A young businessman has perfected the art of infusing contentious tax compliance with financial education so much that his colleagues envy his expertise.
Mikel Moyo, 26, exploited his skillset by employing it as a springboard to entrepreneurship, and in the process carving out a niche for himself in the industry.
He is managing partner at Mphato and Associates, a 100 percent black-owned tax consultancy firm headquartered at Sandton in Johannesburg.
He describes himself as an entrepreneur, financial planner, tax practitioner and a public speaker on finance.
“I’m a big believer of financial literacy because I just feel that in this country we don’t really know money, you know what I mean?” he says, during an interview with Business Report.
Moyo graduated with a BCom honours degree in financial planning from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in 2014. He says getting into the industry started as a hobby to him as he used to assist his godfather Abram Mphato run the tax consultancy firm.
After graduating he joined JSE-listed financial services group Liberty, where he worked as a financial planner.
“I left in 2016 to join Mphato and Associates. That’s how the merger between financial advice and tax compliance came about,” he explains.
Moyo is currently studying towards a qualification as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) through the US-based CFA Institute.
He was thrust into the spotlight during his student days at UJ for his blog and social media videos on financial planning.
In 2015, a monthly US business magazine, Fast Company, took notice of what Moyo stood for and listed him as one of the Top 20 Under 25 Disruptive Entrepreneurs of South Africa.
“I’m involved in the running of the business 100 percent – on a daily basis! The company is doing very well and has been realising growth year-on-year,” he says.
In partnership with the Black Management Forum, Moyo says he would be visiting the forum’s student chapters in universities across the country until September.
“I see myself as an entrepreneur because I’m that someone who will work 100 hours in a week in my own business, as opposed to working 40 hours a week for someone else, ” Moyo declares.
