We can all do it! By Thubelihle Ndlovu
Tell us a bit about yourself- where were you born, and what was your childhood like?
My name is Thubelihle Ndlovu nee Sibanda. I was born at Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and grew up in Gwabalanda. I did my childhood education at Gwabalanda BCC Preschool, then proceeded to Fusi Primary School. My secondary school years were spent at the Roman Catholic-run St Bernard's and the last two years of high school were at Townsend High School.
What are some of the things that have shaped your outlook and values in life?
I was brought up in a modest home where I saw my parents struggle and work extra hard to make ends meet. This made me a very ambitious and driven teenager. I spent most of my teenage years being a dreamer who wanted to change my fortunes and those of my family someday. My father was an educator and hence told us that education had to be our ‘first husband’; my mother, on the other hand, was an entrepreneur and would buy wares in Zimbabwe to sell in Botswana and South Africa or even to our neighbours in Zimbabwe. This instilled in me the principle of self-sustainability as a woman.
What inspired you to pursue the path that you have taken in your career and professional life?
When I finished my Advanced levels, my parents did not have enough money to take me to university, and as a result, I got a job teaching at a secondary school in rural Nkayi, where I come from. My interest in banking grew at age 13 when I saw one of the local banks advertise a savings account for children, and I decided to take my savings there. The experience and ambience in the banking hall made me strongly desire to be a banker someday. When I left home years later to be a maths teacher in my rural area, I wrote over eight applications and sent them to all the banks in my hometown.
By the end of the year, one of the banks invited me for an interview, and I went; at 18 years old, I started my first job as a bank teller. Being the bank's youngest employee made it easy for me to learn and navigate the systems and processes, and by the age of 21 years, I was already a supervisor for a small new branch of a bank. After spending a few years in retail banking, I moved to mortgage financing. I subsequently left the bank I was at to join yet another bank, and with new banks opening in my city, I could hardly stay in one bank as I needed all-around experience and was being headhunted for good customer relationship skills. The sum total of the movements made me gain experience in retail banking, international banking, corporate banking, Small Medium Enterprise (SME) banking, and treasury banking.
What work have done on women's empowerment in financial literacy?
My experience working in the bank opened my eyes to the world of money, finances and wealth creation. I marvelled at how banks would give money to those who proved they did not need it at the expense of those who did. I was also astonished at the gender economic disparities in our society and how these affected the development of households and the nation at large. Of note was how the financial service providers always preached financial inclusion slogans, yet the operational systems and procedures were wired against the excluded groups. This inspired me to open a financial institution to try and address the challenges of the unbanked in my community.
The financial institution, Portify Developmental Microfinance, began to gather traction, and developmental partners came on board to partner, support and accelerate the work we were doing with the youth, women and rural folk in Zimbabwe. The turning point in my career was when Portify Development Microfinance, together with an international partner, the International Youth Foundation YF, which USAID, UKAID and SIDA supported, managed to roll out a Financial Inclusion program that saw the repayment rate of youths in the country move from 5 to 85% to the astonishment of the government, the Central Bank as well as developmental partners. Our institution recorded a 96% repayment rate and we attributed mainly to our robust Financial Literacy Training program. This was 2016, the beginning of my quest to tackle poverty and gender disparities using economic empowerment, which was strongly embedded in Financial Inclusion and Literacy.
I began conducting free training workshops in my city of Bulawayo. In 2017 the Obama Mandela Washington Fellowship selected me to be a fellow in America at the University of Nevada Reno, where I, together with 24 other fellows from other African countries, were exposed to Fortune 500 companies and International and Multinational Companies best business practices. The main aim of Former American President Barack Obama in starting this Fellowship was to hone and develop the next generation of African leaders who would turn around the fortunes of their countries, continents and the world in the near future.
When I came back to Zimbabwe, I expanded on the knowledge and networks I had gained overseas and amplified my work. I expanded the training to other cities in Zimbabwe and ultimately to other countries such as South Africa, Uganda and Rwanda. In 2019, World Learning partnered with me and I birthed a purely financial literacy and financial inclusion outfit called Purse on Point Africa, a financial literacy and entrepreneurship organisation that seeks to bridge the financial exclusion gap for women entrepreneurs across Africa. To date, we have trained and empowered thousands of African women who have gone on to hold spin-off events and become pillars, development practitioners and entrepreneurs of note in their communities.
In 2019, the US Embassy selected me as one of the Zimbabwe coordinators and facilitators for the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) Zimbabwe chapter. AWE is a new US State Department of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) program supporting the growth of women entrepreneurs worldwide.
I have also done some academic research on “The role of entrepreneurship and financial literacy training on the entrepreneurial orientation and behaviour among women in Zimbabwe ”and "The efficacy of using cooperatives and group investments as antecedents for women empowerment."
Why has it been important to have women-centred programmes in your work?
The must and rationale for our women-centred programs have always been the fact that culturally the males in Africa were given top priority as far as education is concerned and are not victims of early marriages as compared to their female counterparts. The girl child is also disadvantaged regarding inheritance benefits in Africa because all the family wealth is passed on to the males when the parents die. This further disadvantages the girl child as they will not be able to have a springboard like their male counterparts.
Most banks and financial institutions that are operating announce "financial inclusion slogans", but their requirements, such as the prerequisite of collateral security for loans, depict the opposite, as women do not have rights to property in the home, which traditionally is owned by the man.
What are some of the important lessons you have learned while pursuing your career?
One thing I have treasured and mastered throughout my life is the importance of starting, nurturing, and growing relations with others. Dubbed social capital, I have seen it to be worth more than financial capital. In business and life, it is important to build networks and lasting relations with people.
Some people only network with the rich, high and mighty, or when they want something, after which they call it "moving on" or "outgrowing people", but wisdom shuns partiality, and the wisest know that the ones who have fallen on hard times or seem to be at the "lowest" level of life are pregnant with priceless life lessons.
After grasping this lesson, I went to the bookstore and bought a social capital diary. The contents changed my business and life game. Sometimes building one's social capital may mean offering your best services to others for free. In a world where everyone has their receipt book ready, sometimes you need to pay it forward.
As a banker, I understand that no withdrawals are possible unless the account is in credit; similarly, relations must be nurtured to be fruitful. The social capital account always comes in handy. When correctly managed, it may even be worth more than financial capital!
Good use of social capital will save you money, link you to life-changing opportunities, alert you of pitfalls, afford you world-class advice and services for free, and expedite your navigation of the business world. Social capital will even send your name to fora’s where you are not invited; make noise on your behalf till they come looking for you!
What do you find beautiful about being an African, and what is your favourite destination in Africa?
I am so proud to be an African and believe that we, the Africans, have what it takes to develop our continent, and my favourite destination in Africa is Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
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