How Advocate Setiba is shaping inclusive regulation across Africa

When Advocate Nontokozo Setiba was recently awarded the Top 40 Under 40 South Africa 2026 award in the Banking and Finance category, she viewed the recognition more as a platform for responsibility than an award. As Senior Manager: Regulatory Advocacy and Stakeholder Engagement at Standard Bank Group, Setiba operates at the intersection of financial regulation, strategy, and public policy, translating complex geopolitical and regulatory shifts across 21 African markets into strategic action. For Setiba, the ultimate goal remains clear: ensuring that women, young people, and under-served communities have a voice when the financial and digital frameworks of Africa’s future economies are written. 

Growing up in Kempton Park on the East Rand, with roots spanning Mpumalanga and Tembisa, Setiba’s early life exposed her to the psycho-social divides between suburbia, townships, and rural villages. Raised by a teacher mother who emphasised lifelong multi-skilling and a father who demonstrated the power of education, she recognised early on that fairness and systemic access dictate quality of life. 

Her analytical approach was galvanised during her third year as a BA LLB student at Wits University in 2012, where a course on the political economy of Africa challenged her to question dominant global dynamics and confront inequality at its root. Finishing among the top students in her class, Setiba channelled these academic debates into tangible social innovation. She founded Fundisa, an e-tutoring and e-mentoring initiative bridging the gap between high school and university for underprivileged learners. The initiative earned the Vice Chancellor’s Transformation Award for Social Innovation, named her Social Innovator of the Year, and led to her selection as a Global Shaper (and eventual Curator) with the World Economic Forum. 

Multi-disciplinary pursuit of lifelong learning

Setiba’s career reflects an ongoing pursuit of academic rigour and professional versatility. After graduating with a BA LLB (Hons) from Wits and being admitted as an Advocate of the High Court in 2016, she deliberately expanded her skillset beyond traditional legal practice. Her qualifications include: 

• Postgraduate certificates in Project Management as well as Risk, Governance and Compliance Law from Wits Plus. 
• A Certificate of Competence in Governance, Policy and Regulation for the Digital Era from Wits Link. 
• A Master of Management in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation from Wits Business School. 
• Completion of the Corporate Affairs Executive Leadership Programme, a joint initiative between the Wits School of Governance and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) aimed at professionalising executive corporate affairs roles. 

Currently, Setiba is pursuing a DPhil in Applied Data Science at the University of Johannesburg. Her doctoral research addresses a critical modern dilemma: how justice and fairness can be embedded directly into automated decision-making systems. As algorithms increasingly determine who qualifies for loans, credit, or digital verification, her work seeks to ensure that unrecorded individuals; often women, youth, and informal workers are not systematically excluded by technological bias. 

Driving financial inclusion 

Setiba’s career across the public and private sectors has consistently centered on building inclusive, accountable institutions. Her professional journey spans leadership roles at: 

• Association of Community Advice Offices of South Africa (ACAOSA): Establishing governance frameworks across 254 paralegal advice offices. 
• SPARK Schools and Hogan Lovells: Building risk, compliance, and governance capabilities. 
• FirstRand and SARB Prudential Authority: Standardising group compliance capabilities and experiencing regulatory supervision from the regulator’s side. 
• MTN Group Fintech: Managing policy and regulatory execution across 14 African markets. 
• Standard Bank Group: Shaping regulatory advocacy across 21 markets and international hubs. 

To navigate the fragmented regulatory environments across Africa, Setiba applies insights gained from the WSG, reframing market complexity from a "disruption to manage" into "brittleness to actively protect against". She emphasised that Corporate Affairs must convert geopolitical, technological and stakeholder intelligence into foresight, scenarios and decision support that help enterprise anticipate change. Setiba also added that although AI will be embedded across intelligence, engagement and measurement, we would still need to invest in specialist talent and ethical judgement. Additionally, the executive programme taught her that clearer priorities, integrated operating models, stronger governance and outcome-based measurement are essential to demonstrate Corporate Affairs’ contribution to trust, resilience and business performance. 

Building coalitions and mentoring the future

Setiba described her leadership style as coalition-building, frequently convening diverse stakeholders across government, financial institutions, and civil society to address systemic challenges like digital regulation and financial access. Guided by her experience in the Zanele Mbeki Fellowship, she balances high-level executive demands with continuous self-nourishment and mentorship. Through initiatives such as Beyond Tomorrow, the WEF Global Shapers, Common Purpose, and UJ's iKamva Initiative, she actively mentors young professionals, demonstrating that legal and regulatory backgrounds offer powerful avenues for systemic change. 

Her overarching operational guiding question remains constant across every board, committee, and project she leads: "Who is not in this room, and who pays if we get it wrong?" Through her doctoral research, regulatory advocacy, and commitment to public governance, Advocate Setiba continues to ensure that the answers to those questions favor equity, innovation, and sustainable growth across the African continent.