Industry Profile: Dheshini Naidoo | Standard Bank

To start with, tell us, what do you do when you are not running one of the busiest debt review departments in SA?

Well, all my spare time is family time. I have precocious 4 year old twins that keep me on my toes.

Tell us about your past work experience

My career path has already been a lengthy, but an enjoyable one. I started off in the systems and business analytics space. During this period, I focused extensively on process re-engineering and project management.

Since then, I have worked in the collections and credit spaces, across the spectrum and in both operations and strategy, while also learning how to bridge the gap between IT and Business.

 In 2017, I joined the Debt Review space, largely involved in the strategic and engagement areas and most recently, I was blessed with the opportunity to Head up our amazing Operational team.

What is a typical day (or week) in your new position?

Fairly eventful and full of to-do lists.

It generally starts with engagements with the leadership team, where we connect and unpack the previous day, while planning out the current day.

This is generally followed by a number of meetings, which often run deep into the afternoon.

My night is usually rounded off by dealing with emails and closing out any remaining items on my to-do list.

Looking ahead, in the industry, what do you think we can expect?

We see the increase in people entering debt review, and looking at where we are from an economic perspective, this is likely to increase. 

I am hoping for a renewed vigour of industry engagements, similar to what we had before the COVID pandemic.

Any tips for Debt Counsellors dealing with SBSA matters?

Keep our customer at the centre of what you do. Please reach out to us when customers circumstances are changing.

We would also love for our Debt Counsellors to partner with us for those older matters that are not solving. We have tried to reach out to impacted debt counsellors in order to assist these customers, with little or no response so far.

 So, we encourage those Debt Counsellors to get in touch with us about such cases, we are ready to look at these matters.