Violette Santhe

Violette Claire Santhe is an experienced Development Finance Consultant, Digital Finance Specialist, Banker and Chartered Accountant. She is a holder of Master of Philosophy in Development Finance with the University of Stellenbosch Business School and a Bachelor of Accountancy Degree from the University of Malawi, The Polytechnic. She is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK) and is also part of the European Centre of Technology (ECT) Professional Membership Programme having attained the Galileo Master Certification (GMC) in Renewable Energy Management and Finance. She also holds European Energy Centre(EEC) Membership of the EnergyCPD Renewable Energy Professional Membership programme. As a Digital Finance specialist, Violette has attained certification in Blind Spots: Gender in Digital Financial Services, Instant and Inclusive Payments and Digital Money with Digital Frontiers Institute and is working on research papers which are geared towards driving the development of instant and inclusive payment systems in order to help change Malawi's financial landscape. Violette has over 20 years of professional experience in both the public and private sectors, particularly the financial industry. She is currently the Founder and Managing Director of Tiye Micro Limited, a development finance company. She has worked in various institutions in the financial industry, such as Leasing and Finance Company, INDEfinance, INDEbank, Standard Bank and African Alliance and Bankers Association of Malawi (BAM) in the following portfolios: Executive management, Finance, Credit, Treasury management and international banking, Internal audit, Trade Finance, stockbroking and project management. In the public sector, she has worked as Director of Finance for Malawi Housing Corporation and a lecturer at the Malawi College of Accountancy. Violette has also carried out a number of consultancy assignments in various set ups both in the private and public entities including NGOs. She has previously worked as the Country Coordinator for The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) in Malawi in conjunction with Private Finance Advisory Network (PFAN) and also acts as PFAN's Gender Advocate in Renewable Energy financing. Currently she is the Country Advisor(Malawi) of Private Finance Advisory Network (PFAN) on clean energy climate adaptation projects. Violette has provided strategic leadership as a board director for the following institutions: Sunbird Malawi Ltd, Broll Malawi, Easy Loans Ltd, the SADC Banking Association-RSA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)'s financial services committee. She sits on the board of Illovo Sugar (Malawi) is also a member of the Core Advisory Panel (CAP) of the National Planning Commission of Malawi for the Development of the successor to Vision 2020. In addition, she has also sat on a number of different technical committees in the Ministry of Finance, Trade and Agriculture in Malawi.