Pupuma bids farewell to Standard Bank

Standard Bank Namibia last week formally bid farewell to its outgoing chief executive Mpumzi Pupuma. At a farewell dinner in Windhoek, Pupuma recalled that he had started as an ordinary banking clerk in 1975 in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The night also served to officially welcome his successor, Junius Mungunda, to the helm of the bank’s Namibian interests. “Thirty-seven years with the bank - with one employer - is a lifetime, and this, in many respects is a fatherly handover,” Mungunda said when addressing Pupuma. He credited the outgoing chief executive with successfully overseeing the organisation’s “core banking” localisation drive during his seven years at Standard Bank Namibia. This includes reducing the number of expatriates on the local bank’s executive committee from 90%, to 10%, en route toward a vision to have 25% of Standard Bank Namibia in the hands of Namibians, by 2019. “The road to re-invent Standard Bank Namibia is still under construction, and it will take Junius and his team a year or so to finish what we have started,” Pupuma said. “Close to 37 years have now elapsed, full of events, pleasant memories, emotions and accomplishments. As a man hailing from the Eastern Cape and having worked up the ranks within the Standard Bank Group, I was fortunate enough to be posted in Namibia to manage a bank which was destined to grow over the years. And I must say although challenging, we made significant inroads in the banking industry,” he said. WINDHOEK STAFF REPORTER