As the demands of the finance function shift, leaders must stay up to date with the growing need for strategic insight. Heritage Insurance CFO Japhet Valerian, Deloitte Tanzania finance director Relief Mtenga, and Tanzania Mortgage Refinance Company CFO Joseph Mrawa reveal how they stay relevant as technology and data reshape the role of finance leaders.
When Japhet Valerian became the CFO of Heritage Insurance Tanzania in June 2024, he was stepping into unfamiliar terrain. He had already survived being thrown into the deep-end more than once. First, having studied actuarial science, he had joined EY’s audit practice in 2014 with no background in finance. He then rose quickly through the ranks through sheer grit and adaptability. But the transition to CFO brought its own set of challenges.
“When I became CFO, I can tell you I was all over the place listening to podcasts, reading 110 books, just trying to find my beat. Eventually, I figured things out by learning fast and staying curious,” he says.
That drive to learn under pressure defined his early years. As a stranger to the basics of debits and credits, he overcompensated by reading constantly and exceeding expectations. Within just two years, he was promoted four levels.
“Curiosity is what makes you relevant, because if you're not curious you stay with the same knowledge, you stay with the same information. You need to be very curious, to ask questions, to read widely, to speak to people, and to connect things. You listen to something in a podcast and you try to connect it to your work. You read something in a book and you try to connect it to your work.,” he says.
For Joseph Mrawa, CFO of Tanzania Mortgage Refinance Company, staying relevant means accepting that the traditional mould of finance leadership has been broken. He believes the CFO’s role today is primarily strategic rather than operational, and that requires a different kind of mindset.
“For you to impact the organisation in a positive way, you need to make sure that you keep pace with technology. Especially now that we are living in the fourth industrial revolution. Whatever is happening out there, if you are not keeping up to date somehow, it's going to affect your operations.”
This perspective has shaped how Joseph prepares his team for the future demands of the role. While he mentors and coaches them, he also ensures his team is exposed to strategic-level thinking through formal training, as he does not believe technical skills alone can get them to C-level.
“If you ask me, for a CFO I would say 80 percent of his time should be spent on strategy. With the current innovations and digitisation, reports can easily be generated. What matters now is that human brain, that human factor, to strategise and make sense of all the information. In Tanzania, people have the technical skills but many get stuck in the middle. So I expose them. I take them out of their comfort zones. That has paid off. I know a few people who, after working with me and attending the training I recommended, turned out to be very good leaders,” he says.
Joseph credits his own relevance to a firm grasp of three key pillars: people, processes, and technology. Every challenge, in his view, can be solved by working through those three things. He is especially focused on keeping pace with technological changes.
“Things are moving fast. So regardless of where we operate, we cannot afford to fall behind, especially in finance which is well integrated globally,” he says.
Relief Mtenga, director of finance at Deloitte Tanzania, takes a similar approach. She leads a cross-functional team that includes finance, grants, HR, IT, and procurement - the biggest she has led so far. She describes the team as young, brilliant, and energetic. To ground them in the realities of the job, Relief prioritises coaching and open dialogue. She is also keen to develop their digital skills.
“I always tell my team to go and do courses especially on information technology because finance is moving from just bookkeeping and reporting. It's becoming more of a dashboard and AI. So how are you able to build your dashboard and understand your reports? Last week, I shared with them the AI course that I registered to build reporting and for advancing finance structures,” she says.
The context of Relief’s leadership is also significant. Long before she joined Deloitte, Relief received a termination letter while she was on maternity leave. After that experience, she vowed to be deliberate about building an inclusive team. She is keen to model the ability to delegate effectively and deliver results under pressure.
“Everybody has to know what the other person does. Sometimes, I even reallocate work. So that if you are on leave, we do not start calling you to ask how something is done. When I go on leave, I hand over my stuff to my finance manager and I do not want them to call me. I know maybe there are issues of managerial perspective where you want assurance, but for the rest, you already know,” she says.
As technology reshapes how decisions are made, finance leaders are keen to become agile. For each of them, this means being intentional about keeping up with changes in global trends.
“The most exciting thing for me now is that journey of growth. I’m growing into the role and the role is transforming me. I’m equally excited to see where I’ll be in a year or two,” Japhet says.
