20 years of loyal service

Octavia Tsibes
Michelline Nawatises

Regan Mwazi is an executive for marketing and customer strategy at Agribank.

Mwazi’s job description can be summarised in two words: business and trendsetting.

Mwazi was born in Kasika village in the Zambezi Region and attended Kasika primary and high schools.

Thereafter he attended Kizito College in Katima Mulilo and proceeded to Zambia where he obtained an O-level certificate at Nkumbi International College.

Thereafter, Mwazi was granted a scholarship to study in the United States from 1981 and obtained both his Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Master of Science (MSc) degrees in agriculture engineering at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Mwazi has worked for Agribank since 1998 and will reach 20 years of service by the end of this month.

“I have enjoyed working within the agriculture industry with passion and dedication and still enjoy it till today,” Mwazi says.

His day-to-day workload is hectic and challenging, but manageable, through the prioritisation of tasks, in line with the approved business strategy and executable departmental plan.

Mwazi’s biggest achievement in the company so far is leading the retrenchment process of 2008 to completion, where 100% of the employees exercised their options as follows:

· 64% or 89 employees accepted the voluntary package to exit employment at bank;

· 35% or 49 employees accepted the option of re-assessment for employment; and

· 1% or two employees opted to renegotiate their exit options.

“Being a leader in the restructuring process, I felt proud of that achievement,” he said.

“After the retrenchment exercise, I had to recruit new employees at the fastest rate ever seen, but within the scope of the recruitment policy.”

When asked by Careers what he loves about his job, he said: “Producing business insight reports for decision-making (in terms of our) expansionary product portfolio, to meet the needs of the farming market segments, given the fact that the majority of the population in Namibia depend on agriculture for a living in a challenging climatic variability environment.”