By Kefiloe Kajane
Local entrepreneur and finance graduate TKay Nthebe is the owner of TKO Consultancy, a company that provides financial literacy to young people and entrepreneurs physically and on digital media.
Nthebe says he has made financial mistakes himself when he started working, despite being a finance graduate; he knew he was not making those mistakes alone and he had to help other people like him too.
“Being a young professional who had just started a job at a commercial bank, I found myself in big financial trouble with credit cards, loans and many things, so I thought it is time to do better. It started with just a blog post and I realised that there are many people who could relate to my story.
“That is how I started TKO Consultancy which has another initiative under it called the ‘Lisente2Makholo’ Challenge. I knew that as young people we do not know much about budgeting and investing, so I made it my personal mission to educate people as much as I could.
“As TKO Consultancy, we focus more on educating young people about the importance of saving and having a relationship with money. What concerns us mostly as TKO Consultancy is that many people do not have a plan for their financial future, especially for when they retire. So we found it important that we should familiarize people with money, especially saving,” he explained.
Nthebe further explained that the ‘Lisente2Makholo Challenge, started in July 2019 when they started encouraging people to enter the challenge on social media and set goals on what they are saving for.
He said they would give people who had entered the challenge reminders on how far they are with their savings and by the time the challenge ended in January 2020, many people had saved and were very motivated.
He stated that, through their challenges and teaching people about money, they realised that many entrepreneurs and professionals lacked financial literacy. He said they have helped many of them who did not understand much about saving and investing.
“I believe that many people have a right to financial literacy so that they can make the right choices for their future. We would like to see TKO Consultancy helping and teaching many people across the country to understand their financial situation as we now only based in Maseru (physically) but through our social media channels we are able to reach masses.
“I would like young people to know that having a good relationship with money is important for their future. In the words of famous financial advisor Susan Orman, ‘if you want your money to take care of you, take care of it’. These are the words that resonate with TKO consultancy,’ Nthebe concluded.
