By Alexander Obermeyer
The Katuka Mentorship Programme’s transformative work with women in Namibia has become a model for empowerment as its 2025 cohort embarks on a journey of professional and personal reinvention. Since 2001, this Bank Windhoek-backed initiative has reshaped careers, businesses, and lives, through its rigorous mentorship model.
This mentoring model’s unparalleled success highlights the urgent need for diversified replication.
The three-day orientation, 5–7 February, marked the start of a year-long journey for mentees, managed by Desèré Lundon-Muller, the programme director. The programme’s recent orientation has ignited discussions about Namibia’s broader mentorship landscape. With 525 mentees supported since its inception, this initiative continues demonstrating how structured professional guidance empowers women in business.
Programme veterans applaud Desere’s organisation and management of the programme, citing that Katuka’s success would not be possible without her careful guidance, continual follow-up, and progressive improvement of the programme from year to year.
Mentee Kashiwanwa Neshila-Immanuel, a Stakeholder Relations Practitioner from the University of Namibia (UNAM) with 15 years professional experience, was interviewed by the Economist after she was initially paired with her mentor. She praised her mentor’s guidance, noting “the rich conversation and wisdom she brought forth” during sessions.
Neshila-Immanuel also said, “I chose Katuka Mentorship because it is a structured professional programme with set targets and goals. They train the mentees and the mentors, providing a safe space in which you are able to become a better version of yourself.”
Her desire to be involved in the programme goes beyond being a mentee, “I’m hoping to learn from this process not only to learn and give back and become a mentor myself, but also to achieve my goals that I have set together with my mentor. I would also like to give back to my mentor because I understand the passion and time that they will be investing in me.”
Mentor Abena Tambrescu, General Manager Corporate Communications, Marketing and Human Resources at the Namibian Standards Institution (NSI), reflected on the programme’s organizational benefits, noting that mentorship fosters “more skilled and satisfied employees” while creating cross-sector collaboration. Returning mentors like Tambrescu—a five-year Katuka veteran—embody the programme’s ethos of sustained growth.
Tambrescu said “As a mentor, I am very fulfilled because I like bringing out the best in people, so when we set our objectives in the beginning of the year, I am sure to encourage them, hold their hand, give them different resources, and then I get very happy when I see my mentees achieve them.”
She also emphasized the reciprocal growth between mentors and mentees, “It has helped me grow as a human, because you meet so many different mentees. It has been a very great, positive experience. We would like to thank the sponsors for giving an opportunity to these ladies to come and learn.“
Representatives of Bank Windhoek tied the programme’s success to national economic benefits, stating that initiatives like Katuka “empower women to create employment through their businesses” in a country grappling with the SADC region’s highest unemployment rate. They emphasized the bank’s commitment to “impacting communities through acts of positive change,” including supporting mentors and mentees to “write their own destiny.”
While Katuka thrives, its focus on women may expose a deficit in Namibia’s professional development sector. Both mentees and mentors emphasized the lack of equivalent programmes for male professionals. It was highlighted that the Katuka Mentorship Programme is of such significant value, that participants desire for their male counterparts to also be afforded such rich opportunities to grow in their careers.
Tambrescu praised Katuka while underscoring the importance of the programme for all professionals, “It aligns with my values because I am very passionate about capacity building and empowering, not only women, but men as well.”
Mentee Neshila-Immanuel expressed an aspiration to afford “young men an opportunity such as this,” hinting at unmet needs across demographics. She said “The dynamics of our country are allowing us to look broader and bigger in developing this space to be more inclusive. There is an opportunity out there for a male mentorship programme as well.”
All the participants in the new 2025 programme agreed that they expect to improve professionally. Already during the orientation sessions, they developed more confidence to succeed and follow their dreams. As the Katuka Mentorship Programme’s 24-year legacy shows, structured guidance isn’t just empowering — it’s economically imperative.