BIGSONG:
Patrick Kubuya is a gospel artist from Congo, he is best known for his song “Moyo Wangu” which has over 17 Million views on YouTube.
His journey began in a small rural village in Kenya and has taken him to a senior position at the World Bank. Patrick Kubuya’s life story makes a compelling tale. ‘From growing up in poverty to being in a position to be able to do something about it,’ is the way he sees the trajectory of his life. It all started with his passion for numbers, and a strict grandmother, who taught him the value of hard work.
‘One of my most vivid childhood recollections is doing homework by paraffin lamp every night. Education was taken seriously in our home. It was seen as the door to opportunity and this truth has been borne out in my life.’
Kubuya obtained a B.Com (Hons) in accounting from Nairobi University in 1993 and was made a Kenya-certified accountant (CPA(K)) in 1995.
‘Accountancy was a good choice,’ he says. ‘I completed my B.Com classes on Friday and on Monday I was working at Ernst & Young Kenya.’
After six years in the trenches as an accountant on home ground, he was sent on a secondment to work in the technical department of the company’s Johannesburg office.
‘The move to South Africa was a total eye-opener. The size of the economy, the complexity of the transactions and the type of organisation was on a totally different scale to what I had been accustomed to back home, and I learnt an enormous amount.’
Five years later, however, Kubuya was ready to chart a different course with the knowledge and skills he had acquired working in private practice. ‘Working in accounting does not only provide you with the skills of the profession, it also moulds you as a person. Having come from a poor background, I was starting to ask myself about changing focus, about using my skills to contribute to poverty reduction. The public sector was becoming increasingly attractive to me, because the link between solid accounting standards and effective service delivery is so clear-cut.’
South Africa is another case in point. While the ratio of accountancy professionals in the country is not as high as that of its island neighbour, it does have the highest number of qualified accountants in Africa (apart from Nigeria). It is the economic powerhouse of Africa, and financial oversight and governance in the private sector is on par with the best international standards, says Kabuya. ‘Yet there is a huge shortage of skilled accountancy professionals at almost every level of the public service. Only around 300 of the 28,000 registered chartered accountants in South Africa work in the public sector. As a consequence, year after year numerous national government departments in South Africa are given audit disclaimers by the Auditor-General.
‘At a local government level, the situation is even more dire. In the country social unrest is brewing because municipalities and local councils are not able to deliver on their mandate. At the core of this lies the lack of skills to administer resources.’
For Kabuya, increasing the number of accountancy professionals in Africa is a key element in the broader issue of how to improve governance there.
He says: ‘We need to strengthen the professional accounting entities in Africa, and help to put in place effective training bodies to impart skills to more people. Another goal is to encourage and support young people to enter the profession. ‘By strengthening legislation, compliance and transparency will we begin to see the kind of accountability that is the product of efficient and clean government.’
A leading South African newspaper recently picked Kabuya as one of its ‘Top 300 South Africans to take to lunch’, citing his professional achievements but also his commitment to improving education and leadership in South Africa.
He clearly puts his money where his mouth is. Outside of work, he is not only the chairman of his daughter’s school governing body, he serves on the audit committee of Cricket South Africa as a community contribution.
But possibly, the most telling clue about Patrick Kabuya is not what he does for a living, or the fact that he is a committed family man who loves cricket and reading.
Nor is it that he is one of those focused and disciplined people who make it to the gym regularly. Possibly, the most revealing aspect about this highly successful man is his choice of restaurant: a pizzeria. The elaborate dining establishments of Africa’s richest city are not for him. Kabuya prefers to have his power lunches in a place that has a wood-fired oven, with not a starched tablecloth in sight. That is a character reference in itself.
