Accountant follows her fashion dream

Accountant follows her fashion dream

Lusaka “IT’S high time women realised their potential to define and shape their destiny. They should not allow anyone to trample on them and make them objects of shame. Women will be amazed to discover that the power to shape their destiny is in their hands.”

So says Chisoma Lombe, a former finance director at Action Aid International Zambia who has taken up fashion designing.

Ms Lombe believes that women are capable of excelling if they are able to identify their strengths and weaknesses in things they do.

“If someone thinks that working for a reputable organisation makes them happy and fulfils their desires to be happy, then let it be. But my emphasis is for people to follow their dreams and put in their best to achieve such dreams,” she says.

Ms Lombe, who does not regret resigning from Action Aid to pursue her passion in fashion and designing, advises women and young girls to not be lured in careers which they are not passionate about.

“Besides, when a person wants to pursue a certain career, they should not think of money or how much profit they will earn when they embark on that journey; money should be the last thing on their minds. Let money pursue us and not us pursuing the money, otherwise we stumble and fall,” she says.

Ms Lombe worked in various positions in different companies before resigning and setting up her own creative and fashion designing company in Lusaka.

She says she did not have peace of mind while in employment as she had a convincing thought that she ccould do better as a fashion designer.

But before venturing into that, she just used to design furniture and slippers. In November 2013, she bought a sewing machine. She started with two workers and month later her business boomed and she employed two more workers.

Today, Ms Lombe is a fashion designer in Lusaka, but her dream is to establish herself as an international designer and travel worldwide to compete on the international market.

Ms Lombe hails from Mufulira on the Copperbelt and was born into a humble Catholic family from Lewis and Mwila Lombe (both deceased) as a fourth child in a family of seven and was determined to excel in her education. Her dream was to become an architect.

“I love doing things which are challenging and especially that architecture is believed to be a maledominated career, I thought I should do it. But things did not go as planned as I ended up becoming a chartered accountant,” she says.


She did her primary education from 1982 to 1989 at Mufulira Trust School and then moved to Ibenga Girls Convent School in Luanshya from 1991 to 1995.

After passing grade 12, Ms Lombe was among few selected students to pursue a degree in electrical

engineering at the Copperbelt University (CBU) in Kitwe in 2005.

“As I mentioned earlier, my passion was to be an architect, but things could not go as I wanted, so after two years, I left CBU and went to ZAMIM Chilanga campus to study Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in 2007 for one year and six months,” she said.

While pursuing her career in ACCA, Ms Lombe worked at SNV Netherlands Development Organisation as acting country controller.

Some of her duties entailed the management of the country audits for five provincial SNV offices as well as heading the administration department.

She later moved to Grant Thornton Associates as a liquidation officer.

“As a result of good performance, I was seconded to continue working on the liquidations of ZIMCO Ltd and its subsidiaries when Grant Thornton took over from Paragon Consulting. I worked in the Corporate Recovery Department as part of the liquidation team to work on the winding up of Zambia’s biggest liquidation under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance,” she said.

Between 2011 and 2014, Ms Lombe worked as finance director at Action Aid International Zambia.

Despite her commitment to her work, Ms Lombe devotes some time to having fun. Her hobbies include

listening to music, public speaking, travelling and playing basketball.

She is a mother of two girls (Kasano, 13 and Chipampa Kasolo, 11), who are both at Banani International School in grade eight and six respectively.

“I am happily engaged to a wonderful man and soon to be married. I divorced my first husband sometime back and I have moved on in life. Women should not think that divorce is the end of the world because it is not over until God says so,” she smiled.

She is a devoted member of the Love and Mercy Pentecostal Church in Lusaka and as a prayerful woman, she believes that God answers prayer in His own way at the right time.

“I want to mention that I have been in two different worlds, that of being married and divorced. And I understand the pain women go through when they are disappointed by people they love. I counsel married couples and my advice for the married, single and divorced is to seek God in all situations and not to lean on our own understandings,” she said.

Ms Lombe says she is ready to partner with any organisation as a motivational speaker for young girls, especially those in school. She believes young girls need mentoring to help them to shun practices that may hinder them from fulfilling their dreams.

Read More:http://www.marieprom.co.uk/prom-dresses-2014-2015