Uaandja tipped for top government job

VICTORIA WOLF and OKERI NGUTJINAZOTHE former managing director of auditing firm PwC Namibia, Nangula Uaandja, is tipped to lead the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board, which will fall under the president’s office.

The board will be responsible for attracting investments, SME development and promoting Namibia as an investment destination. Its head will be appointed by the president.

Uaandja announced in July she would bow out by December this year, after 10 years as PwC Namibia’s senior partner.

Uaandja has declined to comment on her next move. For now, she recently said, she plans on being present until she leaves PwC.

“When I handed in my resignation on 30 December 2019, it was in response to a call,” she said.

Uaandja said she has an interest in national issues.

“Although what I will do is not specific yet, I believe the Lord wants me to be part of the solution to the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality that are raging [in] our country,” she said.

Another of her keen interests is skills and enterprise development.

She has also been outspoken on the impact of corruption in Namibia and has made specific reference to the Fishrot corruption scandal on social media in the past.

“How can one commit corruption of such magnitude and sleep at night, while we have a very high unemployment rate, very high poverty rate to an extent that some people are going to bed hungry, and such high inequalities, and then we preach black empowerment,” she said on Facebook.

Uaandja is no stranger to being linked to top jobs and serving in responsible positions.

She has sat on various boards and committees, most notably the presidential panel on the Namibian economy, of which she was vice chairperson.

In 2002, president Sam Nujoma allegedly offered her the auditor general position.

At PwC Namibia, Uaandja was involved in preparing asset declarations for Geingob and first lady Monica Geingos in 2015.

She also has a number of firsts under her belt: In 1998, she became Namibia’s first black female chartered accountant to pass the final qualifying examination set for chartered accountants, and two years later qualified as one.

In 2002, she was the first black female Namibian to be appointed as an audit partner at one of the global ‘Big Four’ professional accounting firms.

PwC has been key in the training and development of skills of young accountants in Namibia.

Uaandja has been part of the team spearheading such initiatives.

“The number of PwC-trained chartered accountants and other professionals have grown significantly over the years,” she said.

“For the past number of years we have qualified in excess of 10 chartered accountants annually.”

By 2015, Uaandja said, the firm accounted for 30% of the country’s chartered accountants.

Inclusivity has also been a feature of her leadership. During her tenure, PwC increasingly invested in training and bursary programmes aimed at racially disadvantaged Namibians.

“We set some quotas of expected recruitment annually, of course, provided those students met certain criteria. As a result, the number of chartered accountants we qualified from previously racially disadvantaged backgrounds have increased to about 45% to 55% annually,” she said.

At present, more than 60% of the firm’s staff are previously disadvantaged.

Her successor, Chantell Husselmann, said she learned a lot from Uaandja about leadership and servanthood.

Patty Karuaihe-Martin worked with Uaandja at PwC for 10 years.

Uaandja headhunted Karuaihe-Martin, who later worked in a number of positions, including as PWC’s tax advisory leader.

“It was an awesome and very exciting experience as we grew PwC to greater heights and moved the accounting, auditing, tax and consulting field to new, exciting levels,” Karuaihe-Martin said.