Firm’s succession plans key for growth: Getrude

Dar es Salaam. Getrude Mpangile is the director of Legal and Corporate Affairs, and Company Secretary, of TotalEnergies Marketing Tanzania Limited. She is also an advocate of the High Court of Tanzania.

The genesis of her career goes back to 2007 when she graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam with a Bachelor of Law (LL.B) degree. Like most graduates, after graduating she approached the labour market as a stepping stone to her destination.

It was in one of those moments that she met a professor from University of Oxford (Centre for African Studies) through a symposium he was organising in Tanzania on youth involvement in development. “During the discussion and the contribution I made in that symposium, he spotted a talent in me and offered me an opportunity of six months as the Local Survey coordinator to work for a survey which the Centre for African Studies of the University of Oxford was conducting in Tanzania,” says Getrude.

She was responsible for receiving students from Oxford who were stationed in Tanzania for their research and ensure they get the authorisations for them to be able to perform their tasks and be compliant to the laws.

Her role included linking students with the local authorities and institutions for authorisation on data collection as per the laws and regulations of the land.

Getrude says even though it was meant as a stepping stone job, it provided her with immense experience that enriched her greatly. She was able to interact with young and vibrant people from different backgrounds and nationalities all building her capacity in their own ways and preparing her for bigger roles.

After her six-month stint, she switched sectors into telecommunications where she worked with one of the biggest market share company in the telecommunications for about nine years. She climbed the ranks to become firm’s legal manager.

“Within this organisation, I was exposed to different aspects of the business including commercial and legal regulatory. With my commercial experience I am grateful for this opportunity as for me to be a corporate lawyer today it needed me to have an understanding of the business, the legal and regulatory framework of the business,” says Getrude.

She says, she acquired an extensive experience which also nurtured her leadership skills and she started leading with a group of about fifteen people and when moved to the legal department it was a team of three.

Getrude again switched to technology at AzamPay Tanzania Ltd as the head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs where she helped the company to acquire the licence as the first non-telecommunications mobile money wallet in the country.

The company was new and it needed her full commitment and engagement and understand how she will be able to elevate the legal aspect that makes the business run. “It was a good experience to start a business and see it running because the focus of this business was to put the proper technologies for the Azam Group to establish the e-comas platform.

Another portfolio to be established was the mobile money business. Traditionally the mobile money services in Tanzania are offered by telecommunications companies.

She says for the first time she was able to acquire this licence which is non-related to the telecommunications and the idea behind was to support the government initiative on financial inclusion to ensure people have access to transact without limitations.

The portfolio will soon go live to the market and she says she will be proud to see it happening as she and the team worked for it for almost three years to ensure everything went well.

Commenting on the milestones she has recorded in her career journey, she says: “Wherever I have worked, I ensure that I leave behind a team of professionals. I believe in sustainability and succession plans. I always tell my team even here at TotalEnergies, which I joined last year, the things that give me joy and comfort are to see my team growing. The contribution I made earlier to make sure I elevate the teams to be ready to take my roles gives me comfort and pride that I had imparted skills to the people I lead,” she says.

The corporate world requires flexibility and different understanding of business through the opportunities with the companies she worked with she was able to record an expansion of corporate experience.

Getrude’s career journey started from being spotted by a professor, but she is also grateful to her parents who trusted in her and allowed her to take charge of key responsibilities even at home from the age of 5-6. It was at the place where elementary education was not accessible so her parents would leave her with homework.

“You can imagine at that age I was left with books to read and numbers to write. As a child of that age you would want to go out and play but I had to find a way to be creative and be able to manage everything,” she says.

“Through this, I gained self- leadership skills and became creative,” says Getrude. She believes that good leadership starts at a personal level. When she joined the university, she never limited herself to studies only, but also involved herself in looking for opportunities to enrich her education journey.

She says: “When I’m given an assignment, I do a short analysis on what are the opportunities, what are the strengths, then we have as a business, what the anticipated challenges are likely to happen along the journey and what is the legal and regulatory framework of that particular business.

“To study the entire ecosystem and left aside being a lawyer that I only need to concentrate on the legal staff. I had to understand the entire system end to end and make sure when I enter these meetings I was ready to answer even the technical questions.”

In balancing between family and work, she says she is grateful to her ever-supportive husband.