I began my career in 2010 with EY in its audit practice in Blantyre. I then took up corporate roles and gained experience in many sectors. I joined Alliance One Tobacco (Malawi), a multinational company in the agriculture sector, as a financial accountant in 2016.
Initially, I had wanted to pursue a career in engineering or computer science because of my inquisitive mind and because I excelled in mathematics and sciences in high school. However, the engineering sector in my country is underdeveloped, with few opportunities. So I chose to study accounting, which would involve me in businesses that use the science I love.
Moving into new products and services is always risky but a necessary response to the changing business environment
When I started in practice, my goal was to get as much exposure to multiple businesses and as many sectors as possible and to learn quickly so I could take up corporate roles. My thinking was that this would introduce me to strategic decision-making and give me opportunities for various career paths towards more executive roles.
Historically, our core business has been as a tobacco leaf merchant. In 2017, however, the company undertook a strategic process to diversify by leveraging its core strengths in agronomy, and we changed our corporate name to Pyxus International. As the Greek word for 'compass', Pyxus expresses the company’s commitment to exploring new directions.
Moving into new products and services is always risky but is a necessary response to the changing business environment. So, while tobacco remains our significant product (trading along with other tobacco-related entities in the group under the established brand name Alliance One), Pyxus has expanded into new products that include e-liquids and value-added agricultural products such as sunflower oil, processed groundnuts and certified seed.
Malawi depends on agriculture. It's a sector that is still underinvested and continues to develop. Despite its great potential it faces many challenges, including lack of infrastructure, and lack of access to affordable financing and global markets. There are also too many smallholder farmers doing subsistence farming with low yields. However, there are plentiful opportunities for commercialisation, mechanisation and further value-added products but, more importantly, secure local, regional and international markets.
The decline in logical thinking and reasoning has affected the quality of policies, laws and regulations
If I had law-making powers, I would make logic mandatory in schools and colleges. I believe the decline in logical thinking and reasoning has affected the quality of policies, laws and regulations in many countries, and led to poorer decisions on the part of individuals and businesses.
What I enjoy about my role is that I have a better understanding of the business because I have visibility of company transactions. I can see the financial implications of different business decisions, and how different business sections fit into the big picture. I enjoy interpreting financial data and using it for business improvement.
I have been fortunate to achieve a lot in my career and believe the best is yet to come. A recent highlight has been identifying and implementing business process improvements, using various technologies, and transforming the team that I supervise. These initiatives have provided more efficiency and accuracy, and better outcomes. That gives me great satisfaction.
If I were not an accountant, I would have been an engineer. I have always loved sciences, maths and logic. I am inquisitive about how and why things work the way they do; I like to solve problems by first getting the fundamentals right.
In my spare time I love to read books. I also enjoy watching debates and documentaries about science, engineering and technology.
