FACTBOX: Who is Zimbabwe's Simba Makoni?

(Reuters) - A senior member of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party, Simba Makoni, said on Tuesday he will run for president in the March 29 election in what could be the first major internal challenge to Robert Mugabe in 20 years.

Here are a few facts about Simba Makoni

* Makoni, who turns 58 on March 26, studied chemistry in Britain, gaining a BSc and a PhD.

* At independence in 1980, Makoni was appointed deputy minister of agriculture. Over the next four years he served as minister of energy and of youth before leaving the government.

* Makoni returned to Zimbabwe in December 1993 after nine years in Botswana as executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). In March 1994 he was appointed chief executive of state-controlled Zimbabwe Newspapers.

* Makoni became finance minister in 2000. He pledged tighter fiscal discipline to restore relations with foreign donors in a package to revive Zimbabwe's struggling economy.

* However a year later, he said the country's economy was in crisis and poverty was spreading at an alarming rate. He said: "I would have to be foolish to deny what is evident to everybody in broad daylight, even in the darkness of night."

* In 2002 Makoni resigned in a policy row with the government. It was reported that he was not sacked. Makoni had been pressing the government to officially devalue the Zimbabwe dollar. Mugabe branded those calling for a devaluation "economic saboteurs", which was interpreted as a direct attack on Makoni.

Sources: Reuters/BBC

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)