Ms. Grace Chimile Rubambey
Title: Independent Consultant and Microfinance Expert
Program: African Scholarship Program of the American Universities (ASPAU)
Degree: Bachelor's of Economics
Year Completed: 1969
Ms. Grace Chimile Rubambey is an economist and one of the leading rural and microfinance experts in Tanzania with more than 28 years experience at the Central Bank of Tanzania. In 2007, she left the Bank to become an independent consultant, providing consulting services in the areas of rural and microfinance as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Mrs. Rubambey served as Director in the Governor's Office of the Central Bank of Tanzania in 2006. Between 1998 and 2005, she established and managed the Bank's Directorate of Microfinance. As Director of Microfinance, she oversaw formulation of the legal, regulatory and supervisory framework for microfinance as well as the drafting of the National Microfinance Policy, which became the first such policy in Eastern and Southern Africa and has been recognized as one of the best in the microfinance industry.
Throughout her career, Ms. Rubambey held several management positions at the Central Bank of Tanzania, including Director of Banking, Director of Financial Markets, Director of Administration, and Director of Rural Finance. She also held positions with the Bank, including Manager of Economic Research and Statistics, Manager of Export Promotion; Senior Economist in the Foreign Department, and Senior Economist in the Department of Economic Research and Statistics. She was seconded by the Bank in 1984 to serve as the Secretary General of The African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (AFRACA), a position she held for five years.
Ms. Rubambey is a member of multiple boards and committees, including the Tanzania National Economic Empowerment Council, Advisory Board of the President's Empowerment Fund, the Steering Committee on the Implementation of the SME Policy, Tanzania Investment Bank (TIB), and AFRACA Executive Committee and Advisory Group.
Ms. Rubambey earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Kent State University under AAI's African Scholarship Program of the American Universities (ASPAU) program. She went on to earn a master's in economics from Kent State University as well.