After 18 years at Deloitte, where he rose from articled clerk to partner and helped shape the careers of some of Namibia’s leading finance professionals, Julius Nghikevali made a bold move into public service. Now finance executive at the Namibia Industrial Development Agency, he is focused on driving industrialisation, creating lasting economic impact and ensuring that career success never comes at the expense of family.
When Julius Nghikevali walked into Deloitte’s offices in Windhoek to start serving his articles, he bumped into the chartered accountant he met at a career fair while he was still in high school.
“The gentleman recognised me instantly from the interaction we had at the career fair. He was now the managing partner of the firm. This is one of the key moments that made an indelible impression on my life and career. Since then, everything I have done was to become the best version of the financial professional I could become,” he says.
Julius is the finance executive at the Namibia Industrial Development Agency, a state-owned investment and development agency that is mandated with driving Namibia’s industrialisation agenda in line with the country’s policies and developmental strategies.
Before he joined the agency at the end of 2024, Julius had completed 18 years of service at Deloitte. He started with articles straight after university, then qualified as a chartered accountant, rose up the ranks and eventually made partner.
As a partner he was placed in charge of the human resources function and served as the training officer of the Namibian office where he guided and trained article clerks to gain practical experience to qualify as CAs.
Staying the course
“All four CFOs of the top four commercial banks in Namibia served their articles with Deloitte and three out of these four were under my tutelage at some point or other,” he says beaming with pride.
“These specific individuals are just the ones that immediately come to mind; I have lost count of the number of articled clerks that served under my wing and who now hold prominent positions in the professional services environment and in industry. This is something that I am very proud of,” he adds.
Julius can be regarded as an anomaly in the industry for staying for an extended period at an auditing firm when generally professionals in the industry predominantly venture into industry upon qualifying, with no particular aim to make it into the partner roster.
“At no point did I fall in love with auditing as a discipline or become an audit enthusiast,” he says, laughing. “What caught my attention was the nature of the business of professional services and the type of work that we do. For me there is a difference between a discipline where you perform specific procedures, and the business where you manage the process. This includes managing teams, interacting with clients, and nurturing blossoming careers. The latter aspect is what drove me and kept me grounded throughout those years,” he explains.
With many years of experience at a Big Four auditing firm, Julius concedes that he has had more than his fair share of dealing with a diverse range of clients in different industries. These include the mining industry, where the audit teams would be on-site for weeks on end, to fishing industry clients at the coast where the team would work long shifts into the wee hours of the following morning.
Showing up
“I also experienced banking clients where deadlines and reporting requirements were punishing. As the auditors, we were often expected to demonstrate some superhuman effort to meet the tight deadlines. This is all while managing a team, different partners and other non-audit professionals and specialists such as the quantitative analysts, tax experts, risk advisory and IT teams. All of this interaction potentially lends itself into various types of special situations and interesting scenarios for both the audit team and the client,” he says.
Speaking with Julius, it becomes apparent that he places a high premium on emotional intelligence in addition to technical aptitude. He is modest when it comes to his own technical skills, saying he is average at best.
But, he points out that the success factor of his illustrious career at Deloitte can be attributed to other competencies he mastered over the years, especially those around showing up correctly, relationship building, dealing with difficult individuals, client liaison and managing complex team dynamics.
“How you treat and interact with different levels of individuals and groups in an organisation is important. How you leverage these relationships from a guidance and learning perspective counts, and the types of conversations and interactions you have with each of them is crucial,” he says.
“EQ is not something that is ingrained in us all, but it is an attribute I learnt and embraced from the environment I was in at an early stage. I realised early on that these are the qualities required to build a successful career. I continuously took these experiences in, ran with them and used them to grow,” he adds.
Shifting focus
Julius concedes that the decision to leave Deloitte was not an easy one and was a gradual process that was shaped by professional considerations and personal changes in his life. He points out that though he is grateful for the time he spent at Deloitte and the opportunity the firm gave him to make a meaningful contribution, in the end there was increasingly less of an additional impact to make, this is especially due to the limitations placed on a smaller office in Namibia, in the context of a wider Africa and global firm.
“I decided to shift my focus to a national level and leverage my acquired skills for the advancement of the wider society. I aspired to join an organisation where I can make a difference that is not only felt within that particular organisation but reverberates across a wider community and the national economy. It is with this consideration in mind that I ended up where I currently am. I am now part of a team whose mandate is to grow sustained industries in the economy, and I can therefore make a meaningful impact on future generations of Namibians,” he says.
He adds that personal wellness considerations, coupled with losing his sister early in 2024, also influenced his decision to pivot. “The loss of my sister was a painful reminder of how fragile life is. Some of the challenges experienced shaped the person that I am today as these made me pause, introspect, and reassess my priorities. It would be ideal not to have to go through any significant life challenges which force us to self-reflect, but it’s very important that when we do go through those experiences, we make correct decisions afterwards,” he reflects.
Julius is unflinching when it comes to spending time with his family, including his two children, aged 10 and eight.
“Thankfully, I have always agreed with my spouse, who is also a chartered accountant and a corporate professional, that spending time together as a couple and as a family is something we should never compromise on. I will not hesitate to pivot in my career if my job consistently prevents me from spending time with my loved ones. If one realises that they are not true to what they intend to be – which is being there for loved ones and growing meaningful relationships, one needs to reassess priorities and get back to what is important,” he concludes.
