BY MBONGENI NDLELA
EZULWINI – As part of Women’s History Month, the US Embassy Eswatini took a moment to celebrate the Managing Director at Eswatini Bank, Nozizwe Mulela-Zulu. The Embassy took out a statement on their media pages, which also featured an interview with Mulela-Zulu. The statement reads as follows:
Today we celebrate Nozizwe Mulela-Zulu, the Managing Director of Eswatini Development and Savings Bank (Eswatini Bank). She is the first woman to occupy the position of Managing Director since the establishment of Eswatini Bank in 1965.
She began her career as a Candidate Attorney at Robinson Bertram Attorneys. Upon admission to the Bar, she worked as a Practicing Attorney at the same law firm and was also a part-time law lecturer at the University Of Eswatini.
She left practice after a couple of years and joined Standard Bank Eswatini, as Company Secretary and Legal Advisor, and, in a career change move decided to join the business side of the bank as a Relationship Manager. In 2012, she moved to Eswatini Bank where she initially held the position of Executive Manager Corporate Business, thereafter the scope of that position was extended and the position was renamed Executive Manager Business Banking.
In 2019 she joined First National Bank, Eswatini as Executive Head of Commercial Banking, a position she held until September 2021 when she was appointed Managing Director of Eswatini Bank. Nozizwe served as Chairperson of the Eswatini Television Authority, as Chairperson of the Road Transportation Appeals Board, and is a former board member of Junior Achievement Eswatini.
In 2015, she was awarded the Business Woman of the Year Award under the corporate category, being recognized as one of the women to have added value in the country’s corporate world.
𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮?
I am inspired by the ordinary men and women who in spite of the economic challenges work very hard to feed and provide decent shelter for their families, educate their children, and still manage to save money to create that much-needed nest egg for retirement. In addition, my biggest inspiration comes from my late mother Professor Lydia Makhubu who was the first LiSwati to obtain a PhD and the first female Vice-Chancellor of the University of Eswatini (UNESWA). Just by virtue of being her daughter, I inherited her ambition, resilience, and grace which have richly imparted on my leadership skills.
𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐢𝐭?
Upon completing high school, I elected to enroll for a BSc Degree in Science at the National University of Lesotho, in retrospect my choice of career was largely influenced by family and friends. Needless to say I failed my first year. That set-back afforded me the opportunity to do some introspection and to follow my passion which had always been to study Law. From this experience, I learned that you need to love what you do in order to excel at it.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞?
Years back, I took a life-altering decision and decided to change my career path and venture into core-banking. This entailed giving up an executive position and starting from the bottom of the core-banking structure as a relationship officer. Whilst a tough decision to make, it is this leap of faith that has established a solid base for my career path and current position.
𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐲?
The word that I identify the most with is HUMILITY. I believe that humility has been the key enabler to all that I have achieved. It has made me a team player who is able to interact and share ideas with various individuals at all levels. #WomensHistoryMonth2022
