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Minister Chikwinya

The Institute of Chartered Accountants Zimbabwe (ICAZ) last week launched a women network known as Women Chartered Accountants Network (WeCAN) that is aimed at profiling, promoting and developing female members of the Institute, who constitute up to 25 percent of total membership.

The network which was launched by the Minister of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Nyasha Chikwinya intends to grow female membership and increase their influence in the economy.

“The focus of WeCAN would be to network and share experiences, mentorship of junior professionals by the senior professionals, access to leadership development opportunities.

“The results expected are a growth of female members, increase in influence of a female CA(Z) in the economy by taking on more leadership positions and fostering influence on boards, increased participation by female members in ICAZ affairs,” WeCan chairperson, Gloria Zvaravanhu, said.

She said that WeCAN is a pool of qualified and experienced women who are available and ready to serve in the various sectors of the economy.

“We are a strong force that will use skills and competencies to make a difference! We are not just responsible for books of accounts as chartered accountants, but we are taking charge and will stand to be accountable and responsible for the systems and control environments that produce those accounts . . . because WeCAN,” she said.

The inaugural committee of the Network is chaired by Gloria Zvaravanhu who is also ICAZ president and general manager NicozDiamond Insurance Limited. Duduzile Shinya, who is a council member and finance of Schweppes Zimbabwe, is the vice chairperson. Other committee members include Lorraine Miriro Chitereka who is also senior audit manager at KPMG, Tinashe Mudarikwa Chikara a manager at EY, Barbara Gatsi an Audit Manager at PwC, Charity Mtwazi an Associate Director at Deloitte, Charity Makawa who is the Finance Manager at Lancet Clinical Labs and Ledwin Magara a Partner at AMG Global.

Also in the committee are Martha Shoniwa a Finance Manager (Reporting) at Econet, Valerie Muyambo who is the Finance Director at Alpha Media Holdings, Rufaro Maunze the country director TechnoServe Zimbabwe, Tatenda Zimondi a Partner at Grant Thornton, Patricia Zvandasara the Secretary to the Board at Zimnat, Josephine Mutsekwa the finance director at Spar Zimbabwe, Lionora Kamba who is the CFO at Murowa Diamonds and Gwen T. Muteiwa the group head finance Transformation at ABC Holdings.

Guest speaker, Sindi Mabaso Koyana, founder of African Women Chartered Accountants in South Africa, said female chartered accountants will develop and grow if they only promote their profession. She said her association in South Africa, which WeCan can borrows some concepts from, is premised on three tier interventions which are ‘Identify, Nature and Lead’.

“In this instance, we are saying the first port of call is to identify the talent, investing in schools and promote the profession. Secondly, nurturing involves developing the next stage in studying which include setting up bursary funds to assist individuals, while nurturing involves initiating leadership programmes and being in constant engagement on ways to grow and develop further the profession,” she said. – Wires.