Tapera’s burning passion for taxation, entrepreneurship

Born and bred a country boy with passion for entrepreneurship burning inside him like the inside chamber of a steel furnace, Marvellous Tapera, is now the chief executive officer of the Matrix Group, a tax consultancy firm he founded.

The 53-year old Mr Tapera started his company driven by an unflinching passion to start his own business empire, despite the difficulties and challenges he faced before rising from a nonentity to a proprietor and business executive.

He was born in the rural Chivi, Masvingo Province , where he grew up herding cattle like any other ordinary boy.

Mr Tapera completed his O’ Levels studies 35 years ago, but although he achieved some good passes, the results were not as good as those of most of his classmates.

But that did not deter him from pursuing his studies in accountancy.

“I completed my O’ Level in 1987 but I did not do as well as some of these bright guys did.

So, I had to wait a little bit longer before I found a professional course to study. In 1993, I then enrolled for a National Certificate in Accountancy with Harare Polytechnic and in 1998, I graduated with a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accountancy.”

Mr Tapera singled out his former lecturer at college who taught him taxation as being the biggest factor in making him like the taxation module, having performed poorly in obtaining 13 percent on the module’s assignments.

Today, he boasts extensive knowledge in the field of taxation and accounting with a career spanning over 20 years, including intimate knowledge of Zimbabwean and international tax laws.

The now renowned tax expert has practical work taxation experience in the mining, insurance, telecommunication, manufacturing and agriculture sectors while he had various stints in many other sectors of the economy.

He has previously been engaged as a consultant by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, which enlisted his services for the crafting of the Insurance Tax Bill, which now awaits promulgation into law.

Having completed his studies, Mr Tapera worked for many companies including the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco), Ariston Holdings, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa), and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) in his capacity as an accountant and finance manager.

In 2008, he went to Tanzania and worked as a finance manager at one of the companies in that country before coming back home in 2012 where he joined Deloitte as a tax manager.

While at Deloitte, Mr Tapera started writing books on taxation while reading university and professional-level books on the subject. “When I started writing books on taxation, I liked the subject matter and I also saw a lot of gaps in terms of helping people who were failing in terms of managing taxes. They
failed because they didn’t understand taxation issues despite most of them having a responsibility and an obligation to remit tax to the Government and society to comply with the tax laws,” he said.

Having the opportunity to pursue his passion and dream Mr Tapera wrote six books on taxation law in Zimbabwe, a key resource meant especially for investors. The books cover essential information applicable to managing tax compliance in Zimbabwe.

Mr Tapera stressed his desire to assist other people, particularly in light of the fact that if these enterprises are eventually identified, some of them may be forced to close shop due to their failure to meet tax obligations.

He added that this became the opportunity for him to pursue his passion, which saw him quit Deloitte and Touche to form his Matrix Group in 2015 just from scratch. Mr Tapera got married in 1999 and his family has been very supportive since, especially during the difficult years after starting his business, when he needed them the most, including times when his family couldn’t even afford necessities like food.

In 2017 Mr Tapera was engaged by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to train the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority tax employees on taxation of specialised sectors (Mining, Insurance and Telecommunication sectors). “In 2018, we formed the sister company, Tax Matrix, a school focusing on taxation training, which involves a lot in terms of the types of training through seminars, training
professional students as well as hosting short course training,” he said.

In 2021, they formed Matrix Link, which focuses on indirect taxes relating to customs and exercises. The idea, Mr Tapera said, is forming a one-stop shop business for taxation. He also started a company in Zambia that deals in tax issues as well.

“Like any business, there are obviously challenges that arise from the environment itself, and the environment is difficult in terms of tax policies and government policies, such as the RBZ export retention threshold… and also the operating environment has been very challenging, it’s not an easy environment when you do business in Zimbabwe, but there are other positives, such as the environment improving progressively.”

He said he was grateful and happy to be in the taxation services sector.
Mr Tapera said they have been able to overcome obstacles because of their marketing approach, which involves communicating with clients, the Government, other legal players, and rivals, particularly on a number of programmes.

The company employs 20 people, which Mr Tapera said was a clear indication that they were keen to assist the nation. Through his hard work and commitment, Mr Tapera said he managed to attain an MBA (UZ), Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Institute of Certified Tax Accountants (ICTA) and Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (CIS) qualifications. He is a registered tax practitioner with the Public Accountancy and Auditors Board (PAAB).

“As an entrepreneur, you should be paid last, you should not mix your personal expenses with your business expenses, you need to know that you do not over-invest in yourself before you over-invest in your business.

Going forward, Mr Tapera said they are expecting to reach and operate in the whole region of Africa to be able to generate elusive foreign currency, especially for the country, which needs it for key imports, and to sustain a robust business.

-The Herald