A year of transformation

First National Bank (FNB) Namibia appoints Rodney Forbes as the Executive Officer, Points of Presence. Rodney holds a Bachelor of Business Administration Honours degree.

Octavia Tsibes

His FNB journey started in 1997 at the Rundu Branch and afterwards, he held a variety of positions within FNB Namibia, the last one being the Area Manager for the far north area.

Forbes grew up in Rehoboth and matriculated from Dr Lemmer High School. “I was not sure what career to pursue at the time and I was really honored to have three bursary allocations from 3 different industries to further my studies. I enrolled at Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) then known as Polytechnic of Namibia to study; though after 2 weeks of class I decided to quit full time studying and embark on finding a job,” he says.

After finding a job in FNB and realising that he actually liked the “smell” of banking, he started studying part time. Over the years he completed various qualifications with the Institute of Bankers (IOB), University of South Africa (UNISA) and University of Stellenbosch (USB).

“I managed to complete my honours in business management with the University of Lincoln in the UK in 2016,” he says.

In his new role, Forbes will be responsible for maintaining all representation points of the business which includes the branch network of more than 65 branches, ATMs and ADTs, 324 devices, cash centres and the contact centre. Forbes will be serving the biggest resourced component within FNB, which is a major revenue driver and contributor for the Group.

In his free time Rodney loves to read leadership literature. “I am passionate about sports and I am follower of Liverpool FC in soccer while The Sharks and Springboks in Rugby and of course spending time with family,” Forbes says.

“My biggest challenge at this stage is the transformation of the traditional delivery model of selling banking products and services which has been through brick and mortar branches towards much more efficient and cost effective technologically enabled and digital channels. These channels are safe, easy to use and much more cost effective for all our customers.”

Forbes journey at FNB

I started my banking career in Rundu branch in 1997 and worked there till 2003 up to a supervisory level.

I then moved to HR as a Skills Facilitator in the learning and development department from 2003 to 2005 mostly focusing on technical training; however was also exposed to facilitating soft skills type training interventions.

In 2005, I was appointed as Branch Administrator at FNB Rehoboth branch which really kicked start my leadership journey within FNB.

After only 18 months in Rehoboth, I was transferred to FNB Katima Mulilo as Operations Manager from January 2007 till June 2008.

I then joined FNB John Meinert branch in July 2008 till May 2010 as Branch Manager.

During this period at FNB John Meinert, I was privileged to be seconded for a 4 month period to assist FNB International with the opening of FNB Zambia operations as a FNB subsidiary in Zambia.

In 2010, I joined the Operations Department as Operational Risk Manager till 2013 after which I was appointed as the Area Manager Far North based in Ongwediva from January 2014 till December 2017.

In January 2018, I was appointed as the Executive Officer of Points of Presence.