Moving up a gear

In 2015, Andrew Chibuye FCCA got into cycling. Initially, it was purely recreational – just going for rides with friends a few times a week.

‘Then we started to gather more of a group together, so we formed our own club’, he says. Then the club started to attract elite cyclists, disenchanted by Zambia’s national cycling organisation. ‘We realised that to have a thriving sport at a competitive level, we needed to be more organised.’

To achieve this, Chibuye drew on his professional experience at PwC Zambia, where he is now senior partner. Navigate to the Cycling Association of Zambia’s Facebook page today and you’ll see smiling faces, award ceremonies, sponsored kits, race calendars, action shots and cheering crowds – in other words, evidence of a thriving community supported by a well-organised governing body.

Understated leader

‘It’s basically my hobby, which has grown a bit,’ Chibuye says, with characteristic understatement: he was actually made association president two years ago and as such has represented Zambia internationally, including at the UCI Congress and Cycling World Championships in Scotland this year.

Such understatement is a theme in our interview. For someone who is a high achiever, a driven leader with a storied career, Chibuye never sounds like he is tooting his own trumpet; he is simply passionate about what he is passionate about.

He was drawn to a career in accountancy through the example set by his father, a partner at Deloitte and one of Zambia’s first qualified accountants. He saw that he could have a dynamic career in practice. ‘In the space of a year, I could work with 10 clients across multiple industries; it was this dynamism that drew me to the profession,’ he says.

New perspective

He started out at PwC as an associate in 2003, the same year in which he finished his ACCA exams, so the timing of this interview is somewhat poignant: 20 years a qualified accountant and 20 years with PwC, all of which, apart from a two-year secondment in Edinburgh, Scotland, he has spent in Zambia.

‘Edinburgh gave me something beyond just a career perspective; it offered a fresh view on relationships and clients,’ Chibuye says. ‘The economy was bigger, the clients were bigger, there was more regulation, and the expectations were different, too.’

He was impressed by the level of multiculturalism. ‘I got to see how different people did and viewed things, how they communicated with and managed their multicultural teams and clients,’ he says.

‘We have a saying in Zambia that a person who doesn’t travel praises their mother as being the world’s best cook. By travelling and opening yourself up to new experiences, you broaden your perspectives,’ he adds.

Primarily a financial services auditor, Chibuye’s role has expanded since he became a partner in 2016 and then country senior partner in 2020. With greater oversight over PwC’s services in Zambia, you’d expect less time at the coalface but, if anything, he’s more client facing than ever, he says.

Yet perhaps closest to his heart is leadership. ‘Some of my greatest achievements revolve around managing people who have been struggling or underperforming,’ he says. ‘With engagement, thought, mentorship, coaching, you can turn these people into your best performers. PwC Zambia has over 200 people and I know each one by name. In fact, I even challenge them: if I meet you and I don’t know your name, I’ll pay you 500 kwacha [US$20].’ He rarely has to pay out.

Chibuye believes there’s a magic combination to good leadership: you need to be both highly competent and a pleasure to work with. He partly attributes this belief to his father, though it has evolved into ‘doing his own thing’, he says.

‘Leadership evolves and different attributes need to manifest at different times,’ he says. ‘For example, if we’re in a crisis, it’s incumbent on me to make calls that are clear, decisive and informed, to get us where we need to be. Adaptability is key, as is being self-aware enough to know my strengths and weaknesses, which I’m still discovering. This allows me to know when to delegate and when to seek mentorship, and who from.’

Pursuing relevance

But ultimately, he says, there’s one quality above all else that a professional needs, so much so that he intends to write a book about it. ‘I’ll call it The Pursuit of Relevance,’ he says. ‘A few years ago, there were no ESG [environmental, social and governance] experts; now, clients expect me to be able to talk about ESG – and why not throw in cybersecurity and AI, too? If I’m not keeping myself current, then I won’t be able to have a relevant conversation, and if I can’t have a relevant conversation, I can’t be relevant as a professional.’

In Chibuye’s case, words and phrases like relevance, adaptability, competency and engaged leadership are more than mere corporate buzz; they’re heartfelt and hard earned. When he became country senior partner in 2020, for instance, he had his 100-day plan and was keen to move forward with it. But he didn’t get far before the pandemic struck.

‘We had our first few cases of Covid in the office and from then the only plan became keeping our people safe,’ he recalls. ‘To this day I don’t know where my 100-day plan went, because in the same year we had Covid, Zambia defaulted on its eurobond debt, the currency and inflation went haywire, the great resignation started; in 2021 we had elections, then the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the knock-on effects for commodities.

‘Nothing prepares you for dynamics like that. We had to figure it out as we went along, based on the facts and circumstances.

‘I think the most important thing for a leader working through such a difficult period is to remain optimistic. I’m an eternal optimist, but I can tell you, the last few years have been an accelerated MBA.’