From a donkey herder to lecturer in financial risk management

I was born in Onamutai village in the northern part of Namibia. As a three-month-old baby, I was taken to the nearby village Ocadila to be raised by my late great-grandmother Paulina Kalomho WaNghondeli. That is also where I started primary school. My youth was filled with trials and tribulations, but my desire to achieve academically one day was far greater.

At the age of eight, I was taken to the farm Antoni to take care of my grandfathers’ donkeys.  A few years later, I was able to go back to school. At school and in the village I was bullied and called bad names. My great-grandmother played a significant role in helping me withstand the mistreatment. But, as she grew older and weaker, I feared losing her while I was still trying to navigate life and primary education.

I attended Mweshipandeka High School, one of the best high schools in the northern part of Namibia, and was selected as the head boy of the school just three weeks after my arrival. At Mweshipandeka, I surrendered my life to Christ. Although this decision made my family reject me, in my opinion, it was the best decision I have ever made in my life. It helped me to remain disciplined and focus on the important things in my life, namely my faith and my education.

When I went to the capital city of Namibia, Windhoek, for tertiary studies, I had nowhere to stay. I hustled for the first few days, slept under bridges and begged for money for university registration in shopping malls. Fortunately, I received a call from the ministry of education that I had won the overall prize for the student with the Best Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Higher Level (NSSCH) in Mathematics. Shortly after that, I also received a scholarship from the Petro Fund to study engineering at the Polytechnic of Namibia (now NUST). Engineering, however, had less mathematics and I started to feel mathematically starved. My prayers were answered when I met Mr Veston Malango, CEO of the Chamber of Mines. He secured me a scholarship from the Mineral Development Fund (MDF) to study Pure and Applied Mathematics.

I studied Bachelor of Science (Mathematics and Physics) at the University of Namibia (UNAM) and received numerous academic awards from this institution, including the Dean’s Award. In my final year at UNAM, the abstract of my honours thesis, entitled “Approximation theory”, was accepted for the third Jean Conference on Approximation Theory held in Ubeda, Spain, where I had the opportunity to give a talk on my thesis results.

After UNAM, I received a sponsorship from the Namibian Financial Institution Supervisory Authority (NAMFISA) and went to Stellenbosch University for my honours in Financial Mathematics. The honours programme was very intense.  As far as I can remember, during the first three weeks of classes I could barely say a word in class and thought I had set myself up for failure. It was then that I decided to disconnect myself from things that bring distractions to me.  At the end of the year, I graduated with distinction, won a merit award from the Stellenbosch International Office and proceeded to do my masters’ by dissertation under the supervision of Prof Peter Ouwehand.  My master thesis concerns modelling interest rate derivative products using multidimensional pure jump processes.