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Episode details

Radio 4,08 Nov 2025,14 mins

Afua Kyei

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Available for over a year

Afua Kyei, Chief Financial Officer at the Bank of England, has been named Britain's most influential black person. She grew up in South London, reading copious numbers of Enid Blyton books and listening to Boyzone, got 6 A levels and went to university a year early. She studied chemistry at Oxford and Princeton, but then had a change of heart . She became a chartered accountant and - in 2019 at the age of just 36 - she was appointed Chief Financial Officer at the Bank of England, the Bank's youngest and first ever black executive officer in its 325 year history. Mark Coles looks back at the life of this year’s most influential Black Briton talking to Afua's friends, family and colleagues to discover how she combines parenting four children under the age of nine with balancing the books at the Bank of England. Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Adele Armstrong and Mhairi MacKenzie Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele Editor: Justine Lang Sound Engineer: Gareth Jones Photo credit: Nick Moorhead

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