Hlonela Nelisa Lupuwana-Pemba

Hlonela has over 20 years of experience in leadership, Executive and management roles, spanning across the Public and Private Sector.
During this period she had a particular focus on SMME development in financial and non-financial support, Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) and BBBEE.
She also has extensive experience in Policy, Governance, Advisory, Strategy Development and Implementation.
Until 2020, she was the Executive for Commercial and Enterprise/Supplier Development (ESD) at the Barloworld Group responsible for ESD, Stakeholder Management, Social Impact and Empowerment.
Prior to joining the Barloworld Group, she was the Managing Director of Anglo American Zimele, a debt and equity SME fund for Anglo American SA primarily focusing on development of mining and labour sending communities.
She served as the Chief Operating Officer at Department of Trade & Industry (2003-2008), and Chief Executive Officer for the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) from 2008-2013.
Hlonela was Chairperson of the Board of the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa) from 2016-2019 and was the founding Chairperson of the South African Micro Finance Apex Fund (SAMAF) from 2005-2008.
She is the current Chairperson and Trustee of Balemi Trust, an ESD entity for Tiger Brands.