputy Director of the Africa Training Institute

Mr. Salerno was appointed Deputy Director of ATI in July 2024. A national of Italy, he has joined the IMF about a decade ago, serving in different roles. More recently, Mr. Salerno was a Senior Economist in the Office of Budget and Planning, where he led engagements with the Board and co-authored key Fund budget papers.

He also served as a Senior Technical Assistance Officer, working across the Fund’s trust fund architecture, and as a Special Assistant to the Director of the Institute for Capacity Development. Mr. Salerno joined the IMF from the IFC’s regional office in Egypt, where he covered the Middle East and North Africa region in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. He holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Vimal Thakoor

Lecturer at the Africa Training Institute

Vimal Thakoor joined the ATI as Resident Advisor (Macroeconomics and Climate) in September

2022. He joined the IMF’s Economist Program in 2011 and previously worked in the Fiscal Affairs, African, and Strategy and Policy Review Departments. Vimal was part of the IMF’s core teams that developed the Fund’s strategy on climate change and the recently established Resilience and Sustainability Trust. He has worked on a range of countries, more recently on South Africa and Turkey. At the Fund, Vimal was involved in analytical work on demographic transitions, structural reforms, governance, and inequality. His research on climate covers debt for climate swaps, climate risks, and policy levers to catalyze climate finance. Vimal was a Chevening Scholar and holds a PhD in Economics from Birmingham (UK).

Nicolas Aragon

Lecturer at the Africa Training Institute

Prior to joining the Africa Training Institute, Mr Nicolas Aragon worked at the

National Bank of Ukraine as Principal Economist. During this time he worked in the Research division, and supported diverse policy responses during COVID and the war. His research is policy oriented, and deals with the intersection between economic crises, growth, and policy responses; both in developed and developing countries. He also lectured at Universidad Carlos III in Madrid and at Kyiv School of Economics, and held a risk modeling expert position at UBS. Nicolas is an Argentinian citizen and holds a Ph.D in Economics from European University Institute.

Priscilla Muthoora

Lecturer at the Africa Training Institute

Priscilla Muthoora joined the ATI as Resident Advisor (Macroeconomic and Financial Policy) in

January 2023. Prior to that she was a Senior Economist in the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia department. Priscilla joined the IMF’s Economist Program in 2009 and worked in the Fiscal Affairs and Western Hemisphere Departments as well as the Institute for Capacity Development. She has participated in missions with Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Dominican Republic, Madagascar, Namibia, and Panama. Between 2012 and 2014, Priscilla was part of core team coordinating the production of the IMF’s Fiscal Monitor and undertook analytical work on fiscal adjustment in an uncertain world, domestic revenue mobilization, and expenditure rules. More recently, her research has focused on inequality and the political economy of inclusive growth. Priscilla holds an MSc in Economics for Development and a PhD in Economics, both from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.