He is the Founder of Financial Insight and His Arrival on the Media Scene Changed Everything

Esther Nachula, Lusaka, 19 November 2025 — Mwelwa Chibesakunda reported ZESCO's performance to the Zambia’s energy regulator, Ministries of Finance, Energy and international organizations such as the World Bank and IMF every quarter for three years. He presented Turnaround Strategies, Risk Frameworks, and Performance Management Strategies—standard work for someone with a Manchester MBA and 17 years climbing ZESCO's executive ladder.

But in 2016, he discovered something that kept him awake: the Lusaka Securities Exchange had operated for 22 years with 20 companies controlling $9.8 billion in market value, yet Zambia had zero independent financial analysis. No one was telling investors what they were actually buying.

So he walked away to become what did not exist—a financial journalist who could build the analytical models himself. His computer science degree let him code the tools. His Bloomberg training gave him journalism standards. His years writing management papers for the Leadership Teams at the national power utility and the ministry responsible for energy taught him what rigorous analysis looks like.

The platform he built now serves close to 100,000 followers across nine digital channels, generating over 2.7 million impressions quarterly and reaching nearly 1.5 million people every three months. What started as a Zambian initiative has grown into a regional force, with Financial Insight establishing a presence across three markets—Zambia, South Africa, and Kenya. His internship program trains the next generation of analysts, creating the pipeline Zambia's capital markets needed. What began as one person reading annual reports has become the financial journalism infrastructure an entire country lacked.

Systems Builder to Strategic Thinker

Mr. Chibesakunda's technical foundation began in 2000 as a network engineer at CopperNET Solutions, building data infrastructure for banks and government institutions. His Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Copperbelt University gave him the ability to both build and use systems. At ZESCO, where he joined in 2005, he stabilised the company's Oracle-based payroll platform and trained over 500 technicians in the company’s ERP system functionality. He developed ZESCO's first management reporting dashboard in Excel, creating visibility into corporate performance that executives had never had.

His Masters in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town (2002-2004) gave him research methodology that would later shape his financial analysis approach. But by 2014, after a decade in technical administration, he enrolled in Alliance Manchester Business School's Global MBA program, completing it in 2017. The systemic thinking honed by computer science, coupled with the corporate strategy frameworks from his MBA, prepared him for strategic roles.

The Dual Career Begins

In June 2016, while still completing his MBA and working at ZESCO, his passion for writing led him on a path that saw him launch a blog on Zambia’s capital markets which would become the foundation of Financial Insight. The Lusaka Securities Exchange had operated since 1994 with billions in market value trading hands, yet there was no independent source of rigorous financial analysis. He started writing, analysing annual reports, building financial models. In July 2019, Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa selected him for their six-month Financial Journalism Training Program, formalising the self-taught analysis he'd been doing for three years.

By January 2017, he moved into ZESCO's Business Development unit as Principal Officer. He joined power purchase agreement negotiation teams worth hundreds of millions and authored strategic business plans for several of the Business Units of ZESCO. He wrote management papers on energy sector trends and audited energy tariff migration, recovering substantial revenue. The work gave him access to strategic planning most financial journalists never see—the real calculations of risk, return, and regulatory constraint behind corporate decisions.

Reporting to the World Bank

In October 2019, ZESCO promoted him to Chief Officer for Strategic Planning and Performance Management. He led a four-person team handling strategy development, risk management, and business research. The reporting structure revealed the weight of the role: quarterly reports to the Managing Director and Board of Directors, quarterly reports to the shareholder Industrial Development Corporation, and quarterly performance reports to the IMF and World Bank through the Ministry of Finance and Energy.

He developed ZESCO's Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, Strategy Risk Management Framework, 5-Year Turnaround Strategy, and 10-Year Rolling Strategy. He documented special strategic projects including power company acquisitions and power purchase agreement negotiations. Every management paper he wrote, every board presentation he delivered, every quarterly report he submitted taught him what financial journalists should be asking companies but rarely do.

Building Market Infrastructure

By the time he left ZESCO in August 2022, Financial Insight had transformed from side project to institutional infrastructure. He structured the company's internship program for graduating students in economics, business, finance, and law—creating the pipeline of trained analysts Zambia's capital markets needed. He developed the financial models his contributing authors use and built the analytical frameworks that turn annual reports into intelligence.

The company won competitive bids against established consultancies. When Nkana Water and Sewerage needed customer perception analysis, Financial Insight delivered. When the Airlines Association of Southern Africa needed aviation economics publications, they partnered with him. He grew the platform to over 50,000 followers and now supervises over 20 contributing authors.

In September 2022, he became Southern Africa Representative for GreenCrowd UK, a consultancy consortium developing power projects across the region, keeping him connected to the energy sector while scaling the journalism platform he built.

The Rare Combination

Financial Insight exists because Mr. Chibesakunda saw an infrastructure gap and had the rare combination of skills to fill it. His computer science background let him build the analytical models. His MBA gave him strategic frameworks. His executive experience taught him how companies actually function. His Bloomberg training taught him journalism standards. His years reporting to international financial institutions taught him what rigorous analysis looks like.

Most financial journalists lack the technical skills to build their own analytical tools. Most analysts lack the journalism training to communicate findings clearly. Most executives lack the incentive to leave comfortable positions for uncertain entrepreneurship. He had all three and made the uncommon choice.

He's 47 now, splitting time between Financial Insight and GreenCrowd UK advisory work. The career arc is unusual—technical administrator to corporate strategist to financial journalist to media entrepreneur. But the through-line is consistent: find what's missing, build it yourself, train others to use it.

The Lusaka Securities Exchange still has 22 listed companies commanding billions in market value. But now there's someone asking the right questions about what those numbers actually mean.