'Education is ticket to financial freedom'- says African Bank first female CEO
“Education was my best investment. Studying towards an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management in the US… that experience changed how I think of myself and the possibilities of what I can achieve. It broadened my horizons and enabled me to take more risks,”
The South African banking sector’s first black woman CEO opens up to Money about the value of education and how money can buy everything, including respect.
Speaking to Money in our Money Habits series, African Bank CEO Basani Maluleke recalls how people treated her family “with respect and envy”, all because they usually had a little disposable income for new clothes and her parents drove nice cars.
Her mother was a teacher, and her father a lawyer and businessman, and through them she learnt from an early age that hard work pays off.
“My father effectively worked two jobs – lawyer by day and shopkeeper by night. On weekends we either spent time at his law firm or at the family business, so we were all put to work from a young age.”
Maluleke says she was very fortunate that her parents placed education above all else. The avid runner with a Comrades under her belt grew up in Soshanguve, Pretoria, and then later in Johannesburg. She completed most of her schooling years at St Andrew’s in Senderwood, a private school for girls. She remained steadfast on her education path, earning her BCom and LLB degrees from University of Cape Town and following it up with an MBA.
“Education was my best investment. Studying towards an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management in the US… that experience changed how I think of myself and the possibilities of what I can achieve. It broadened my horizons and enabled me to take more risks,” she says proudly.
Her work in the financial services sector, where she is responsible for helping people make wiser financial decisions, has further informed her personal relationship with money. She has chosen to continue to preserve and respect it for her future financial freedom.
Maluleke has a decade of experience in the financial services sector, among others in corporate finance with Rand Merchant Bank and private banking as the head of FNB Private