Dieudonné Sékou Metiki from the African School of Economics is joining Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany for a doctorate.

Dieudonné Sékou Metiki received a Master’s degree in Mathematics, Economics and Statistics from the African School of Economics (ASE) in 2021. The skills he learned and developed during his time at this prestigious school enabled him to win a scholarship for a doctorate degree. In this interview, the brilliant student, who obtained his bachelor’s degree in project planning and management, reflects on ASE’s contribution to his success and the many opportunities he found there. Read instead!

Which university will you be pursuing your doctorate degree?

In September 2021, I will be joining the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany, as a junior researcher and Ph.D. student. Kiel Institute for the World Economy is a German research institute specializing in issues of globalization. It is composed of researchers studying the impacts and effects of international economic activity, the integration and disintegration of global markets, and the opportunities and limitations of political action in open economies.

Did ASE provide you with any help for this success?

ASE has impacted my success in obtaining this scholarship in three major ways.

Which ones?

First of all, I would like to mention the quality of training received at ASE, teaching the researchers how to work individually and in group. There is a comprehensive and intensive program aimed at preparing doctoral students; this program allowed me to develop my sense of research and widen the research network through collaboration with professors from various backgrounds at the global level.

Secondly, I would like to quote the pre-doctoral program established by ASE. Indeed, after my Masters in Mathematics, Statistics and Economics, I benefited from my brilliant results from a pre-doctoral scholarship funded by ASE. It was this pre-doctoral program that allowed me to prepare for the GRE and TOEFL tests.

Lastly, thanks to the network developed at ASE, I obtained recommendations from various professors at North American and European universities where I had to apply. I think that also played a big role in getting this scholarship.

What skills and experiences have you acquired at ASE?

First at ASE, I developed my research skills: how research is carried out in a practical way, learning to respect rigor but also ethics in scientific research. I have also acquired mastery of statistical and data collection software such as CSPro, Stata, R, Python …

Specify the projects in which you have participated.

My experience working with my professor of econometrics, Dr. Karim Nchare of Penn State University, had been rewarding in terms of intellectual exploration and strengthening my research capacity. We have worked on various projects, including a joint research paper aimed at empirically studying the heterogeneity determinants of terrorism by type of terrorism in sub-Saharan Africa. Using combined negative binomial and fixed-effect models, we have demonstrated that different terrorist events, depending on the ideology of their perpetrators, have different determinants.

I also had the chance to assist Dr. Lucienne Talba and Dr. Karim in the study of the effects of anti-vaccination rumors on health decision-making, confidence in medicine and the health of children in using a double difference strategy, comparing children in Northern Nigeria to children in the rest of Nigeria, before and after the 2003 anti-vaccination rumors.

Lastly, very recently, I participated in the CRDI-COVID project initiated by IREEP that aimed at determining the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 on African economies, social cohesion and governance in Benin, Burkina-Faso and in South Africa.

What accomplishments of ASE have marked you the most?

Hmm, I would like to mention the establishment of the pre-doctoral scholarship by ASE. This scholarship is really beneficial to students because due to the scholarship, students enrich their research capacities and allow them to prepare for the doctorate by developing their theoretical knowledge according to their field of specialty. The scholarship also prepares them for the TOEFL and GRE exams which essential when selecting doctoral students by European and North American universities.

Then, the relocation of ASE internationally and more specifically in Ivory Coast is an accomplishment that marked me quite positively. This reflects that the ASE family is growing and that the vision shared by the latter is to train many more qualified African doctoral students who can provide answers to the problems facing African societies.

Do you have any advice for parents and future generations of ASE?

To parents that may be anxious in providing their children quality education, to students who have just obtained their Bac, or to students wishing to start a Master, I strongly recommend ASE because it is one of the best universities in Benin, even within the sub-region. It has already proven itself by training brilliant students from the best universities in the world, as well as executives and researchers working on behalf of international organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF.