Taking Namfisa to new and better heights

Octavia Tsibes As the deputy CEO of prudential supervision at the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa), Erna Motinga is responsible for strengthening its supervisory regime and prudential requirements for the financial services sector.This is aimed at protecting users of financial services, as well as the deepening of financial markets. Motinga has a proven executive management track record with over 20 years of experience in the financial services sector. Prior to joining Namfisa in 2013, she served as a managing member of Nascent Capital Investments CC, an independent investment, consulting and financial advisory corporation, primarily responsible for financial and investment advisory services.In 2006, she was appointed as an investment analyst at Allan Gray Namibia, where she was an advisor on equity analysis and fixed income investments.She also served as an advisor on equities and fixed income instrument prices, whenever the company had to trade in equities and instruments. Before joining Allan Gray, Motinga served as a research officer at the Bank of Namibia (BoN) from 1998 to 2001, and as an economist from 2001 to 2006. In her capacity as research officer, she did analyses on two of the central bank's macro accounts - public finance and monetary and financial statistics.Having served in this position for three years, she was promoted to an economist at the central bank in 2001. Within her portfolio, she was responsible for the inflation forecasting framework and ensuring that monetary and liquidity aggregates were related to developments in real sectors of the economy.She also advised on policy implications.Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Namibia (Unam), an MSc in Financial Economics from the University of London and she recently graduated with a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Stellenbosch. In terms of Namfisa's five-year strategic initiatives, Motinga, together with the CEO, is primarily tasked with transforming the authority from a compliance-based to risk-based supervisor. The journey towards risk-based supervision commenced about five years ago and is shaped by several key initiatives and purposeful interventions. These consist of capacity and competency enhancement within authority, the enhancement of regulatory and supervisory effectiveness and proactive engagement with key stakeholders. Motinga is the alternate chairperson of the Financial System Stability Committee (FSSC), which is a tripartite committee between Namfisa, the BoN and the finance ministry (in an observer role). The aim of this committee is to deliberate on issues that will ensure the stability of the entire financial system in Namibia. Namfisa and the BoN continue to remain vigilant and enhance their regulatory and supervisory tools, to be able to mitigate any risks.Focus areas for the future are to continue ensuring a safe and stable non-banking financial system and the protection of consumers of financial services and products, as well as the strengthening of supervisory interventions and exploiting existing relationships with regional and international partners, to build the necessary capacity.

Taking Namfisa to new and better heights

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-07-04

Please login to leave a comment

Taking Namfisa to new and better heights

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-07-04

Please login to leave a comment

Login