Onneile Maripe, ACA is one of the first BICA graduates in Botswana, this being a historic event in the Accountancy profession of the country where she also attended the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) ceremony in London in October 2017 to receive her membership after the obtaining the BICA qualification.

She worked at Deloitte Botswana for a period of 6 years where she left as an Audit Supervisor. She is currently working as an Accountant at Sesiro Insurance Company (Pty) Ltd a Member of the Debswana group. The company provides insurance services for Debswana and its associated Companies. Onneile is also responsible for the compliance and Anti Money Laundering affairs as endorsed by NBFIRA (local financial services regulator).

As part of the company’s objective in skills development, she is responsible for the training needs of the company’s employees.

As a Chartered Accountant, she is also responsible for both statutory matters of the company and reporting the company’s performance to the board.

In her personal space she enjoys traveling with a purpose, such that in October 2018 she attended a World Congress of Accountants in Sidney Australia. The key taking here was the transformation of the business processes to automation, robotics, artificial intelligence and digitalization. This resulted her contribution to the February 2019 BICA (local accounting body) technical ebulletin on Digitization and Finance. She has taken keen interest in this space as believes greater change will come out of this. This makes her truly honor this nomination to take part in this year’s One Young World Summit in London and act as an ICAEW ambassador in the Chartered Accountants Worldwide delegation. She is very excited to meet and network with world leaders and young leaders as myself sharing a common goal.

She has taken part in the BICA Public Sector Committee, this Committee assists the Botswana Government to implement relevant standards in their Financial Reporting, such that we may be in line with other Countries among other mandates.

She is very passionate about promoting and growing Botswana’s Economy, because she has noticed a significant potential among entrepreneurs which at the current moment lack support not only in funds but information and knowledge sharing, hence intends to provide be active in promotion of local talent and potential in this space for awareness.

Onneile is a fitness fanatic such that she runs, cycles, and attends gym. She enjoys spending time with my family and she has a twin, loves good music.

What does winning the Chartered Star competition mean to you?

This win allows me to also talk about the talent that we have in our own country, Botswana. As a third world country or developing economy, we are able to compete in international competitions as long as we have the opportunity, means and determination. The dynamics in the global economy also affect us as a developing nation, and we also need to be active in the changing world. I get to share my experiences in my own country with the world and bring back the knowledge which is also able to put our country and effectively our continent at par with international economies.

Why are you exited to attend One Young World?

I am excited because I get to be an ICAEW ambassador in the Chartered Accountants Worldwide delegation. This opportunity alone has widened my networking space and given me a chance to fully believe in anything I set out to do. I get to meet other young global leaders from other countries who have gone through this journey of being an ICAEW Chartered Accountant not only facing the changes that affect the profession but also engaging in conversations to find ways to deal with them. We will get to meet other seasoned global leaders and learn from their wealth of experience. Meeting leaders from other industries further increases our energy and determination to learn and want to make a change as future global leaders in this profession. I am excited to learn about diversity and change and how this can be used to make an impactful change.

What plenary topic are you most passionate about and why?

Planetary Health: How is climate change endangering our health – this is one topic that is am actively studying and researching about especially that there is a lot of discussion around it. Climate change is one topic that I like because it calls new way of doing business that will not be harmful to the habitants and also calls for a sustainable environment, not just by governments by also Corporates. The #GoGreen movement is changing at a fast pace, zooming down to the world of Insurance, we can see campaigns like the #UnfriendCoal hashtag, putting pressure on insurers that they must cease insurance on companies who are involved in the production of climate-destroying greenhouse gases or find ways to produce it in more eco-friendly manners which may not be very cheap. I am looking forward for this topic to be discussed at the Summit in London. I am really keen to learn more on it from Global leaders and ways they have managed to stop productions that involves these harmful emissions to the health of the communities and also ensure safety for living species.

What would you like to get out of attending One Young World?

There are various topics that are currently popular (Automation, Robotics, AI, Block chain, Trade wars, Climate change, Emotional Intelligence, Design Thinking etc.) including the ones that were part of this competition, at times these topics relating to the changing world can compete for time, resources, even learning about them ,as they vary extreme cases in their content but have a common ripple effect in businesses and governments.

I want to know how other nations are handling the changes in each areas and dealing with the competing time to manage each and every one of them. I want to get successful stories on ways countries have handled these issues and are making sure that they are instilled in the lives of people in their countries so that everyone is involved and even not so successful stories. I want to be part of these conversations to also make a contribution on what our own country and even continent is doing about these debatable issues. This will enable me to go back home after the Summit and ensure that I engage further with stakeholders on these topics so that we are not left behind, the youth of the country is not left behind.

What value do you think your skills and training in Chartered Accountancy bring to being a future global leader?

One of the most pertinent issues I see is the importance of the Accounting profession in the ever so changing world. Not only does the profession account for companies’ resources but we are able as Chartered Accountants to measure and assess the impact of all these changes to the sustainability of the business, and make contributions on viabilities of issues. The expectations of the modern Chartered Accountant and CFOs more broadly (cited in the Wall Street Journal) is that we need to have experience dealing with investors and lenders taking companies public knowledge of tech-specific regulations and accounting practices etc. This is working towards the training and skills required for me as a Chartered Accountant to being a future global leader.