Getting to know Governor Shiimi better

IPUMBU Wendelinus Shiimi was appointed Governor of the Bank of Namibia (BoN) by President Hifikepunye Pohamba recently, making him the fifth governor of the central bank.

He succeeded Tom Alweendo, who was appointed by the President as the Director-General of the National Planning Commission (NPC) after consecutively serving the BoN for 17 years – first as Deputy Governor, from 1993 to 1996, and then as Governor, from 1997 to this year.Shiimi is a trained economist by profession, whose wealth of knowledge and experience in central banking span from an impressive record of technical and managerial engagement in BoN since 1995.A Master of Science in Financial Economics in 1998 tops his academic education and training, as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Economic Principles obtained in 1995 from the University of London, United Kingdom (UK).He also holds a Diploma in Foreign Trade and Management from the Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands (1994), an Honours in Economics from the University of Western Cape, South Africa (1993), a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Accounting from the same university (1992), a Certificate in Senior Management Development from the University of Stellenbosch (2000) and another Executive Development Programme from Wits Business School (2001).Shiimi also received other training, amongst others, macro-economic projections and debt management in Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, financial programming and policies at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC, as well as central banking at the Bank of England in London and at the Reserve Bank of South Africa in Pretoria.The new Governor’s career started as a junior researcher at the Namibia Economic Policy Research Unit (Nepru) in 1994.He joined BoN in 1995 as a senior researcher and became the manager of the economics division in the research department in 1997.His responsibilities included supervision of the production and dissemination of real sector statistics, undertaking economic research, drafting annual business plans for the division, ensuring that the systems of control are adequate and adhered to, coach, guide and motivate staff members and monitor their career development programmes.In 1999, he became the manager of the modelling and forecasting division in the research department responsible for co-ordination of the production and dissemination of reliable macro-forecasts and undertaking economic research.In 2000, Shiimi took over as statistics manager in the research department, and his key responsibilities included the co-ordination of the production and dissemination of all the macroeconomic data and the publications of the BoN.In 2001, he became the Deputy Head of Research, responsible for co-ordinating the main research activities in the central bank.In 2002, he became Chief Economist and Head of Research.Four years later, Shiimi became a senior manager in the banking supervision department, co-ordinating all activities relating to the supervision of banks such as ensuring that banks comply with the legal framework, analysing the performance of the banking industry, monitoring risk management practices at banks and taking corrective action where necessary. It also included ensuring that the legal framework on banking supervision is in line with international best practices in addition to the drafting and execution of the annual business plans for the department.He served in this position until he was appointed Assistant Governor responsible for overseeing the reserve management, banking supervision, financial stability and financial intelligence functions of the BoN in November 2006. He held this position until his promotion to Governor.During his working career, Shiimi participated in various research projects and co-authored publications. He served on the following boards and committees: Member of the Namibia Financial Services Authority (Namfisa) Board, Deputy Chairperson of AgriBank Board, member of Namibia’s Vision 2030 Core Team and member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Balance of Payment Technical Experts Group (BOPTEG). – Nampa

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