About Isaah Mhlanga

Isaah is a Chief Economist and Head of Research at Rand Merchant Bank, and is a columnist for Business Day.
He holds a Masters of Commerce in Financial Economics and Honours in Econometrics, both from University of Johannesburg (UJ).

Academic Experience

University of Johannesburg

MCom in Financial Economics   ·   BCom (Hons) in Econometrics   ·   BCom in Economics & Econometrics

Industry Experience

Isaah's career insights, roles and impacts on South African financial sector

Isaah is currently the chief economist at Alexander Forbes. In this position, he’s responsible for formulating the macroeconomic strategy for the business, which entails identifying large-scale economic risks and opportunities that benefit the business, its clients and investment processes. Isaah also helps execute strategic objectives that are in line with the priorities of Alexander Forbes and drives outcomes-based investment internally and externally. He is a regular columnist for Business Day where he writes on macroeconomic policy and financial markets developments that affect the investment landscape.

Before joining Alexander Forbes, Isaah worked in two local major investment banks, where he formulated macroeconomic strategy by analysing and forecasting the global and domestic macroeconomy.

Isaah Mhlanga started his professional career as an economist at the local office of the International Monetary Fund before moving to the South African National Treasury, where he was involved in econometric modelling and monitoring of South African macroeconomic and financial indicators.


Isaah has also lectured undergraduate economics and econometrics at the University of Johannesburg.

He is a non-executive board member at Kutlwanong Centre for Maths, Science and Technology and is a trustee for Study Trust, both of which are non-profit organisations helping learners from disadvantaged background obtain scarce skills required by the economy. Isaah was named Economist of the year 2019 by the Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals (ABSIP).