#RelevantConversations from Zim to Italy to India to Netherlands , Tafadzwa Chiganga quest to buck the status quo

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“Drinking good wine with good food in good company is one of life’s most civilized pleasures.” – Michael Broadbent…..

I started a video series on the conversation I have with the most accomplished people I meet  on travels globally (#RelevantConversations), from my last  episodewas  in Paris with Peris Besoir( CEO of Farmdrive, a company leading disruption in alternative lending to small holder farmers , we are here having  more relevant conversations with wine in Accra.

I recently met up with  my friend Tafadzwa Chiganga and I am excited to share her journey with you.

The whole conversation was an hour long, so this is the first half  blog and video

So, a little background story on how we met. Tafi and I were in Mauritius for a Women’s Conference. After the whole event, this energetic young lady, gathered us, we stole some wine (she prefers to say we took it lol) and headed to the beach for a party. I was particularly fascinated with how she could just gather strangers, go out and have some fun. We have stayed in touch since and I was excited knowing she was in Ghana.

Tafadzwa Chiganga is currently the Global Finance and Operations Lead for a Dutch based company Meridia. Meridia specializes in helping farmers get together all legal documents that support their work (securing land documents, looking into agreements, land tenure security etc.), whiles they focus on growing food.

(Did you know certain farmers cannot cut down certain trees because these trees are attached to conditions surrounding the land? We will get into this someday).

Tafi started her tertiary education by studying Actuarial Science (her mum’s dream since she was a good student). As usual she made the grades as expected and felt she fitted in perfectly. In her 3^rd year she landed an internship with Old Mutual, Zimbabwe and was offered a permanent role in her 4^th year. As awesome as this sounds, it affected Tafi in getting her degree that year. She had to defer for another year due to delays in submitting her dissertation. Fast forward to a month after her proper graduation, she got offered a job at a new company first as an Actuarial Analyst, then a promotion after a month to start a new department, Enterprise Risk Management at age 23.

At 24, she realizing she was more of a people person than a back office worker, Tafi quit her job with intentions to start her own investment company; at a point where Zimbabwe was in economic crisis and employment was on the rise. After parental intervention, Tafi settled for a new job with an investment company as Business and Finance Analyst.

‘In my first year, I did everything they asked me to and everything they did not ask me to…like to make tea, cleaned sometimes although there was a cleaner. Basically things outside my job description.’ –Tami

 She hammers the fact that you need to stay humble but be excellent at what you do and personally, these made her noticeable even by the CEO. Also, not being afraid to take up challenges. Even though you may be in a place you are not sure of, on the brighter side, you have the opportunity to find where you really want to be. Tafi landed in Italy for a MBA with dreams of being able to make business better in Africa….. (To be continued)

Watch the video of part 1