AGSA CFO “raising the bar of excellence” – Awca

The African Women Chartered Accountants (Awca) has selected Bongi Ngoma, former AGSA CFO and current national head of audit, as the winner of the prestigious award of the 2021 public sector CFO of the year.

Ngoma held the position of CFO from 2015 until June 2021 when she was appointed national head of audit. She is a qualified chartered accountant (CA) with work experience that spans over two decades. Since joining the AGSA in 2012, Ngoma has led the team that handles the national audit office’s finances, ensuring that it stays afloat, even during turbulent economic times.

“This is an exciting development for our office because, as a public office that is established to support the country’s democracy through audits, we have to lead by example. Our financial management and control systems must be consistent with what we expect from our auditees. It is equally befitting to receive this recognition during Women’s Month as a recognition of the advances women continue to make in our society. We are indeed grateful to Awca for this recognition,” said auditor-general, Tsakani Maluleke.

Awca, a non-profit organisation founded in 2002, aims to develop African women chartered accountants, with a view to ensuring that access to the profession is widened to include those who did not have opportunities in the past.

Recognising “tenacity and excellence”

Awca’s awards recognise “exceptional” African women business leaders such as Ngoma – “trailblazers who have demonstrated the tenacity to succeed in their careers, and who continue to raise the bar of excellence within the chartered accountancy profession”.

“Your achievements throughout your career make you a deserving recipient of this prestigious award,” Awca said of Ngoma on announcing the award.

Honoured that peers are noticing our efforts

Ngoma says she is honoured that her industry peers have noticed her efforts to advance the national audit office and develop the profession.

“While the award is in my name, I accept it on behalf of the AGSA team. The organisation has afforded me and many women leaders space to grow and contribute to organising the growth of the profession. I am privileged to be part of an organisation that has plans to develop and support women realise their full potential,” says Ngoma.

A product of humble beginnings from the village of Tsolo in the Eastern Cape, Ngoma says her poor upbringing has fostered her “zeal to work hard” and her “hunger to succeed in life.” She encourages young people – especially young girls – to follow suit.

“Growing up in rural Eastern Cape, all I had was just a dream. My message to young girls is that you may not have the resources or luxuries around you, but you should have a dream. No environment or poverty can constrain your dream. Have that dream and work hard to realise it. Somewhere someone will also believe in your dream, buy into it and support it.

All it takes is you taking the first critical step of believing in yourself and working hard to realise your dream. Most of us, as big sisters and mothers who have travelled so far in life, are always ready and eager to mentor young people who are yearning to develop themselves, to do even better than our generation,” advises Ngoma.

Speaking of the award, Maluleke says, “To us, the recognition that our office continues to receive says that our efforts to maintain a strong national audit office that supports our democracy are on the right track.”

This recognition is the latest accolade for the AGSA, coming shortly after the World Bank ranked the organisation as one of only two national audit offices in the world that enjoy full independence to carry out their audit mandates without undue interference.

Furthermore, graduates from across the country also recently voted the AGSA as the 2021 employer of choice in the public sector, receiving first place in the public sector category of the SAGEA Employer Awards.

“We are very pleased to have leaders of Ms Ngoma’s calibre in our midst. She has been part of our executive leadership team, over 50 per cent of whom are women, who are tirelessly driving our vision to continue to make a meaningful contribution to strengthening South Africa’s democracy by enabling sound oversight, accountability and good governance.

It is encouraging that our colleagues in the industry, our country and the world have noticed our efforts further, said AG Maluleke.

Source: Government of South Africa