Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula is a founder member and Inaugural Convenor of the Expert Leaders Group on Women’s Financial Inclusion in the Digital Economy and is currently the Interim Convenor.

Tukiya is a Lawyer-turned-Central Banker with a well-known and authoritative public service career in financial services regulatory institutions, board directorships, research, consultancy, and academia.

She has decades of experience providing legal advice and good governance.  She has expertise in central banking, commercial, corporate, financial, and constitutional law, with additional expertise in human rights, strategy and risk, industrial relations, gender advocacy, and corporate governance.

The debut of her professional career was in the Faculty of Law of the University of Zambia where she taught commercial and business-related laws as well as the Human Rights of Women and Children. This experience led her to the Securities and Exchange Commission where she served as Head of Legal and Director of Licensing and Enforcement.   

Tukiya progressed to serve as Bank Secretary at the Bank of Zambia. In this role, she was Chief Legal Advisor to the Bank, Secretary to the Board and Director in charge of Public Relations and Communications. Tukiya was then appointed by the President of the Republic of Zambia as Deputy Governor for Administration of the Bank, a position she held for 12 years. Her duties included providing strategic direction and oversight to the support functions of the Bank including the Strategy and Risk Management function. Tukiya was a member of all the key policy and decision-making Committees of the Bank including Monetary Policy; Monetary Policy Advisory Committee; Supervisory Policy; Reserves Management; Budget and Finance and the Procurement Committee and Chair of some.

Tukiya is passionate about women’s empowerment and has been a lifelong advocate for the advancement of the girl child and women. At the Bank of Zambia, she drove the gender diversity and gender mainstreaming agenda within the Bank and externally within the financial sector especially regarding women’s financial inclusion and the participation of women in leadership and decision making. In this regard, she was key in the initiative on the collection of supply-side sex disaggregated data, the introduction of the position of a gender specialist on the Bank of Zambia establishment, the conduct of a gender audit in the Bank and the introduction of the FAMOS Check on Banks and Financial Institutions.

Tukiya has sat on eminent advisory boards including the World Bank Group Advisory Council on Gender and Development; the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s African Womens’ Impact Fund Advisory Board, and the Data 2X Steering Committee. She was also the inaugural chairperson of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI’s) Gender Inclusive Finance Committee.

Tukiya also has a lot of experience in Board Directorships and is currently Chairperson of the Board of United Bank for Africa Zambia Limited, as well as Chairperson of the Law Association of Zambia’s Lawyers Multipurpose Welfare Cooperative Society Limited. Tukiya also sits on other boards including NICO Insurance and charities.

Tukiya is a mentor both formally and informally She is a Fellow of both the Zambia Institute of Banking and Financial Services and of the Institute of Directors of Zambia. Tukiya is also Chancellor of ZCAS University. In 2014, Tukiya was awarded the Outstanding Woman Lawyer of the Year Award by the International Bar Association.

Tukiya holds a PhD from the University of London; LLM from Harvard; and LLB from the University of Zambia. Tukiya also has various certifications including in Stockbroking, Mediation, and Arbitration. Tukiya also has an Advanced Certificate in the Equal Status and Human Rights of Women from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and a Post Graduate Diploma in the Human Rights of Women from the World University Service.