Africa-Press – Lesotho. Having held executive positions in most of the local banks for years, Molefi Leqhaoe, the current managing director of Lesotho Post Bank, says the trick is all in the balance as he also juggles between work and being a parent to two beautiful teenage girls.
Leqhaoe explained to Informative Business that although he has extremely busy schedules on a daily basis, he could not be more privileged to have the direction he has taken in life as it allows him enough room for both his professional and social lives. Leqhaoe joined the Post Bank in 2014, ten years after it officially opened doors back in around 2004.
In his position as the MD of the 100 percent-owned government bank, Leqhaoe and his team have managed to develop the bank’s strategy to meet all stakeholders’ expectations, while keeping it in line with the bank’s mandate with considerations also to international banking standards and good corporate governance principles.
While disclosing conversely that ‘no man is an island’ Leqhaoe says he has a resilient support base of the bank’s board of directors who, he says, are highly dedicated.
“The bank cannot achieve any positive results without the board of directors’ wisdom, them with a highly committed team (staff) to go with. It really makes my work easier which shows that team work is the pedigree for success,” he put it thus.
Joining the Post Bank at a time when it was facing a series of challenges in terms of performance in various areas, Leqhaoe expressed that he had his work cut out for him to turn the ship around and steer it in the right direction.
He says in the financial year 2014/15 he started making some progress which was however, affected by the global economic challenges experienced in 2016 of which by virtue of parity of the Loti and the Rand, have had a direct impact on the local economy as well.
After completing one of many his many degrees in 1998, Leqhaoe was presented with an opportunity to work in South Africa, yet turned it down, choosing to stay at home and plough back his acquired experience into his own country. As a matter of principle Leqhaoe says he is very patriotic and thus has always remained committed to putting the interests of Basotho first.
Currently, Lesotho Post Bank has just moved into its newly refurbished head office along Kingsway Road in Maseru and the bank has just upgraded its core banking systems to meet international banking requirements that are information technology driven.
The bank has done this by enhancing more packages for its customers, not forgetting its core market and clients, including the corporates. And such an enormous leap can only be attributed to the dedication of the bank’s management as well as its core staff and board of directors.
Leqhaoe cut his teeth into the banking sector at the age of 17 as a stores clerk at Lesotho Bank, then the only state-owned financial institution at the time. This after he was forced to quit school to help look after the family following his father’s passing.
“We were never well-off at home, losing my father at a very tender age meant having to take on the fatherhood role, be a bread-winner and put food on the table for my mother and two sisters,” he narrated.
He further recalls the time when he would sell oranges and apples to fund his school fees while his peers were having fun and being mischievous. He admits though, that having had to grow beyond his age nurtured and molded him into the leader he has become today.
His main duties as Lesotho Bank’s stores clerk included receiving, packing and allocating stationary and other moveable assets to different departments and branches, indicating it was pleasantly challenging.
“I don’t think that I will ever experience the disappointment that I had when we were told Lesotho Bank was taken over because it was not performing as expected,” Leqhaoe expressed stating that the country lost a lot in losing the bank.
Lesotho Bank was then taken over by Standard Bank and officially became known as Standard Lesotho Bank (SBL). Leqhaoe was then absorbed into SBL where he worked for many years, holding several junior and middle management positions.
Expanding his horizon in 2010, Leqhaoe joined the First National Bank (FNB) Lesotho where he held a senior position. For only a short while, he said he worked also at Econet Telecom Lesotho.
Despite his challenging childhood Leqhaoe reveals that pursuing higher education was always top of his priority list. Growing up in the village of Masite in Rothe, he began his primary school at Masite Primary School where he later processed to St Barnabas High School for his middle school.
He then swiftly moved to John Maund High School at Ha-Ntsi, Nazareth, to complete his Cambridge Overseas School Certificate (COSC). Journeying on, Leqhaoe went to further his studies at Lerotholi Polytechnic (then known as the Commercial Training Institute (CTI)) to study for a Diploma in Business Studies.
He, however dropped out after a year as he had to go find a job and help his family. He later returned to complete his diploma then enrolled through correspondence with the Institute of Business Studies (IBS), an institute based is South Africa.
Leqhaoe became the second Mosotho to qualify as a Chartered Secretary, an internationally recognized institute specializing in Corporate Governance after enrolling with the Institute of Chartered Secretaries (CIS) on a part-time basis.
He continued to further his studies and attained a Post Graduate Diploma is Strategic Management and Corporate Governance with University of South Africa (UNISA) in 2001 and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) majoring in Corporate Governance and Risk Management in 2004.
Under his belt, the Post Bank MD also has professional experience as a Certified Business Continuity Specialist and is an Expert Negotiator for the banking sector.
Along his journey at Lesotho Bank, Leqhaoe explains that Robert Likhang, then a Chartered Secretary, had a lot of influence on him as his then supervisor, especially after being promoted from just a stores clerk to a finance clerk having attained his Diploma in Business Studies.
By the look of it Leqhaoe seems to be continuing in his quest to acquire more education and professional experience while at the same time taking Lesotho Post Bank into greater heights and it looks like only time will tell before we hear of yet another milestone from such a dedicated professional.
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