From working full-time while studying at night to supporting her family as a young adult and ultimately realising a childhood dream on her own terms, Nafisa Kistan's journey to becoming CFO of Kia South Africa is a testament to perseverance, adaptability and the belief that career success is built through resilience rather than a perfect plan.
At 19, while most young people were experiencing university life, Nafisa Kistan was carrying the weight of an entire family's future.
Her father had taken early retirement, household finances had become strained and, as the eldest of three children, she knew someone had to step forward. That someone was her.
Every evening, after a full day processing accounting records at a small accounting firm, she would attend night classes at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and he was always there to pick her up no matter how late the class ended.
“My dad would take me to UKZN. He'd wait outside the lecture room while I attended classes. It was very humble days, but it was also very character building,” Nafisa recalls.
Those quiet journeys became symbols of sacrifice, determination and unwavering belief and today, she is the CFO of Kia South Africa, responsible for the financial stewardship of a business generating billions of rand in annual revenue. Yet, despite the impressive title, her story is less about climbing the corporate ladder than it is about refusing to let difficult circumstances define her future.
A dream born at ten years old
Growing up in Phoenix in Durban, Nafisa discovered her love for numbers long before she understood what finance really meant. Her father worked as a bookkeeper, and in the eyes of a ten-year-old girl, reconciling accounts felt like such a big and important task.
“I genuinely enjoyed learning from a very young age. When I was about ten, I decided I wanted to become a chartered accountant. I didn't really know exactly what it entailed, but it sounded big and important,” she says.
Academically, she excelled. She earned five distinctions in matric and enrolled for a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, expecting to follow the traditional path towards becoming a chartered accountant.
Life, however, had other plans. Her father’s retirement meant the family could no longer afford full-time studies. Rather than abandoning her ambitions, Nafisa adjusted them.
After completing her first year at university full time, she entered the workforce at just 19 years old, joining accounting firm PKF while continuing her degree through evening classes.
Her first salary amounted to approximately R3,000 per month - cost to company. It helped support not only her studies but her family as well. Looking back, she believes those difficult years became the foundation of everything that followed.
“When you’ve got to fight for something like your qualification, and you’re juggling a full day of work with evening classes, it builds a different form of resilience.”
Learning that success is rarely linear
Nafisa completed much of her degree while working, but found herself struggling to keep up with the workload. She passed three of the four majors and had to repeat one as a supplementary exam.
Instead of viewing the setback as failure, she accepted that her journey would simply look different. “I needed to be practical about what came next,” she says.
She accepted a role as a financial accountant before joining Toyota South Africa in 2009, beginning what would become an eight-and-a-half-year career with one of the world's most respected automotive manufacturers. The move also fulfilled another lifelong fascination.
As a teenager, she had occasionally worked during school holidays at a BMW dealership alongside a relative. Watching vehicles arrive sparked an enduring curiosity, not simply about driving cars, but about how they were engineered and manufactured. Toyota allowed her to satisfy both passions.
She moved through different divisions, gaining exposure to manufacturing, production planning, sales and marketing while learning the renowned Toyota production system and philosophy of continuous improvement.
“I got to walk through the paint plant, the chassis plant and the body shop. I loved understanding how vehicles were made,” she adds.
Finding her own professional identity
Although she never completely let go of her childhood dream of becoming a chartered accountant, Nafisa gradually realised another qualification aligned more naturally with the career she was building.
She pursued the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) qualification, discovering that its emphasis on operational finance, strategy and business performance closely matched her work inside manufacturing.
“Initially, I regarded it as an alternative. Eventually, it became a perfect fit. The syllabus became so enjoyable because I was living many of the concepts every day. Completing the qualification restored something I felt I had almost lost and when I achieved the CIMA qualification. I remembered who I was academically,” she says. The pragmatism of the studies also grew her commercial acumen significantly.
It also reinforced an important lesson that would define her leadership philosophy: careers are rarely built through perfect plans. Instead, they evolve through adaptability.
Choosing growth over comfort
After Toyota, Nafisa accepted a role with Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology. The transition exposed her to mining automation, digital transformation and international operations.
She travelled, gained experience acting in senior leadership positions and worked alongside executives from different parts of the world.
Rather than remaining within familiar territory, she deliberately chose opportunities that expanded her perspective.
“I wanted a helicopter view of an organisation and that willingness to keep learning became, what I would say, one of my defining characteristics,” she adds.
Whether working in automotive manufacturing, mining or steel, Nafisa consistently views every role as an opportunity to acquire skills that would become useful later. Even periods that felt uncomfortable ultimately strengthened her leadership.
However, one of the boldest decisions of her career came during the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
After taking time away from work to focus on completing her MBA at Henley Business School and supporting her young son through a challenging period, she returned to a dramatically different employment market.
Suddenly, highly experienced professionals were competing for fewer opportunities. Despite years of experience, she found herself starting over. She accepted a position as Regional Financial Manager within the Kia retail business, taking a salary reduction and stepping into an unfamiliar side of the automotive industry.
Many professionals might have viewed the move as a setback. Nafisa viewed it as another opportunity to learn.
“I'm getting back into automotive. Retail wasn't my forte, but it completed my understanding of the value chain.”
The decision proved transformational. Working directly with dealerships taught her to communicate financial concepts beyond finance professionals and develop practical operational leadership.
“It was operational risk management on the ground and not a heat map you update for a report. It makes you think faster. You're working with people who just want to sell cars, so you have to translate finance into operational language. It also grew my ability to be more decisive,” she adds.
A career-defining opportunity
After just two-and-a-half years in retail, another challenge emerged. While pregnant with her second child, an executive finance role became available. Like many ambitious women, Nafisa questioned whether she should even apply. Instead of allowing motherhood to limit her aspirations, she took the chance. Her employer responded with remarkable support.
"They told me, 'If you're the best candidate, we'll wait for you. So, I accepted the position, welcomed my daughter and returned from maternity leave to begin leading the retail finance function,” she says.
Less than two years later, another unexpected conversation changed everything. Kia South Africa's leadership approached her about becoming chief financial officer.
"I thought they were asking me to do another role. Then they told me I was going to become the CFO. I thought would it be career limiting to say I am enjoying Retail, but now it would cover importer finance, distribution and retail finance,” Nafisa explains.
Her appointment coincided with one of the most demanding periods of her career. The business was undergoing organisational change while simultaneously working to restore growth. Rather than inheriting stability, she inherited complexity.
And at exactly the same time, she was completing the demanding CIMA-to-CA conversion process she had begun simply because she wanted to fulfil the dream she had held since childhood. Those months tested every ounce of resilience she had built over two decades.
"It was probably the most trying time of my career, yet even amid the changes, examinations and immense responsibility, I refused to give up. I'd rather do something and fail than clock out before I've even showed up,” she says.
However, when she finally completed the conversion and achieved the chartered accountant designation she had dreamed about since she was ten years old, the achievement represented far more than another qualification.
"I had held a candle to that dream since I was 21. I didn't do it the traditional way, but I came back and closed that chapter."
Redefining work-life balance
Like many modern finance executives, she rejects the idea that work-life balance is a perfect equation. Instead, she speaks openly about seasons. The busiest months, from January through August, are dominated by budgeting, financial reporting (year end and audits) and forecasting.
"From January to August, we sprint and when things change commercially, it's forecasting on steroids,” she says.
However, during quieter periods, she deliberately embraces life's simplest pleasures and makes it a point to give herself some time to rest and treasures ordinary family routines.
"I'll sleep at a normal hour. It's such a privilege because when you're busy, you're pinching your sleep. What I'll do is make sure I cook every day, put the kids down and just enjoy going to bed at nine o'clock, but my evenings are carefully protected,” she adds.
Between six and eight o'clock, she focuses on family, helping with homework, cooking and spending time with her husband and children before returning to work later when deadlines demand it.
"There isn't a formula," she admits. "Sometimes something has to give. And yet I have also learned not to fight those seasons, instead, I embrace what I like to call "peace in acceptance". I chose this career. I get to do it, not have to do it. I love my discipline
Building leaders, not followers
Ask Nafisa about leadership, and she speaks less about authority than empowerment. Her natural style is collaborative. She prefers creating environments where people think independently rather than relying on constant direction.
"I don't want to be a micromanager. I believe leaders must balance commercial realities with genuine empathy. But, having led difficult organisational changes, I understand that business decisions affect real people and families. You go home and you feel that. You're human."
At the same time, she recognises the broader responsibility leaders carry. Protecting the long-term sustainability of an organisation ultimately protects employees, shareholders and communities alike.
Today, Kia South Africa has moved beyond stabilisation into a period of growth, launching new products and strengthening its position within an increasingly competitive automotive market.
For Nafisa, however, success is measured by financial performance and more. It is measured by the people she encourages and grows along the way. She regularly tells young professionals not to abandon ambitions simply because life interrupted them.
"If you have a dream, keep your candle burning. Life gives you periods where things are really rough, and then it gives you periods where you can take on more,” she says.
Her own journey proves exactly that. The young woman who once spent her days working, her evenings studying and her nights wondering whether she could ever realise her ambitions now sit at the executive table of one of South Africa's leading automotive companies.
Not because the road was easy. Not because everything went according to plan. But because she never stopped showing up.
For aspiring finance leaders, and especially young women wondering whether family responsibilities, setbacks or career detours have placed their dreams out of reach, Nafisa’s story offers a powerful reminder.
"Don't give up. You'll encounter hurdles. You'll encounter curveballs. Keep trying. Hold onto what you dream about, because where you keep putting in the effort, eventually you'll get there,” she says.
