About Author

Essa Yousafzai is an Afghan American reporter and economist based in Houston. He has studied Economics and Global Business at University of Houston in the state of Texas. He also an M.Sc. in finance from Malaysia. He has significant experience in the area of economics, news reporting, social media debates, digital video editing and more. From his first interview with VOA Pashto in 2005, he had developed passion for news reporting and social media interactions. Since then, he established Awokhtoon Khparawana channel in 2016 and had the privilege to interview prominent singers and journalists of Afghanistan. He was also invited for VOA Pashto programs as a guest to discuss various topics such as the role of social media & art of video editing, gun laws in Texas, life of Afghan students in USA and employment opportunities, Afghanistan’s cricket and more.

Essa has recently developed the EssaOnline platform which is not only an informative tool but also a free way for under privileged Afghans to find scholarships and learn arts and science subjects online.

He has also collaborated University Malaya, World Bank, Bank Negara Malaysia and relevant ministries of Malaysia on various projects such as entrepreneurship in Finance, sustainable and green financing, Value Based Intermediation (VBI), Startup & SME financing, Fintech etc. He also has the experience of working with oil giant multinational companies such as ExxonMobil, BP, Total, ConocoPhillips, TransCanada etc.

He can speak, read and write in English, Pashto, Persian, Arabic and Urdu languages.  He has published articles in different journals with a special focus on finance and is currently a news contributor with IFN Malaysia. His well-known publication is focused on Japan’s stocks and its causality with macroeconomic variables which has serious implications for investors in Japan and the Japanese government.  

He has volunteered in several NGOs where he helped new immigrants in the United States, raised money for noble causes, taught refugees at UNHCR in Malaysia and collected food for the needy community members. Essa’s passion is to excel more in news reporting and journalism.  His hobbies are reading, traveling, swimming and playing cricket.