Achieving despite challenges

Elsie Skrywer is a talented, self-motivated, enthusiastic financial management and accounting professional. She has extensive corporate finance experience that has been well developed over the past 29 years in a career that spanned three companies. After growing her career, she secured employment as the current financial accounting manager at Agribank.

Facing challenges while climbing up this ladder, she was not fortunate enough to pursue tertiary education straight after high school, but had to begin her working career immediately. She, however, managed to enrol on a part-time basis to further her studies and expand her knowledge.

In 2002, she obtained a diploma in commerce at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). Thereafter, she enrolled at the University of South Africa (Unisa) for a Btech in business administration, which she obtained in 2005. This was not the end for Skrywer as she did not stop here. She continued to further her studies through Unisa by signing up for an MTech in business administration. Unfortunately, due to other urgent commitments in her life at the time, she could not complete the qualification.

In 2015, she enrolled for a postgraduate diploma in business administration and subsequently for an MBA in management strategy at the Namibia Business School (NBS), where she graduated in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

During these years of studying, she faced a lot of challenges. While employed on a full-time basis, she was also a mother and a wife at the same time, and had to juggle many commitments. However, she persevered through all the difficulties and proved once again that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it.

Currently, Skrywer is employed at the Agribank as the financial accounting manager. This role requires her to prepare financial reports and do analysis thereof, and to direct investment activities and implement cash management strategies to the highest possible standards of excellence. Transparency and compliance with all external regulations, accounting and financial management standards and internal policies and procedures are also required. Skrywer furthermore has a comprehensive policy and procedure development, budgeting and customer service background. She continuously demonstrates exceptional supervisory and analytical capabilities with a focus on implementing process improvements.

This is why she was appointed to serve as a director and trustee at various professional entities, while she was also appointed in various management committees within Agribank. She had an almost nostalgic philosophical moment when asked about life:

“When you come to realise that you only get each moment once, then life becomes more meaningful. Therefore, take advantage of each moment - nurture the good ones and learn from the not-so-good-ones. Make meaningful connections and recognise that other people's strengths are not a threat to your own, but rather a compliment,” she said.