Seno Namwandi

Seno believes in the power of connecting seemingly unrelated dots to create success. This is the crux of innovation. With the enactment of the Africa Free Trade agreement, she became curious about what it would look like to enable innovation on the continent.

A scientist, turned intellectual property policy writer, and now banker, Seno remains committed to connecting dots to elevate herself which makes her the candidate of choice for the Class Of Programme.

While experimenting in the lab with chemicals to solve complex problems and develop treatments that cure diseases, it became apparent to her that the challenge was not just knowing how to cure ailments, but how to localise the manufacturing of the medication. As she dug into this, she stumbled on intellectual property and learned how most of the intellectual property registrations were held outside of the continent. It was during this explorative exercise that she realised the power of finance in trade.

Seno studied Molecular Biology and and Biotechnology at Stellenbosch University and thereafter pursued Intellectual Property qualifications to understand how the output of lab work was traded. During this time she stumbled on the commerce that surrounds pharmaceuticals, and industry elements revolving around the licensing of patents.

Seno describes herself as curious and tenacious – aways asking questions and investigating what made this industry what it is.

After graduating with a Master of Science in Intellectual property, she was appointed board director at the Business Intellectual Property Authority (BIPA) – a state-owned enterprise in Namibia. During this time, she was exposed to the policy elements that enable intellectual property and business.

With this experience in hand, she was selected as a Mandela Washington Fellow in 2018 and further as a Professional Development Experience fellow intern at Comcast – a Fortune 500 Telecommunications company in the US. During this time, she was exposed to mergers and acquisitions valuations and the role IP plays in the industry of buying and selling companies.

It was then that the spark for finance was born. She pursed an MBA in Corporate Finance through the University of Cape Town and RMB identified her through a women’s business engagement.

Her interest in finance, and specifically in RMB, lies in finance as a key enabler of the development and commerce of science and the overall trading of intellectual property. Seno was particularly interested in RMB for its presence on the continent. She sees the elevation of the continent happen through organisations like RMB that has the ability to connect dots. As a passionate dot connector herself, she found good synergy between herself and the bank.

She spent her first rotation in RMB Beyond Bank, where the bank looks at its partnerships with clients and also partner with Fintech. Second to Beyond Bank, she rotated in Trade and Working Capital where she learnt more technical finance skills, particularly in the bank’s supply chain finance product set. She is currently rotating in RMB’s Corporate Finance division under the Consumer General sector.