Xolani Ndlovu, a participant in the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders at the University of Notre Dame, is a financial market specialist from Zimbabwe who specializes in treasury management, banking, and financial literacy training. In this video, he discusses growing in his “Three E’s” (education, exposure, and experience) and working across borders to create “a future that our children and future generations can be proud of.”
With over ten years of experience in the financial markets of Zimbabwe and South Africa covering trading and sales in interest rates, as well as foreign exchange and commodities in investment and banking businesses, Ndlovu has built his career on helping others achieve positive financial futures. He currently heads the foreign exchange trading unit for CABS, the banking division of Old Mutual Zimbabwe. He also has aspirations to one day serve his country as central bank governor so that he can lead and influence policy to innovate around sound management and monetization of the country’s vast natural resources, innovative banking products, and inclusive finance. Soon after the completion of the fellowship, Ndlovu received his Ph.D. after researching monetary policy and commodity markets as a doctoral student.
Since 2014, the Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development (NDIGD) has worked closely with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and its implementing partner, IREX, to bring the Mandela Washington Fellowship, the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), to Notre Dame. The fellowship empowers young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, and networking opportunities.
The program is highly competitive, and the U.S. Department of State received more than 64,000 applications for only 1,000 placements across the country for the 2017 fellowship. Notre Dame’s class of 2017 Mandela Washington Fellows, 11 men and 14 women, came to campus from 20 countries across sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2016, the fellowship staff received a Presidential Team Irish Award for “exemplifying the University of Notre Dame’s core values on behalf of [NDIGD] and the University.”
The Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development — an integral part of the new Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame — promotes human development and dignity among people worldwide through applied innovations, impact evaluation, education, and training that help build just and equitable societies.
Contact: Luis Ruuska, communications specialist, Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development, lruuska@nd.edu
Originally published by at ndigd.nd.edu on October 12, 2017.