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'Accountancy is the global language of commerce'

'Accountancy is the global language of commerce'
By Moses Kuwema
Sun 23 Jan. 2011, 04:00 CAT

ACCOUNTANCY is the global language of commerce as it underpins economies the world over, says ACCA director for sub-Saharan Africa Jamil Ampomah.

Ampomah said this during the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Institute of Directors of Zambia (IoD) Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony on good governance at Southern Sun Hotel on Friday. Ampomah said professional accountants had a vital role to play in the development of the economy, business and society.

“The global economy relies on the high quality financial information and high quality audits that accountants provide,” Ampomah said. “Our profession does much more than number crunching; we challenge people and organisations, clients and colleagues, to think and act differently, to provide clarity and rigour to help create and sustain prosperity.”

He said the core to the future was the need to place finance at the heart of business and producing the accountants that businesses need to endorse the best practice in corporate governance.

Ampomah said there was need to provide high-quality, skilled accountants who understand the business environment and how organisations operate and could contribute to the running of efficient, effective and strong organisations.
Ampomah said the MoU was important because it would serve to develop the finance profession.

And IoD president Juule Simuule said corporate governance was a fundamental tool for any economic development of a country.

Simuule said the IoD always advocated for good corporate governance and accountants were good partners in this area.

“One of the most difficult challenges Zambia and the sub-region face is lack of good governance at both the political and economic levels. Whilst there are a number of institutions tackling political governance, for example governance secretariat at the Ministry of Justice and African Peer Review Mechanism, only the Institute of Directors of Zambia is currently tackling issues of economic and corporate governance in Zambia through training, capacity building and awareness campaigns,” Simuule said.

He said directors were expected to conduct themselves ethically to ensure the companies and organisations were properly managed and controlled in a transparent and accountable manner thus ensuring and preserving the interests of stakeholders.

Simuule said the activities of the Memorandum of Understanding would thus reach a wider audience because there were thousands of ACCA qualified accountants in every sector of the economy.

Labels: ACCA, ACCOUNTING

posted by MrK @ 3:19 PM