Accountants fire up for oil sector

THE ASSOCIATION of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) Ghana has indicated it is equipping its members to competently manage the financial records of the country's new-born oil sector.

Kwame Antwi Boasiako, Immediate Past President of ACCA (Ghana), who spoke to CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE in an interview in Accra after a meeting with aspiring members of the association, said the exercise is necessary to entrench the capacity of its members and dissipate any intention of oil companies to recruit foreign practitioners.  

Mr Boasiako, who is also a Financial Director at the Central University College, continued that local accounting professionals are undergoing continuous professional development seminars (CPDS) in various parts of the country especially in the mining and oil catchment areas.

“On some occasions we have had to invite resource persons from Nigeria to come and impart knowledge to us with their vast experience in the oil business.”

He therefore encouraged members of the association to engage in learning modern international reporting standards on the field.

Presently, he said, there are not many certified chartered accountants in the country as a result of the expensive cost of training as well as training requirements. ACCA Ghana has a full membership of 800 with 300 affiliates.

As a result of the foregoing, the Immediate Past President called on corporate organisations to assist their accounting personnel with some resources to upgrade themselves.

He noted further that educational accounting training institutions are limited and coupled with the heavy expenses required of aspiring accountants before becoming chartered professionals, most of them give up, hence the inadequate number of chartered accountants.

However, a lot of professional accountants are also making their way into the public sector.

Gifty Ofori, Country Manager of ACCA Ghana, in a remark, said the association is ready to accept as many accounting practitioners who want to update themselves, adding, the association would not deliberately turn away any practitioner who duly passes all their examinations.

Every year, ACCA Ghana churns out about one hundred affiliates.

By Samuel Boadi