Bongi Ngoma, national head of audit (and previously CFO) of the Auditor-General of South Africa, has been named South Africa’s CFO of the Year at the 2021 CFO Awards.
The CFO of the Year was announced on Wednesday 17 November at the conclusion of the annual gala event for finance executives, held at the spectacular Polo Room at the Inanda Club in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Bongi was the big winner during the “Oscars for finance executives”, which celebrated its eighth edition this year. She walked away with three out of ten prizes, including the CFO of the Year, the Public Sector CFO of the Year and the Transformation & Empowerment Award. Notably, this is the first time a public sector CFO has taken the CFO of the Year title.
Bongi served as the CFO of the Auditor-General of South Africa for nine years, until she was appointed as the national head of audit in June 2021. She was instrumental in overseeing the execution of a strategy which was robust enough to see the Office of the Auditor-General through many challenging times. She implemented budget compliance and efficiency measures while also achieving a Level 1 B-BBEE score for two consecutive years. During her tenure as a CFO, Bongi focused on improving the AGSA’s relationship with various key stakeholders.
The Young CFO of the Year title was awarded to Sheldon Friedericksen, the CFO of Fedgroup. He is proud of the Fedgroup’s Impact Farming project, which he says has transformed the group into an ESG leader utilising a data-led structure. Sheldon was involved in transforming the traditional business operations to leverage the internal capabilities to deliver on the risk-sharing platform architecture, moving critical processes to 24/7 operations, which paid huge dividends last year.
Full list of CFO Awards 2021 winners:
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- CFO of the Year – Bongi Ngoma, previously the CFO and now the national head of audit at the Auditor-General of South Africa
- Young CFO of the Year – Sheldon Friedericksen, CFO, Fedgroup
- Public Sector CFO of the Year – Bongi Ngoma
- Strategy Execution Award – Bothwell Mazarura, CFO, Kumba Iron Ore
- Transformation & Empowerment Award – Bongi Ngoma
- High-Performance Team Award – Megan Pydigadu, group finance director, EOH
- Compliance & Governance Award – Alet Coetzee, CFO, Northam Platinum
- Finance Transformation Award – Glen Pearce, CFO, Sappi
- Moving into Africa Award – Lucas Verwey, group finance director, Distell
- Finance & Technology Award – Mark Kathan, CFO, AECI
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The annual CFO Awards are organised by CFO South Africa, the organisation that connects finance professionals through executive events, CFO Magazine, CFO.co.za and social media channels. By helping CFOs share knowledge, exchange interests and open up business opportunities, CFO South Africa proudly contributes to the growth of the country
