Charles Simwanza is a PhD Research Assistant in the African Extractivism and Green Transition (AEGT) project. He is also a Research Associate at the Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (SAIPAR) in Lusaka, Zambia. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with Mathematics and a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Zambia.

Previously, Charles worked as a Research Assistant on the Resource Nationalism in Southern Africa project (2020-2023), funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership Development Grant. Through this project, he contributed to studies that looked at various aspects of the Zambian mining sector, including fiscal regimes, institutional capacity and innovation in tax administration, local content, gender and SME development, as well as artisanal and small-scale mining.

His PhD thesis explores the potential for Zambia to develop local and regional BMVCs as a means to spur industrialisation and economic development.

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