Namibia’s president Dr Hage Geingob has named Saara Kuugongelwa as the first female Prime Minister.
Kuungogelwa joined politics at an early age of 27 when she was appointed as the Director General of the National Planning Commission.
She was born in Okahao, went into exile with SWAPO in 1980 and left for Sierra Leone in 1982.
After her secondary school, Kuugongelwa joined Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, United States, where she graduated with a degree in Economics.
After she returned from the University, she took a position as a desk Officer in the Office of the President Sam Nujoma, who was in office then.
She later joined SWAPO in 2002 and a year later, she was appointed as the Minister of Finance.
Kuugongelwa’s tenure at the Ministry of Finance would be remembered for her ambitious fiscal targets, which she presented in her first full budget of 2004, of limiting government spending.
She was eventually to present the country’s first ever budget surplus in 2006/07 and 2007/08. During her tenure the country employed serious fiscal discipline.
