Memory Nandago making waves and eager to learn more

Monique Adams





Born in Windhoek on 14 September 1992 and the oldest of four children, he went to primary school at Emma Hoogenhout and St George’s Diocesan Preparatory School. Memory was fortunate enough to follow his father to his diplomatic postings, where he attended junior high school and high school at Brasilia International School in Brazil and Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Washington DC, United States of America. Thereafter he attended the Namibia University of Science where he attained bachelor and honour’s degrees in economics.

He worked as an intern in several sectors spanning the financial, automotive and legal sectors. He worked at Motovac Namibia, one of the largest importers and distributors of automotive spare parts in Southern Africa, as the manager’s assistant. At Shangelao Capital, a corporate financial advisory firm, he served as a general assistant from July 2010 to February 2011.

He joined Standard Bank in December 2017 as a part of its graduate development programme. The programme is a pipeline of high potential, young professionals that have recently graduated from tertiary education, hired specifically for their potential to deliver exceptional performance in the workplace.

The program is designed to mould candidates into leadership roles by exposing them to multiple role rotations in various business units to broaden their commercial experience including customer engagement over an 18- to 36-month period.

“I served as the acting business manager to the chief executive, Mr Vetumbuavi Mungunda, and as a trainee in IT, Marketing and Digital Channels, completing a variety of tasks and driving strategic initiatives,” he says.

To prepare himself for this new role, he tries to read up on technological advancements both overseas and in other African markets. “I am very passionate about financial inclusivity and really strive to provide banking services to everyone in Namibia, even those in the most remote of areas through our digital product offerings.”

In previous roles he has worked hand in hand with managers and the rest of his teams to figure out a strategy to meet goals as a collective. In his current role he is tasked with the commercialisation of PayPulse, which is a solution that could bring banking to the fingertips of every Namibian.

“I’ve picked up from an early stage that providing a good customer experience leads to high customer retention and word-of-mouth referrals. I have always made it a point to ensure that I give Standard Bank's clients the best customer service I can offer with every engagement even if it means I sleep four hours later that night to bring a smile to a customer’s face. I feel it's important, both to me personally and for the bank and its clients to provide a positive customer experience.”

Every day he reminds himself to never stress about things that are out of his control and that in itself puts him in control of his happiness. The next 30 days will be jampacked with pricing review, banking channel transformation, brainstorming sessions and information sharing with other markets where Standard Bank operates in foreign countries – but he is still very optimistic and is excited about this new journey.

Nandago feels the best career choice is the in which you use the skills you enjoy and not necessarily all of your passions. “My current role is in the digital transformation space and is quite far removed from what I studied at school (economics). I’d say use every job as an opportunity to learn something new and keep an open mind; you may find that you really enjoy something you never imagined would appeal to you.”