Career Growth with Salifu Bah - Part 1

Speaker A: Welcome to another exciting episode of the future CFO podcast where we dive into leadership, career management and the latest trends shaping the future of finance. This podcast is brought to you by futurecfo.info, your go to platform for practical finance and CPD courses. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and share this episode with your network.

Speaker B: Today we have a gentleman, a friend, a brother, a partner and a young Gambian accountant. Welcome Mr. M. Salif Ubar Salif is a chartered accountant. He has previously worked in Deloitte. He worked in Ecobank and Access Bank. Presently serve uh as the finance director at the Gambia Petroleum Commission. An award winning cfo, one of the tax experts in the Gambia. Let's meet m uh with Salifu. A very long conversation and hence we had to divide this session into three different clips. For those of you who are watching from the YouTube there are three different clips. But let's go and meet with Salifu and enjoy the conversation. Hi Mr. Salifuba, welcome to the feature CFO uh podcast.

Speaker C: Thank you.

Speaker B: To start with um, I'm sure a lot of people listening uh to this program or watching it, whichever platform would have known uh your name because anytime we talk about the future uh CFO platform or an institute, you are one of the co founders. But today we want to discuss about your career path, career growth from your own experience and your own advice. But before we begin I think it would be important you tell us what has been your story, what inspired you for you to take on a um career in finance and accounting.

Speaker C: Thank you very much Mr. M. Sawane and thank you for having me um on this platform. The future cfo and I think reflecting back my journey as a professional accountant started the village if I can put it, I'm a village boy like you as it is called, You know from um A lot of people would know but again my mom is from Kirmama. It's good to put that, that context. So on both fronts I'm um, um from the provinces and interestingly in my career I would say my dad was the first um person to be or to go into conventional school from our village. So that could tell pretty much a story. And the second person um, pretty much enrolled into school because he was taking my dad to school. Um, you know we are not far from Alberta if you know where James island is, it's just couple of kilometers from from there. So that's where you know that's where the journey started. But my career, I can link it to my Village life in the sense that my grandfather was the alcalo at the time. And if you know how alcalos are, there are a lot of people, when they come to the village, they have to interact with the alcalo. And um, sometimes my grandfather actually used to take me to this alcalos events. And if things happens at a very early age, I will have to write in English or read certain things and relate to him because I was the youngest among the people there. And I think, yeah, and I was the one going to school my, myself and my siblings. So, you know, and secondly, funnily, maybe a lot of people wouldn't know because those days at the village setting, there are people that they will appoint to be selling medicine, pral, um, aspirin, those things. So my grandfather will give me the bicycle and I will go around villages and sell. So when I come, I have to account for it and you know how it is. So at the time I didn't know that this is accounting. That's the, that's the truth. But now reflecting back, I think my journey, um, you know, is coming from, from there, but moving fast forward. After completing my high school, which I've dropped out two times, I think, you know, after, when I completed my grade six to grade seven, you know, I, I, I, I dropped out, um, for certain reasons. And I enrolled to some extent to be a carpenter actually. So you see my hand here, I have a scarf. So somehow, so all those things actually saved me. But fast forward when I completed my grade 12, like any other person, I wanted to travel. And one of my uncles, you know, the youngest in my mom's side, actually came back from the UK at the time then, you know, we were trying to see what is possible to travel, which couldn't be. But again, he was trying to look for a business for me in the market. You know how foolas are when you say about business. So luckily I met, he took me to this guy called Omar Rale. It's good to put context to these people, um, to look at my results. After looking at my results, he said, you know what, why not you do Cat. At the time I didn't know much about university because I think it's only my father who is educated. My mom is not conventionally. But again, because he was away, uh, for a long time, we didn't have that, you know, educational bonding as to guiding you towards, towards that process. And I'm not the only son. You have a lot of sons within the family, so you are not the only priority. At the time and with Omar, he said, you know what you can do card.

Speaker D: But moving backward.

Speaker C: Ah, when I was in high school

Speaker D: I used to teach my colleagues accounting as well.

Speaker C: Um, I, because I finished from say Moscow. We used to have people from Gambia

Speaker D: High School that will come to, to the school and we will exchange. So I can remember one of them will help me with economics, then I will help you with accounting. So after, when Omar M. Saw my

Speaker C: results, he basically said, you know what? Omar um, was then working with Deloitte, has not completed his card I think at the time. And he said this is in 2009. And he said, saliva, why not? You can enroll and do the car, you know. And I think that's where the journey began. Then I later moved in. I know we will discuss the rest as, as we move on. But my career, I think there are a lot of things that saved me through that process, process journey of being an accountant.

Speaker D: But to set the record straight, I

Speaker C: never knew that I will be an

Speaker D: accountant, um, during my school days or in my early days. Today here I am with my ACCA

Speaker C: and with my um, masters and so forth, maybe working in the petroleum sector.

Speaker D: From private Deloitte and now to the um, public sector.

Speaker B: I was just listening and watching uh, if um, some extent you are telling me my own uh, story. So I was going to wait at a point where the stories are going be a part and um, interestingly like you said, uh, all of us comes from the village and I mean there are many more of that in the, in the Gambia. Uh, I had dropped out of school twice. You had drop out. Uh, I wanted to be a carpenter before you also had that uh, experience. So I think where the differences uh, came from was on that 2009, 2009 is uh, you probably enrolled into CAT. That was when I became a member of ACCA. So I could see came in. But it's always uh, interesting to know because these are our stories. If we don't go a, ah, deeper into our story to understand why we follow certain parts, we are not able to advise young people being our own younger brothers and sisters or our own children. They have to understand why we decide to do certain things. When I'm talking to children, I always tell them I didn't ever plan to be an accountant or a cfo. I always be a teacher. I want to teach people. I want to see our knowledge. So sometimes you're in certain circumstances because that's the part you felt will probably help you to uh, improve on other parts of Your life, like in my own case, was issue of money. So you talk about the fact that now you have your acca, now you have your masters and many, uh, other, uh, programs that you have followed. Let's talk about the ACCA a bit because it's a common thing in the gam. Um, globally, is very well recognized and all of us, many of us have pursued the same program. But we know, uh, completing ACCA is a tough one. And I know because I'm, um, I'm close to you when you are on this journey. I know you had challenge in passing some of these, uh, exams. You had, um, probably attempted some of the papers, probably maybe two times or three times. But you, you know the true story, um, people had the same challenges. I also know people in the country who had repeated some papers three or four times and they just stopped. So today they are. Because there is nothing like acca part qualified. I hear those things. But acc, you only qualify or you're not qualified.

Speaker C: Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker B: So today they're not qualified and they have another program, uh, they can talk about your own journey. What was the motivation that kept you to continue even, uh, multiple attempt and until the point you finally pass your exams and you became member? Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, interesting. I think ACCA defined me as a person in the sense that I think my first or most of my deepest failures or setbacks, I don't even call them failures, but setbacks in life was during my ACCA program. And it teaches me a lot of things. But one of the most, um, you know, out, you know, highlight, or I

Speaker D: would put it, the highlights of my ACCA journey. It teaches me to be humble.

Speaker C: Humble in the sense that I started my career with colleagues and friends at the time and I, you know, did self studies, Descartes at the time, people

Speaker D: were attending lectures and so forth. So at this point I would even like to recognize Mr. Toka, um, Martin

Speaker C: Talker, you know, because when I started my card then you had MDI and

Speaker D: um, Grace who were doing it.

Speaker C: So I went to Mr. Tucker who at the time, I had some financial

Speaker D: difficulties, who offered me to say, oh, you can do the card for free. The force papers, through the support of Chairman Charm at the time he was doing acca. I, I like mentioning names for people to know that, yeah, you know, as part of your journey, there are people that have contributed in one way or the other.

Speaker B: That's important.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker D: And you know, when I was introduced to Mr. Tucker, um, at the time, he said, you know, you can come in and you can Pay whatever you you can do. I have to go back to the

Speaker C: village as a fuller.

Speaker D: My mom have to sell some cows and you know, give me to. To pay my school fees. At the time it was draft that they will send to the banks. It's good for people to know because now people pay through maybe bank transfers or even electronic with cuts. But when we were doing the cut it was um, a draft. But the setback on acca. Okay, I passed all my cards first attempt within one year. Six months at the time. Because it's six, six, six months. I pass all my papers, you know, you exempted in the second level. First level went to the second level. I did p. T. Um, f4, f6 which was tax 7 which was financial reporting. So I did f9 to f9 which was financial management. Then the management accounting which was the F5.

Speaker C: My first setback.

Speaker D: At the time I had already started my Deloitte career. Anyway, that's. We will have to have a conversation on that. My first failure, I was working under Mr. M. Lam data and M. You

Speaker C: know what was funny is that was my first setback.

Speaker D: I never knew that. This is how it can be difficult. I almost, almost quit because I spent the way I used to study is this immediately. I finish exams, I don't wait for results. I jump straight to the next paper. You know, you don't have a life, you're working full time. A young man. And at the time I actually left the family house. Now I was living alone just to make sure that I study very close to Deloitte. Living in Kololi. If you know those days, how Kololi was. I used to live there with my family. But at the time my family had moved to Josewang. So I moved back to Kololi. And um, if we say Colori, everybody knows how it is with the fanfare of Senegambia and all that. But I was not drawn into that. I was closer to Deloitte. I have friends like Suleiman who were working in Deloitte um at the time. Malik Dem. Now you know all these people doing great things in their own own, you know, space finance. But this failure. I can remember the. When Mr. Jata told me Salifu, this is normal. And I sat with him, I think for about 20, 30 minutes. And he was canceling me. But looking back, I said, having to pass my previous exam without failing. What about the people who were failing? Am I more intelligent than them? No. Am I, you know, better than them? No. What I need to do is to do a self reflection. Why did I fail? Yes. At the time there were not many materials as now where you just. Then you have BBP at uh. BPP and I think and Kaplan that you have. Yeah, Kaplan that you have to use. And you know, with the support of my friends, study groups, close friends. Then it's, you know, it helps me to refocus and receive myself, you know. Then I swiftly moved to the part two. Completed it with one failure, then went to part three. Pass P1, P2, P3. Then I went to the optional failure hits me again, Ibrahima. But then luckily I think my first I started with tax. Today I will maybe make a lot of people don't know this. Uh, people will call me. Yes, you understand Tax. But I did not complete my acca with tax. I failed tax three or four times, I think. Yes. Then I said, you know what? I cannot continue failing. And I couldn't know what was the reason. Because I would study with colleagues. I will be lecturing colleagues on tax. But Exam day comes 49, 48, 46. So this is how it was working. So I said, you know what? I like financial management.

Speaker B: And um.

Speaker D: This have some things to do with my career later as well, which we'll go into this course. So I went for. For P4 at the time. Yeah. Advanced Financial Management. First attempt 79. Second attempt 79. Now I was confused again what to do.

Speaker B: Uh. 49. 49.

Speaker D: 49. Yeah. 49. 49. So I said you know what? This will be my last chance. But at the time I had already had my. I was married, I have my first child then I. In fact my last exam, my wife was on, um. How do you call this?

Speaker B: Um.

Speaker D: She was expecting this in. In fact I was just from the hospital after her delivery. Then the next day I went to. To exam.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: To do my exam. So as I was going to the exam, I had to go bear the hospital check. Check my. My daughter and you know, moved into the exams.

Speaker B: I was gonna say is it is a girl? Because they say exactly.

Speaker D: It's a. You know, when all this tradition people don't. Okay, I don't want to say I believe it that much. But when she delivered subconsciously it hit my mind and said. And I was not studying that much as I used to do. But I said faith is there. Let me just go. And there it was. Because even one of my papers as well when the boy was um. When she was delivering the boy then she was not in the countries. Um, on my way to the. To the Exam hall, I think she called me that she's going for to the label as well as one of my exams. So. But interestingly, this was my ACCA journey. But the highlight is it keeps me to be. To be humble that some of these failures or some of these setbacks that I call them, they redefine you as an individual to know that you are not an island. But again, there are things that you've. You've missing. And the other thing I think that helped me, which I have to mention today, is I think around that time you've already released your first book, which was ten, um, professional. Something I forget now. The. Yeah, I think we just use it past. So I religiously read that book, I think more than three or four times religiously to understand the steps that. Because not many people were fortunate or were privileged to have what you have or what you had, which was to us, force time. Um, because I had Cherno again, which I mentioned was very inspirational at the time. Me, because he only failed once, which was F your P4. I can vividly remember those things. But again, it just teaches me that as an individual, if you are into something, go into it 100%. Um, I can remember those days. I don't go in family functions. Most of my family members, external family members, did not know who I was at the time. And to a point, one of my family members, we met at what gathering? And she said, salifo, I did not know you. And I. I was really sad because this is someone that is my cousin, like close cousin, first cousin, as they call it. And I went to my uncle and said. She said, salifu, it's because you are into this path. The day that you complete this, everyone will know you. So please be onto what you are doing. And I think now, reflecting back again, all these support systems, all this humbleness that it brings to me now, I don't see failure in anything that I do. Whatever I see, I did not achieve. I take it as a setback, go back again, repeat what, check what I could have done better. And, um, that's it.

Speaker C: The next thing is, if you had

Speaker D: asked me 10 years ago whether you would be a chartered accountant, I'd say no. You'll have your masters and graduate. I'll say no. You'll be a cfo.

Speaker C: I'll say no.

Speaker D: You will work in banking. I'll say no. Even working in public sector, I'll say no. But here I am. That's what destiny is. But again, I prepared for the opportunities and those setbacks that I faced, because I'll not call them failures, definitely saved me as an individual. And um, even today how I relate with people.

Speaker B: Yeah, indeed, uh, very powerful. And uh, like you clearly said, those examination failures are uh, pretty much a simple, uh, setbacks. Uh, the true failure comes in when you withdraw from the program because you fail to pursue your dream, your goal. That's when you can uh, extend to some extent, make yourself close to uh, a failure as far as that program is concerned. But that persistent, uh, is very important. Uh, like they said, it is not the goal. You change, you can change your paths. And I think I like that example of you giving opportunity on the taxation where you wanted to become a chartered accountant, but you failed tax, uh, three times. You decided to say, okay, there is a better way for you to still be a charter accountant, take another course. And again, in my own story, I was deliberate when I was speaking my papers. I, I love tax. I did tax, I did advanced financial, uh, management. Those are the two courses I did on my advanced, uh, uh, papers. What Auditing was not something I was interested. I know a lot of my colleagues, they are saying do audit, but I say I don't want to do audit. It's not something I'm interested in. Now after acc, I know you've also, you did your masters and you have done many other program. But one thing I observed, and this is not only for accountants, uh, many people finish program whether it's their bachelor's degree or their master's program. And maybe they, they feel like they are okay. They, whether you say, I wouldn't say they say they think they know it all. But the fact that they get certification, whether it's being accounting acca, you don't see them pursuing other programs to upgrade themselves. So we know this is essential. But my question to you, how do you pick your interest on what programs you are going to study? In other words, after acca, you did all these short program masters, maybe certificate in here and there. How do you select, um, them especially in tune to your career growth. Since we are talking about career growth.

Speaker D: Yeah, interesting. And I think this is what a lot of chartered accountants fail to do. Um, after completing that, you believe that your ACCA alone is enough or your masters alone is enough. But again, if you go to the job, you hardly do 50% of what you have learned on textbook. That's obvious. Maybe 50% in fact is on the high side on what you learn on acc. Yet it guides you, especially if you are in Gambia. Yes, exactly.

Speaker C: Especially when you are in Gambia.

Speaker D: Maybe in Gambia it's less than 15 or 20% of what you have learned. So I think one of the things

Speaker C: that guides me one is I always

Speaker D: try to be relevant. What I try to do is first is to look at my job, um, description, my place of work, how do I put myself relevant. If you ask me today, for instance, which is the most current one, what I try to do is communication is something that I am very passionate about because I work in the public sector. But again data, because I work with maybe very one qualitative data. Not quantitative a lot, but qualitative data. How can I analyze, make stories out of this qualitative data that I'm doing? So there are a lot of sites that I go to. Sometimes I have conversation with you, but sometimes I go to Coursera. There are courses there on um, data analytics, but data presentation as well. Both qualitative and quantitative data courses are there. You have Harvard, they're offering sometimes free courses, sometimes you pay. I, I go on those, those courses. Um, very intentional one of them you which you have helped as well. I used to participate to some extent on the Toastmasters. You may not know, but when you were in Nigeria it helped a lot increase my confidence of communicating because um, you know, at this stage you don't expect me to deal a lot with numbers but analyze them and present them. And that presentation in terms of telling the story, I need to understand how it relates to. Just couple of days ago I enrolled on Table Source as well where you just put in a spreadsheet, it analyzes the data for you, make stories for you on the data and these are uh, all tools that AI is helping you to do. So I think I always try to look at what makes me relevant, but more so what I am passionate about, especially when it comes to data and data interpretation. Because with my current role, like I said, my stakeholders all, what they need is how clear can you make this information to them. But more so how can we analyze the data and present it to the public for them to understand exactly what we are doing for them in terms of accountability and so forth. So I think relevance is one thing that guides on the things that I do. Not the technical accounting anymore, not the finance anymore. But I look at my current job role which is different when I was at the NPC where I had to look at doing more of Excel, doing visualization to some extent with Power bi, um, because that was what was relevant at the time for me. And those skills were ah, very helpful today. But again if you want to stay relevant in your job place, these are things that you have to look at what is needed to increase productivity in your work space, what is needed and that is not being done by other people but can bring something different. And you don't need to sit and wait for people to tell you just be inquisitive. You know, relate with people that are maybe different environments, different countries. It helps me personally, I relate with you, I relate with soa, I relate with um, Suleiman, I relate with people that are into consulting. I relate with anyone. And anytime that I have a conversation I try to look at inward. How can I use that conversation to improve myself? But I do more of listening to some extent from people just to learn um, from them. Because um, from this book that I'm currently in fact reading, which is um, things that you don't like it have at, you know, this is what I'm learning. Listen more, listen more. And you came to learn more by listening. And it's really saving me a uh, lot or helping me in designing what, you know, all the things that I do. And this I'm very intentional on that. On daily basis I said I must have to read something sometimes. It doesn't necessarily mean need to be finance related, but unknowingly it could one day help you in your job or things that you do. And you know, you never know where you see yourself in the world, even chipping in conversation. Because sometimes people you know believe in you or get into you, not because you are technically good in accounting, but how can you relate other stories and bring them to your profession. That is very important how vast you are. And I think um, that is what relevance, like I said, is one of the things that is guiding my um, you know, furtherance of education or any technical skills that I may need. And for me this is a continuous thing is never ending. Every day, anytime, any minute that you have spend it on, on that being it conventional books even being in the Quran. Sometimes there are things that not sometimes in fact anytime that you read it, there is a way, there is something that you can relate to it either with your work or what you do. So I think reading being intentional about it is really helping me on that I'm staying relevant.

Speaker B: Yeah, great, great. I mean the. In, in summary, yeah, you spoke about the relevance and for want to look into that. You have to know your job, you have to see how do you add value. And if I summarize all of this to some essay, it's more like a career plan. That you put in place.

Speaker D: I am here.

Speaker B: How do I add more value that can give you opportunity to grow? You don't get super focused on the growth itself. Uh, if you create value you will see that this growth will come a longer. Of course you have to be intentional around it and learn most relevant things. Today we are in the time of AI. You have to understand what AI can do to support your growth. It was those who understand Excel alone in Those days, probably 10, 15 years ago they were able to grow um, Excel plus AI with some other analytical tools like Power, BI, Python and the rest. That is very, very important. And you talk about something on communication. This is something that is quite many times missing from Media Accountant because even in our programs that we do, whether it's at university or our uh, ACCA programs, communication is given to us as ah, an important skills. But I don't think we were uh, taught enough how to communicate because a very difficult thing is wanting to tell you you have to do a good presentation. But it's a different thing for you to do a real communication. And this requires training, this requires more practical uh, training. You gave many, many programs uh, or platform which you've learned course on the Harvard Business School. You talk about all those things. And of course uh, our own newly founded feature CFO platform now started having similar trainings. We don't intend to compete with uh, Harvard for now, but we believe we'll make our own impact giving those uh, practical knowledge to young people at a more reasonable low cost. I know you, you are uh, involved in tax now when I looked at the matter of career transition, I think you are one of those guys who we can give a classical example of career transition. You started I think at some point in time, if I recall uh, with a travel agent for, for a short period or so. If I recall you probably travel agent

Speaker D: then travel agent, an airline actually.

Speaker B: Airline. Okay. So I know there was something saying in the hospital. So all the way to Deloitte you do taxation, went into banking and finance, then you move into uh, what I call state enterprises as ah, in GNPC that one may not probably call a pure public sector because GNP is supposed to be a company. Gnpc, you now work in government, now you are working in government, central government as a regulator. This is a bit of a transition and I know many young people reach out to us in one way or the other. They want to transition from one job to another, from one function to another. How were you able to put this thing, what was the story because it was, for me, a successful transition where you are growing. What's the story around your transition that make it more successful like this?