Manyara Chigunduru’s audacious journey to CA
PHILLIMON MHLANGA
Her journey to become a chartered accountant Zimbabwe (CA(Z) is inspirational in different ways.
Truth be told, it wasn’t until university that Manyara Chigunduru (pictured), the founder and managing partner of Marianhill Chartered Accountants, had an encounter with commercial subjects.
The executive did not do commercial subjects at high school, meaning being a chartered accountant was a “distant dream” as she wanted to read for science subjects and become a medical doctor.
But, to her utter disappointment she fell short of scoring ‘A’ grades to qualify to do science subjects, making her career choice difficult.
By default, the executive ended up doing Arts subjects at Advanced level and was unsure of what she wanted to study at university.
She, however, settled for a Bachelor of Accountancy degree at the University of Zimbabwe, where she had her first encounter with the subject matter.
Chigunduru recalls: “…Until university I never had an encounter with the subject matter (accounts). Circumstances around my A Level subjects influenced me to be in the profession.”
After taking Arts subjects, the executive was determined that she could be a “very good accountant or an auditor or a lawyer”.
“I qualified to do a Bachelor of Accountancy degree at the University of Zimbabwe. That was the beginning of my journey in the accounting profession. From that moment, I believed in the profession,” said Chigunduru, the junior vice president of the Institute Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ).
After graduating, Chigunduru joined Chloride Zimbabwe in 2000 as a graduate trainee.
After completing the graduate trainee programme, Chigunduru was promoted to the position of assistant accountant.
She left Chloride in 2003 to do articles to train as a chartered accountant with HLB Chartered Accountants (Zimbabwe) and later joined PricewaterhouseCoopers Chartered Accountants (Zimbabwe).
She qualified as a chartered accountant Zimbabwe (CA(Z) in 2010. After her graduation, Chigunduru, was appointed finance manager for one of the financial institutions in the country.
In 2014, Chigunduru, however, went on voluntary retrenchment to establish Marianhill Chartered Accountants as the founder and its managing partner.
Marianhill has grown to become one of the fastest growing audit, accounting, tax and business advisory services brands in Zimbabwe.
And today, Chigunduru is one of the few women chartered accountants in Zimbabwe to start a successful audit firm in the country.
Even though the chartered accountants programme was very demanding, Chigunduru said it was the best route to take with “my circumstances at the time”.
“Once I was in, I knew I belonged to this profession. No regrets at all. It is a passport to so many professions, careers, and businesses,” she said.
Chigunduru has also obtained a Master’s degree in Business Leadership from University of South Africa and boasts of over 20 years’ experience spanning across different sectors covering financial management, accounting, strategy, auditing, project management, taxation, risk management, entrepreneurship, and governance.
Over the years, the executive has served on a number of company boards both in the public and private sector in different capacities such as board chairperson, vice chairperson and audit committee chairperson.
Currently, she is chairperson of the Chengetedzai Depository Company and is also part of the board of PSMI Claybank Hospital and City Parking.
Previously, she sat on the board of the Zimbabwe Women’s Microfinance Bank, the national executive council of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce and a council member of the Institute of Directors of Zimbabwe.
Chigunduru has won a number of business awards from different reputable organisations for business excellence within the country and outside our borders.
She will soon be the fourth female president in the history of ICAZ after Emelia Chisango (2009/10) who became the first female president of ICAZ, Gloria Zvaravanhu (2017/18) and Duduzile Shinya (2020/21).
Asked why it took about 90 years for a woman to lead the institute, the CA said: “…ICAZ has come a long way and is leading on the gender empowerment front. For example, the immediate past CEO is a lady [Gloria Zvaravanhu], and there have been two other ladies who became presidents of ICAZ [Zvaravanhu and Duduzile Shinya].”
She added: “Our Council has almost 50% women and almost 50% of our students are female, thus helping to close the gender gap within the profession when it comes to our members who would complete the CAZ programme.”
Chigunduru said ICAZ has scored big success stories in its 104 years history.
“We have the Public Sector Professional Accounting programme which has just started. This will see the Public Sector being trained in proper accounting to improve on reporting.
“Still on the Public Sector, ICAZ is offering an IPSAS (International Public Sector Accounting Standards) programme for government and quasi-government staff to familiarise with accrual reporting standards ahead of full adoption by 2026.”
She said ICAZ is driving the sustainability or the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting initiative.
Its purpose is to shed light on an organisation’s ESG activities while improving investor transparency, Chigunduru said.
“ICAZ also launched the Women’s Chartered Accountants Network, an initiative to assist women-chartered accountants in their leadership growth as well as help break the bias and the barriers that hinder them from progressing in their career and leadership aspirations,” she said.
ICAZ also has Vimbiso Trust, which assists underprivileged but academically gifted students towards their attainment of the accounting qualification.
ICAZ will launch a Centennial Book to celebrate the successes and challenges of the past century.
“It is a book that celebrates men and women, heroes and heroines in the accounting profession who had a big vision, who believed in the impossible and dared to be different to make history in the process,” the executive said.
The accountancy profession, Chigunduru said, was however, battling challenges including “reporting challenges” and brain drain, among other teething problems.
The reporting challenges, the executive said, was due to the exchange rate concerns.
“This has been problematic over the past few years but going forward with the IASB having issued proposed amendments to the standard that deals with Exchange Rates, through Exposure Draft – Lack of Exchangeability, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
Chigunduru said the huge demand globally for ICAZ members has created challenges with both auditors and preparers suffering from massive brain drain over the past couple of months.
“But this is something which will be a positive for us going forward as we increase our output of Articled Accountants and Chartered Accountants. What this means is that the accounting profession will need to increase their recruitment for articled or trainee accountants to close this gap,” she said.
Asked about her biggest regret in life both personal and professional , Chigunduru said:
“I should have done my CA(Z) before I got married. It is quite demanding to be a CA(Z) student, doing your articles and examinations and at the same time being a wife, mother, daughter in law, sister-in-law.
“The balancing act required could be quite overwhelming for one person. Not everyone understands the demands on your time as every one of these roles require your ‘100% attention.’ It’s difficult, you can only disappoint others along the way. Some roles need to suffer while you progress with your studies and career. My husband would tell me that I will have all the time in the world to play with my kids once I have my CA(Z) qualification.”
The executive said people do not know that she wrote her Final Qualifying Exam five days after giving birth to her son.
“It was a six-hour exam divided into 2 sessions of three hours each. It was the exam that made me the CA(Z) that I am today.”
Chigunduru said becoming a woman entrepreneur was not smooth sailing for her as she was “being treated unfairly at work before I became an entrepreneur”.
“When I started Marianhill, people didn’t believe in the vision I had. Some felt because we were a startup we were not capable of providing the services which we were saying we do. We were always compared to the bigger companies. With no experience as a firm, we knocked on so many doors and the same question would come up, ‘Who are you?’ and some even believed it was an experiment and did not want to be ‘guinea pigs.’ I needed to work as many times as possible to prove that we were not a fly by night firm but a serious one.”
Chigundura attributes her success to her mother who has been “my role model in every way”.
“I draw my inspiration from my mum. I lived with her for 30 good years before she departed to be with the Lord. She is my hero. She believed a daughter is a priceless gift which cannot be exchanged for anything in the world. She believed daughters should be given an equal chance to everything in life and believed that daughters should be able to ‘stand on their two feet’ lest circumstances in life would break them,” she said.
The executive has read many books that have left indelible lessons and helped shape your views in life.
These include The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The 5 second Rule by Mel Robbins and The 5am Club by Robin Sharma.
She also read Commanding Your Morning by Dr Cindy Trimm and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.
Currently, Chigunduru is reading The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwarts.
Chigunduru is a mother of four (two boys and two girls) and married to Peddy Chigunduru.
The executive loves to work with women and girls, to mentor and encourage them to fulfil their God given destiny and be able to do exploits.
She has some words of advice to fellow women and girls.
“There is nothing wrong with being a woman. Don’t be limited and be defined by people around you, societal norms or our biased culture, but define who you are and pursue your dreams,” Chigunduru said.
“Stand on your two feet and be the epitome of excellence in whatever you do. For you to do exploits, dare to be different and don’t be in the habit of following the crowd. Be an independent thinker who is authentic. Embrace the “Eagle Mentality” in whatever you do, you won’t regret this be it in your private life, career, or business.
She continued: “Know the right people to associate with who can make you a better person. You are a sum of your associations. Use the storms of life to rise to greater heights and learn to meet challenges head on and use them profitably.
“Whether in private life or in business, test commitment of people intended for partnership with you. Fly out of the nest, flap your wings to fly and test the freedom and let’s shed off old habits, items, friends that burden us without adding value to us. Though change is painful, let’s embrace it, it makes us grow.”
Asked whether she would recommend the accountancy profession to other young people, the executive said: “The CA(Z) designation provides endless opportunities both locally and internationally. I can confidently say I haven’t regretted my decision [to be a CA].”
