Achieving the ACCA Qualification is never easy. But for Hilda Manyo Dickson FCCA, treasury manager at multinational company TotalEnergies’ exploration and production affiliate in Lagos, Nigeria, the journey was far tougher.
Manyo Dickson’s daughter was just 21 months old when she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancer of the nerve tissue. ‘My life literally stood still,’ she says, recalling the day she received the earth-shattering diagnosis.
Seeking normality
During a gruelling treatment regime in the US from which Innomama thankfully made a full recovery (she is now a hardworking teenager who has set up her own charity to support others facing similar challenges), Manyo Dickson needed other things to occupy her mind. She had begun studying for the ACCA Qualification in Nigeria before her daughter fell ill and continued to work at it while they were in the US, seeing her studies as a way to maintain some kind of normality in her life.
‘I didn’t want to just focus on what was going on with my child, and what she was dealing with, because that would have drawn a lot of strength from me,’ she says. ‘ACCA was a good distraction.’
‘I kept on looking for the positives and acting like everything was OK, because I believed it would be’
CV
2022
Treasury manager, TotalEnergies E&P Nigeria, Lagos
2018
Manager, LNG & TPA Finance, Total E&P Nigeria, Lagos
2004
Joined Total E&P Nigeria in Port Harcourt as drilling cost controller; promoted through various cost control management roles
1999
Operational roles, Ecobank Nigeria, Port Harcourt
1998
Customer service representative, Fidelity Bank, Port Harcourt
The treatment process kept Manyo Dickson away from work for a lengthy period, and she pays tribute to Total, which she joined in 2004, for keeping her job open. ‘After being out for almost a year, I came back to a job,’ she says. ‘What more support could an employee ask for?’
She voices appreciation, too, for her ACCA Qualification, which she gained in 2012. ‘It gave me deeper insights into the world of financing and the confidence to move into job roles that required performance at a higher level,’ she explains, citing as one example the part she played in negotiating the complex US$3bn external funding for Total Energies’ seventh Nigerian liquefied natural gas (LNG) train project in 2020.
Positive attitude
Looking back, Manyo Dickson says the greatest lesson she took away from her daughter’s illness is the importance of maintaining a positive mindset. Despite finding the situation difficult and at times overwhelming, she tried hard to remain upbeat.
‘My attitude helped a lot,’ she says. ‘I kept on looking for the positives and acting like everything was OK, because I believed it would be.’
Power of networks
She also gained an understanding of the power of networks and of having good relationships ‘with family, friends, colleagues’. As she puts it: ‘You need people who have your back.’
Another important lesson related to the power of knowledge, a lesson that was further emphasised by her ongoing ACCA studies. ‘I had to keep reading, to know what came next, to ask the right questions, and to prepare myself,’ she says.
‘Each step of the way in life and in work, the more you get to know what to expect, the more you are prepared for it psychologically and able to approach it in a systematic manner.’
Source of inspiration
In the darkest days of her daughter’s illness, Manyo Dickson made a vow to document her story to provide encouragement to others dealing with similar circumstances. That commitment became reality when she published her book, Osunyameye: Nothing is Impossible with God. (‘Osunyameye’ is Innomama’s middle name.) In it, as well as describing Innomama’s experience, Manyo Dickson shares her previous struggles with infertility.
As well as believing in the power of a positive mindset, Manyo Dickson is committed to continuous self-development, which has led her to become a certified coach and a speaker. ‘I love leaving people feeling better than when they met me,’ she says. She concentrates on topics that empower, such as personal finance, management and mindset.
Of public speaking she says: ‘It gives me an avenue to share my views with a larger audience and inspire them. I also recognise that, for a lot of people, listening is a good way to learn.’
While she’s already experienced a huge amount in both her personal and her professional life – which includes 18 years with TotalEnergies – Manyo Dickson is ambitious for more. Her goal is to keep progressing her career in finance and to become a recognised thought leader. ‘It’s been a journey, and it’s still a journey – there is more I want to achieve,’ she says.
And ACCA is very much part of that journey. ‘ACCA has helped me in ways that I least expected,’ she says. ‘To a large extent, I would give credit to ACCA for the doggedness, the confidence and even the tenacity I display at work today.’
