ICAN Passport to the World – If They Can I Can with Erwin Tjipuka
Welcome to the ICAN Passport to the World series.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Namibia have invited 99FM’s Kirsty Watermeyer to meet some of their members. Namibians who have built their careers and lives around the field of accounting. These Namibians are the shapers of industry, captains in their fields, who are growing and building business in Namibia.
One such Namibian whose journey to become an accountant is pure Namibian inspiration is that of Erwin Tjipuka, a Managing Partner at Deloitte.
Erwin initially joined the firm as a trainee in the Windhoek office on 1 December 1997 and rose through the ranks to be a senior manager in the audit division at the time of him leaving the firm on 11 March 2005.
Erwin left the firm to join the FNB group as Group Finance Manager on 11 March 2005 and was later promoted to the position of Chief Financial Officer on 1 March 2008, a position he held until his return to Deloitte.
Erwin is a CA and the holder of B.Com degree from UNAM, Post-graduate diploma in Accountancy from UCT, and MBA from Maastricht School of Business.
“…at that time I didn’t have any role models, so for me I didn’t have people to speak to, I just had to read…the journey wasn’t that easy, as you can imagine but I think it was worth it…And I didn’t have the funds to do so, so I had to start working and doing my articles immediately and that wasn’t it easy, trying to work and trying to study…I was encouraged by leadership of Deloitte to go study full time. I got a bursary from Deloitte. I think the decision I took then was probably one of the best decisions which was to stop with the articles and study.”
“I think you have to push yourself. You have to believe in yourself and you have to go all the way. Because I think this doesn’t come easy, and especially as you said, when you don’t have people to look up to it becomes extremely difficult.”
“…we continue to change as the world is changing. Because we are a highly regulated profession, so obviously we see more regulations coming in to protect the integrity of the profession. And it think that’s great.”
Watch this incredible story with us… If You Can #ICAN.
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