Board of Directors

Dr. Mlambo is a renowned economist and chairs the Board of the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe.  He was the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe from July 2012 up to the time of retirement from the apex Bank. As Deputy Governor, he was also a member of the RBZ Board of Directors. Dr Mlambo joined the RBZ from the African Development Bank where he rose from the rank of Senior Economist in 1997 to the post of Regional Director in January 2012. He was in charge of country strategy formulation, country portfolio programming and management as well as leading policy dialogue in 7 countries in East Africa. Dr Mlambo’s areas of expertise include macro-economic and exchange rate policy, economic growth, finance, investment, and productivity growth and efficiency analysis. He has published papers in referred journals. 

He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Gothenburg University is Sweden an M.Sc.  Economics from the University of Zimbabwe.

Dr Naomi Netsayi Wekwete is a senior lecturer in the Department of Demography, Settlement and Development at the University of Zimbabwe. 

She has 25 years of experience in conducting policy-oriented research, monitoring and evaluation of programmes/projects, and consultancy work for Government ministries, nongovernmental organizations and international organizations. She has won several research grants. She was engaged in national projects, including Tugwi-Mukosi Master Plan and the New City Master Plan.

Dr Naomi Wekwete holds a B.Sc (Hon.) Economics (UZ), M.Sc Population Studies (UZ) and Ph.D in Applied Population Research (University of Exeter, UK.

Ms Bango is a renowned business leading with in-depth entrepreneurial skills. Currently she is Executive Director for Empretec Zimbabwe. She has detailed and expansive national, regional and international work, competences and experience spanning over 25 years in the private, public and NGO, development sectors, donors and UN agencies, the World Bank, and bi – lateral agencies. She has worked in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Eastern, Southern and Western) and exposure in South American countries and the Caribbean. 

Ms Bango holds a BBS (Hons.), MBA (Marketing & Finance) and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Enterprise Development.

Reginald is a renowned financial economist. He is currently a director at the Trustee to The Mothers of Solar Trust, an NGO for the green economy. He is also a Director at R&B Financial Services, with his role being to provide demand driven technical and advisory services in economic and financial development solutions. 

Mr Mugwara has worked with international development cooperating partners at multilateral, bilateral and NGO levels in support of national and regional projects and programmes.  He has over fifteen years extensive experience in dealing with all aspects of agriculture and rural development, policy analysis, trade and institutional development, and capacity building in the SADC region. He has been responsible for the coordination, formulation, and implementation and monitoring of the SADC Regional Food Security Programme.

During his tenure, he had overall responsibility of a team over 25 international and regional professional staff consisting of agricultural economists, agro-statisticians, meteorologists remote sensing, nutritionists and other experts in the following irrigation, crop, seeds, livestock, communication, trade, database experts who implemented the programme.

Mr Mugwara holds a B.Sc. (Hons.) Economics (London), and M.A - Political Economy (York).

Dr. Nobert Mugwagwa is a Human Development (HD) practitioner, who uses his academic training, accumulated knowledge and experience to collaborate with governments at national and sub-national levels, and with households, communities and private sector actors to develop social sector investment strategies, policies, plans, instruments and management approaches that benefit a country's citizens.

In social protection and labour, he is highly regarded as he uses proven community driven development approaches such as direct financing, conditional and unconditional cash transfers, to invest in service access for the disadvantaged. By employing effective implementation strategies, He focuses on tackling service quality constraints by creating strong institutions (including in the private sector) that support community actions to improve safety nets coverage.

Dr Mugwagwa is also a health sector planner and management specialist who has designed and introduced health systems and management approaches as: Director of Planning and Director of Nutrition in the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health, Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Family Planning Program, and Task Manager and Team Leader for World Bank HNP programs in East Central and Southern Africa for more than ten years.  He also handled innovative work with the World Bank design, preparation, appraisal and management of investment projects; and orientation of Teams in the public, civil society and private sector to work on them with beneficiary households to implement and manage programs and projects at community, subnational and national level.

Dr. Mugwagwa holds an ICSA Diploma, bachelor’s degree in public administration/health, a M.Sc. in Public Policy/Health and a Ph.D. Planning & Management of Health (Aston University Management Centre-UK).

Ted is a mining, energy and resources lawyer and expert.  In addition to being a Consultant for a private law firm, Ted previously served as a Commissioner and Deputy Chairperson for the Zimbabwe Land Commission (ZLC).  As ZLC Deputy Chairperson, he was part of a team responsible for the overall management and strategic thrust of the Land Commission, to ensure the mandate of the Commission as provided for under Section 297 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act 2013 is fulfilled.  This mandate entailed ensuring accountability, transparency and fairness in the administration of agricultural land vested in the state, investigating and resolving land disputes, land audit as well as advising government on land management and administration issues. 

As a lawyer his work spans mining and energy law and policy; drafting mining agreements; power purchase agreements; and procurement and supply contractual agreements.  Further, whilst based in England, he successfully initiated and implemented a diaspora mortgage facility for Zimbabweans through a London based Representative Office, on behalf of Intermarket Building Society.  He also consulted for Kaiser Associates (Cape Town) working on a World

Bank project on “Increasing local procurement by the mining industry in Zimbabwe” as well as carrying out consultancy and advisory work on the recapitalization of a dually listed local coal mining company.  He single-handedly drafted the project information memorandum (PIM) which was accepted as bankable by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DABSA).

Commissioner Ted Muzoroza holds a BSc (Hons) Psychology Degree (Lon); LL.B (Hons) (Lon) and LL.M in International Trade and Investment Law in Africa (UP).

Andries Rukobo has close to 40 years of experience in academia, research and public service at administrative and management level. Experience has also included stints as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Economies, Tokyo, Japan: IDS Sussex, Institute of Development Policy and Management, Manchester and African Development Bank, among others.

He previously served as Chairman of the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Zimbabwe.

Dr Andries Rukobo holds a BA (Hon.) Degree, MA, M.Phil and Ph.D (Agrarian Relations and Economic Development) from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.

Arina Manyanya is a qualified economist with 34 years’ experience working in the public sector, and proven track record in project and programme planning, appraisal and management, budget formulation and management, project and programme monitoring and evaluation, policy analysis, gender responsive budgeting, gender mainstreaming, result based management and public expenditure management.

Mrs Manyanya is the Acting Director Projects and Programmes Implementation Monitoring in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion. She also sits on the Board of Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and Management (ZIPAM).

Mrs Manyanya holds a B.Sc (Hon) Economics (UZ) and M.Sc Economist (UZ).

Dr Mbuyisa is a renowned academic, currently serving as the Acting Dean in the Faculty of Commerce at the Zimbabwe Open University, and before that she has served as the chairperson in the Department of Banking and Finance. She is also a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Banking and Finance at the Zimbabwe Open University in Bulawayo Regional Campus. She has been working in this department for more than 10 years, during which she has contributed many units of published ZOU modules and published several papers in referred journals. 

Dr Mbuyisa is an accomplished banker, with vast experience in business development. The beginning of her profession as a Banker was largely driven by the marginalised who need finance to run their projects. She started her career as a Business Development officer at a local bank and she worked as a banker in several banks. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy Degree (Development Finance & Entrepreneurial Economics), from the university of Witwatersrand in South Africa, a Master’s in Business Administration Degree (NUST), and a Bachelor of Commerce Honours Degree in Banking (NUST). Her research interests are in Entrepreneurship, Financial Literacy, Poverty Alleviation issues, Development Finance, Gender Equality and Women Empowerment. As part of her social responsibility, she has been a board member in one of the Non-Governmental Organisations that offers psychosocial support by being proactive, preventive, informative and rendering empowerment to alleviate the cases of child sexual abuse. Additionally, she was appointed as a board member for Brethren in Christ Zimbabwe in August 2022 and was re-appointed in August 2024. She sits on several committees at Zimbabwe Open University and in some organisations.

Thomas Zondo Sakala is an experienced Development Banker. He holds a B.Sc. (Hons) and an M.Sc. in Economics from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He was appointed the CEO of the IDBZ in September 2015. He has worked in, and with, African Countries all through his professional career. He left the African Development Bank (AfDB) in October 2014 after a career spanning 31 years and acquired a broad network of contacts, which aspect is invaluable in the Bank`s resource mobilization initiatives. His last official position was Vice President, Country and Regional Programmes. As Vice-President for Programmes in the AfDB, he had broad oversight of the dialogue between the Bank and all African countries. His responsibilities included coordination of the preparation and approval of the country and regional strategies and programmes in Africa.

Previously he had held such positions as Manager, Social Sector & Microfinance Projects in

East Africa; Manager, Education Projects for North, East and Southern Africa; Resident Representative in Nigeria; Director, Reforms Implementation; Director, Programming, Budget and Strategy; and, Acting Vice President, Corporate Services.