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Mercia Geises – from UFS student to Chief Executive of Standard Bank Namibia

20 January 2022 | Story Lunga Luthuli | Photo Supplied

Mercia Geises copy — Merceline Mercia Geises, Chief Executive: Standard Bank Namibia.

Her father belonged to a "book club, used to order books and encyclopaedias, and would at times order special gifts for her mother". The daughter of a school principal, Mercia Geises, developed a love for reading at a young age. A trip to the Post Office "provided a connection to the rest of the world".

Growing up in Kalkfeld, a small village in central Namibia, Mercia, her father’s “most trusted child”, saw herself fulfilling messenger duties, sending money to siblings at boarding schools. When the youngest of seven children herself enrolled at a boarding school, the love relationship with the world outside and what it offers continued; more so with "heart-warming letters and a R2 note" from her father every now and then.

Mercia, an alumnus of the University of the Free State and current Chief Executive Officer of Standard Bank Namibia, says her runs to the Post Office and bank made her believe there must be a big world out there; one where Post Office deliveries are made, and money is printed. With dreams to see life outside her village, opportunity beckoned with studies at the UFS.

Carving her destiny

In matric, with all her peers destined for varsities in South Africa, an aspiration she too had, Mercia found a career guide in a Life Skills classroom. She "scanned through it, jotted down details", and made her way to the Post Office only this time to "carve her own path ignoring everyone’s limited view of the world".

She got accepted at the UFS, an institution which became a home away from home getting mentored by among others Professor Johan Henning, Professor Voet du Plessis, Professor Elizabeth Snyman-Van Deventer, Professor Johan van Schalkwyk, and Professor Gerhard Fjik to complete her LLB Degree (cum laude) and LLM in Mercantile Law.

Her biggest dream, Mercia says, “I always wanted to work for Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Attorneys in Cape Town, but because I was sponsored for my studies by the Namibia Power Corporation I had to go back and work in Namibia.”

“I got an opportunity to work for one of the biggest law firms, M. Slabbert Attorneys and completed my articles, an opportunity I am forever grateful for,” she says.

After completing her articles, Mercia fell pregnant and the biggest motivation for applying for a corporate job was driven by the "need to deliver her baby at a private hospital and having a medical aid".

Seeing a job advert at Old Mutual Namibia in a local newspaper and knowing that she did not meet the requirements, Mercia was called for a junior role, leading her to discover corporate finance and asset management.

Working for Old Mutual for 12 years and obtaining an MBA from Stellenbosch University, Mercia credits the leadership for investing significantly in her growth and development.

Whilst at Old Mutual Investment Group in Namibia as the Chief Executive, Mercia saw a growth opportunity at Standard Bank, Namibia’s leading retail banking franchise and she took a “leap of faith”.

Holding high positions in corporates during her tenure Mercia believes ‘Old Mutual Namibia was the best incubation centre for many young women and the organisational culture was conducive to thrive.’

She says, “We were exposed to leadership that believed in increasing women roles in leadership and business strategy which meant that we were entrusted with big and bold mandates and were provided with necessary mentorship.”

Mercia believes that “working in an environment like this is extremely beneficial, but like all things in life, the other side of it is that it comes with sacrifices, some of which can be costly if one does not have the right support”.

The role of tertiary institutions

“Tertiary institutions also play the biggest role in upliftment and how we think about things. It has surely taken me from rural Namibia to the world stage, whereas a young executive I could engage in complex issues in boardrooms across the world. I still find my engagements in executive development programmes with institutions of higher learning to be ones that provide me with the edge to lead effectively,” she says.

On challenges facing the banking industry in the continent, Mercia says, “Traditional banks are finding it hard to penetrate the unbanked population who leapfrogs the banking step and participates in the mainstream economy through mobile operators. Accelerating digital capabilities has become a top strategic priority for the banking sector, more so during the pandemic.” She says, “Regulatory authorities have a critical role to play in making this happen, as they are needed to continue to promote innovation while keeping their checks and balances.”

In her leisure time, Mercia puts her focus on her three children, the youngest of which is two months old. She has an interest in agricultural technology and has a small piece of land where she experiments with various intensive farming concepts.

News Archive

Official opening ceremony of the UFS Qwaqwa Campus

2006-02-15

Official opening ceremony of the UFS Qwaqwa Campus
11th February 2006 – Multipurpose Hall

Opening Speech:
Prof. Peter A. Mbati
Campus Principal

Successfully rising to the challenges of incorporations and mergers – developing a vibrant and academically stimulating satellite campus of the University of the Free State.

Thank you Mr. Program Director and good morning ladies and gentlemen.

I wish to once again welcome all of you to the official opening ceremony of the University of the Free State QQ campus. Thank you for taking time to share with us an important date in our campus academic calendar. I bring you greetings from our Rector and Vice Chancellor Prof. Frederick Fourie.

During such occasions we try and reflect on important matters that have affected us as an institution in the preceding year, commit ourselves to specific objectives for the current year, while planning for the proceeding year.

Today I shall be talking on Successfully rising to the challenges of incorporations and mergers – developing a vibrant and academically stimulating satellite campus of the University of the Free State’.

SRC inauguration
I would like to congratulate the SRC President and the entire SRC leadership for being elected into important positions of student leadership and authority.

As a university we are proud of the quality of our student leadership on the Qwaqwa campus. I am confident that you young leaders will rise to the challenges of your office and discharge your duties with diligence and without fear or favour. That you will rise above your party affiliations and provide effective leadership to the entire student body on campus.

Leadership is complex and requires you to be objective, just and fair in your approach to the many challenges that you will encounter. You will be judged not by the populist decision that you take when confronted with difficult choices, but rather, on the wisdom that you exercise in reaching consensus in decision making processes.

The era when management and student leadership viewed each other with suspicion and as adversaries is long gone. Management, academic and administrative staff, parents and students must have common agendas in as far the quality growth and development of our university is concerned and to strive towards academic excellence. I leave the challenge to you students, and more so to the inaugurated student leaders to define your agenda in achieving this noble objective. I trust that you will make the right choices.

Brief history of incorporation
On the recommendations of the National Working Group of Higher Education, the Qwaqwa Campus of the then University of the North was incorporated into the University of the Free State on 1st January 2003. We suddenly had to move from a campus that was originally semi-autonomous and with its own culture developed over almost 20 years, into a campus that had to operate as a fully integrated campus of the UFS, a 100 year old institution with its distinct culture.

Following incorporation, we not only had to continue with our core business of teaching, learning, research and community service, but we also had to engage in other important aspects such as exploring the most appropriate models of governance for the campus, encouraging dialogue and interactions at all levels between personnel at the different campuses with a view to developing trust between colleagues. And with the added dimensions such as participation in the transformation task team we in effect are at the fore front of developing a new institutional culture at the UFS and a truly South African University.

UFS Strategic objectives
The strategic and transformation priorities of the University of the Free State for 2006 – 2008 as approved by the Executive Management at its retreat in January 2006 are:

Quality and Excellence
Equity, diversity and redress
Financial sustainability
Regional co-operation and engagement

Central to this priority is the integration of the Qwaqwa campus as a valuable constituent part of the UFS, and the strategic reconfiguration of the campus in order that the UFS can play a meaningful role in regional engagement and development.

National leadership

The five strategic objectives cannot be viewed in isolation and run simultaneously and in concert with each other.

The Question must therefore be what we on the QQ campus, staff and students, parents and our broader community are willing to do to achieve these strategic objectives. The reconfiguration and strategic planning of this campus, and therefore its success, must be a collaborative effort between colleagues at QQ and on the main campus. We must all be ready to work together, to plan together, to shoulder responsibilities together and sometimes, to share the pain and disappointments together.

The second question must therefore be: are we prepared to go that extra mile for our campus to ensure that we claim our rightful stake within the ranks of well respected academic institutions of higher learning in this country? At this point in its history this campus requires committed men and women from across the cultural spectrum who appreciate the challenges ahead of us and who are ready to give of their best and to constructively engage at all levels to make this dream a reality. Because this dream is possible and this dream will be realized!

Quality and Excellence (1st strategic objective)

As mentioned by the Rector in his speech at the official opening ceremony of the university on the main campus on Friday 3rd February, the university will in 2006 pay extra attention to Quality and Excellence. This is informed by the Higher Education Quality Committee’s (HEQC) institutional audit which is scheduled to take place this year. Our university as well as several other HEI’s will be subjected to this audit. This will call for a lot of hard work on your part in preparation for a successful audit and in this regard therefore I request for your cooperation.

As a further step in confirming our commitment to quality and excellence, we have simultaneously introduced on the QQ campus and the main campus workshops on performance management systems to a cohort group. This will be expanded in 2006 to a wider group of managers on the QQ campus to include among others all Program Heads and Subject Heads. PMS is an invaluable tool for fair, effective and efficient management of a very important resource on campus – the human resource. Benefits of PMS include among others:

Instilling and enriching a culture of performance management (quality assurance) as an integral part of the day to day functioning of staff at the campus
Improving staff performance through mentoring, development and training

Tri campus project
One of the more important projects that we as a university undertook in 2005 was the Tri Campus Project which was coordinated by the Free State Higher Education Consortium (FSHEC) through Niel Butcher and Associates consultants.

The Tri-Campus project focused on the strategic planning for higher education campuses in the Free State that have been incorporated with UFS and CUT during the reshaping of the South African higher education landscape. The Bloemfontein Vista campus and the Qwaqwa campus of the University of the North were incorporated with the UFS, and the Welkom Vista campus with the CUT.

The planning process involved a range of research and consultation activities during the course of 2005. This included:

Conducting situational analyses of the Qwaqwa campus during which staff and students were widely consulted;
Consulting with the campus and with a range of stakeholders in the sub-region
Review of the Free State Provincial Growth and Development Strategy and Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) of the regions and other research of relevance to the sub-regions, province and country.

An operational framework for the reconfiguration of the campus with a range of possible Program Qualification Mixes has been produced. In December 2005, the Rector, the Vice Rector Academic Planning Prof. Magda Fourie and I discussed this document with senior members of the DoE in Pretoria, and we will soon be meeting with the National Minister of Education Me Naledi Pandor for her guidance and to seek support in the further refinement of the document and subsequent implementation.

Recapitalization
This year a further R 6 M has been budgeted for recapitalization. In about two weeks time the third of phase of renovations on campus will commence and attention will be given to the administration building, the humanities and the outstanding work in the lecture hall complex. There- after the library, sciences and education buildings will follow. As you will recall a substantial portion of the R 8.4 million in 2005 was used to upgrade the student residences and the lecture hall complex.

I am certain that the renovations and upgrading of our infrastructure and physical facilities including landscaping will create an enabling environment for you to enjoy your work and studies on this campus.

Renovations come with some measure of inconveniences and I therefore wish to request for your patience and support during this period.

Closing remarks
There is a heightened spirit of optimism on what the future holds for this campus. This is evident when I talk to a large cross section of staff and students of this campus – and I therefore invite all of you to come and be partners with us on this journey of optimism and hope of what the future holds for the UFS – QQ campus.

Thank you and God bless!

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