Bongiwe Njobe
Executive Director (founder and sole proprietor) of ZA NAC Consulting and Investments
Bongiwe Njobe has over 38 years of work and leadership experience in the public, non-governmental and corporate sectors in South Africa, on the continent and internationally.
She qualified as an Agricultural Engineer (MSc Agric Ing) in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in 1983 and went on to apply her knowledge in various agricultural institutions – as an assistant manager on farms in Morogoro, Tanzania and later in Lusaka, Zambia, as an expert – contributing to land and agricultural policy development at the Agrarian project in Johannesburg, as a programme manager supporting institutional development in scientific research at historically black universities across South Africa, as Director setting up the School of Agriculture and Rural Development at the University of Pretoria and then went on to serve as a senior manager in the first democratic South African government in 1995.
She served as Director General of the National Department of Agriculture, in South Africa, from April 1997 – February 2004 and as the top public official in the department, she was responsible for the development of policy and to oversee the implementation of agricultural development programmes in South Africa, agricultural trade negotiations and agricultural projects within South African bilateral agreements.
Subsequently through several private sector leadership roles at two food manufacturing consumer goods companies (The South African Breweries Limited (a subsidiary of SABMiller) and Tiger Brands Limited, FirstRand Bank, she developed and led the evolution of strategic social investing roles aimed at addressing poverty, food security and inequality from 2004 – to date. She has also been a strategy development and institutional reform consultant.
She has previously served on several advisory panels and as an non-executive member on the boards of various companies and several NGOs in South Africa, on the continent, and internationally.
Bongiwe Njobe also holds a postgraduate -diploma in Strategic Project Management from Liverpool University, is a Fellow of the Inaugural Class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-South Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
The Centre for African Leaders in Agriculture (CALA) is made possible with the friendly support of:
