Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
THE Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has called on all Zimbabweans and organisations to embrace Government’s Vision 2030 and play their part to ensure attainment of a middle-income status in the next 12 years.
Speaking during a 2019 ACCA convention, which ended here Tuesday, country head Mr Takesure Famba said accountants must rise to the occasion and use their expertise to impact positively on the economy.
“There have been major policy shifts that Government has taken like S.I. 142 where we dollarised.
As a body we support Government’s vision for an upper middle class economy and what is required now is to put the modalities and get everybody on board so we succeed as a country,” he said.
The need to embrace technology and safeguarding data services dominated discussion among delegates.
Both private and public accountants were agreed that adopting the “internet of things” was the way to go and that the accounting profession can also play a part in helping the country achieve its vision for an upper middle income economy by 2030.
“The digital drive continues to disrupt the way we do business and we are always pro-active to ensure that we react to what we forecast as major shifts affecting economies,” said Mr Famba.
“We are changing the way we do things in accounting and finance, moving from the numbers culture to being business people who will be able to utilise technology including robots and future intelligence.
Professionals should be able to use artificial intelligence and robots in doing routine jobs.”
Cyber security expert, Dr Whisper Rukanda, from MorniPac International and Digital Forensics said virtual security was critical at a time when business was moving to operate on the virtual platform.
“This is about embracing business development. As businesses move to the cyber platform, they must always make sure they have the right security levels for big data, which has become the most important asset worldwide as we move onto the global village,” he said.
“Zimbabweans are embracing the virtual sphere but we need to ensure security encryption that is standard to avoid hacking and fishing. Organisations, thus need to start doing cyber insurance so that this data is safe and minimise cyber crime.”
Tax expert, Mr Marvelous Tapera, challenged accountants to understand Government policies so as to appreciate transitional and double taxation issues arising from the same laws.
He said some of the policies will bring distortions in the keeping of records and tax clearances hence the need for accountants to embrace change and technology.
ACCA is a global body headquartered in London with 219 000 certified members from 105 countries.
The theme for the conference was: “See the big picture: Embrace the digital time”.
It sought to reinforce the impact of technology on the accounting profession. — @ncubeleon.
Online Reporter