Chartered Stars keep on rising: Onneile Maripe
16 March 2020: Onneile Maripe, a Finance Performance Analyst at Debswana Diamond Company and one of the winners of ICAEW’s Chartered Star competition, shares her views on generational isolation, the importance of an open mind, and the future of learning.
In a relatively short career thus far, Onneile Maripe has packed in a lot of achievements.
One of the first Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants graduates in Botswana, she worked at Deloitte Botswana for six years where she left as an Audit Supervisor and is currently a Finance Performance Analyst at Debswana Diamond Company.
She is passionate about promoting and growing Botswana’s economy, and how climate change is endangering people’s health. Last year she was selected as one of the winners of ICAEW’s Chartered Star competition, where applicants compete to attend One Young World with ICAEW in a group of delegates from Chartered Accountants Worldwide.
Her winning entry, which can be viewed here, concentrated on the future of learning, and ICAEW Insights caught up with her to find out more about her working life.
Where are you in your career?
I currently work as a Finance Performance Analyst at Debswana Diamond Company Proprietary Limited in the mining industry. I am a Chartered Accountant with ICAEW and Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA).
My role includes financial reporting and treasury. This means preparation of the company's annual financial statements as well as managing the treasury function. I am also involved in company-wide projects, such as digital transformation and risk management.
Specifically, within the finance space, I am entrusted to draw up strategies to improve processes, draft policies for new areas of work, and ensure that proper communication channels with relevant stakeholders are open.
In addition, I am the Company Secretary for Debswana's wholly owned subsidiary, Sesiro Insurance Company Proprietary Limited. Besides formal employment, I am also involved in the Finance and Administration Committee at BICA, whose main role is to help with technical financial, governance, IT and risk issues.
If we isolate the generations, where does that get us and what is the impact on economies?
I listen to podcasts often, and one of the conversations I heard was on the isolation of different generations and whether it is fair to do so. There is continuous talk about millennials – I am one – however, I personally feel that other generations could feel left out.
The podcast focused on getting retired people – who are still active, passionate and have a wealth of knowledge – back into the workplace to perhaps work flexible hours. This generation leaves work because of age limitations, yet they still carry knowledge that could benefit even millennials. It’s a matter of affording them new opportunities and making it possible for them to work and collaborate.
Millennials have a lot of energy and are very excited about new concepts that bring change to the evolving world of business. They have ideas, act quickly and can improve performance swiftly.
My point is that both generations are key to the economy and the world of business. If we isolate them, one generation is going to feel left out and maybe even feel irrelevant. Let’s not forget that most young people are where they are because they were fed information by the older generation.
What sort of things define you? And how do you bring those things into your work?
I am very open minded. I am keen on studying/reading about matters that impact the way I work. I am also involved in projects such as #FINBIZ2030, which is a One Young World initiative supported by South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and hosted by Investec. The main focus of this initiative is the UN Sustainable development goals.
I subscribe to podcasts, that involve better ways of working and entrepreneurship, Ted talks, and magazines, such as the Harvard Business Review and McKinsey.
I am also a keen believer in re-learning and empowering myself with new skills. I am currently training myself in coding using Mimo (the app), and subscribe to the ICAEW Finance in a Digital World platform, as I have developed a significant interest in digital transformation. I am also enrolled on the ICAEW IFRS learning assessment programme.
I enjoy feeding my mind with relevant and current information, because new skills are changing ways of working and require an agile mind.
This year’s competition will launch in the Spring visit here to find out more.