Dr. C. L. Dhliwayo
Dr. Dhliwayo has a PhD, MA in Financial Economics and a BA (Hons.) in Economics all from the United Kingdom. She has been recognized as a distinguished leader in the banking sector and financial inclusion. She has been featured in local and regional publications for her career achievements as the first female Deputy Governor and Acting Governor in Zimbabwe. Dr Dhliwayo brings a wealth of 36 years of professional experience in leadership and management, policy and strategy, central banking operations, financial institutions and markets, liaison with Government and private sector, regulation and prudential supervision, and financial inclusion issues.
As Acting Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, she ran the affairs of the Central Bank, issued a monetary policy statement in January 2014 to guide the financial sector and the economy on monetary affairs, managed the country’s reserves, operated the exchequer account, the National payments system and chaired the Reserve Bank board and monetary policy committee. During that period, she led the Reserve Bank delegation to the IMF spring meetings in Washington DC and chaired the Article IV consultations with the IMF, World Bank and AfDB.
During her tenure at the Reserve Bank, Dr Dhliwayo was selected as one of a four member team to set up the banking supervision department. As Deputy Governor, she developed the licensing and prudential operating standards to guide the banking sector on good corporate governance, risk management, market discipline, capital adequacy, liquidity management and sound asset management standards. Dr Dhliwayo led the development of the Troubled Banks Resolution Policy and legislation which resulted in the amalgamation of troubled banks into a commercial bank called ZABG. As Deputy Governor, she represented the Reserve Bank at the Annual Deputy Governor’s Forum spearheaded by the World Bank/IMF/Federal Reserve Bank in Washington DC to deliberate on current financial sector issues.
Dr Dhliwayo participated in various forums in the African region. She was the first chairperson of the COMESA bank supervisors group and was engaged in a consultancy assignment to develop prudential soundness indicators for the region. During her tenure at the Central Bank, she was consistently invited as a panelist to evaluate the MEFMI fellows theses for several years. Dr Dhliwayo was appointed to the Executive team for ESAF to develop core principles for effective bank supervision in line with the Basel standards. Dr Dhliwayo conducted various capacity building assignments on banking supervision in the region.
Dr Dhliwayo led the development of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2016-2020 as the chair of the National Financial Inclusion Committee. Under the Fletcher Leadership school on Financial Inclusion at Tufts University, Dr Dhliwayo developed a policy memo outlining policy measures on women’s financial inclusion which were adopted by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and included in the National Financial Inclusion Strategy. In 2021, Dr. Dhliwayo was invited back to serve as a judge to evaluate policy pitches at Tuffs University. Dr Dhliwayo was recognized for her work in Financial Inclusion by various organizations and was invited to make presentations by GIZ in Jordan, GMT in Mozambique, Women’s World Banking in Tanzania and Bank Of Indonesia. She is a founding trustee and director at New Faces New Voices and was the first chairperson. She was appointed to the Expert Leader’s Group by the Graca Machel Trust.
Dr Dhliwayo is retired, however, she continues to sit on various boards in Zimbabwe.