Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
ACCOUNTING professionals have been challenged to embrace technology to fully contribute to their personal and national economic development.
Experts in the field from across Africa are meeting in Victoria Falls for a week-long conference to discuss about the sector and how it can contribute towards national development in respective countries as well as help in fighting corruption, terrorism and money laundering.
The Zimbabwean Professional Accountancy Organisations (PAOs) namely Southern African Association of Accountants (SAAA), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ), Institute of Administration and Commerce (IAC), Certified Public Accountants Zimbabwe (CPAZ), and Chartered Governance and Accountancy Institute in Zimbabwe (CGIZ) are hosting the event, which will culminate in an annual general meeting, in partnership with the Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA).
This is the first time Zimbabwe is hosting such a regional event. PAFA is the regional organisation for the accountancy profession in Africa with 56 member organisations in 45 countries including Zimbabwe represented by the PAOs.
PAFA envisages to ensure sustainable value creation to benefit citizens of Africa and strengthen the capacity and influence of the accountancy profession to enhance trade, the quality of services and trust in institutions. PAFA president Mr Cosme Goundete said accountancy profession is key to economic development in any country.
“A country that does not have competent accountants cannot bring about good economic development. The accountancy sector helps prosper firms, enterprises, non-governmental organisations and are key to national development in a country,” he said.
Mr Goundete said ethical accountancy helps create trust in all organisations.
“It’s a profession that is based on competence, ethics and independence and people should benefit from our activities.
Discussions have been on governance, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering and sustainability of our institution.
“We are there for the general public and public and private offices and our main mission is to create value and to make sure this benefits everyone. So in short we are saying those in public offices and managing administration in state institutions should do quality jobs that benefit all,” he said.
This dovetails well with the Second Republic’s policy of leaving no-one and no place behind, while ensuring everyone and every sector plays a part as the country forges ahead towards attaining an upper middle income society by year 2030.
Mr Goundete said technological development is not a threat to the profession, but has allowed the profession to make real time decisions and focus more on mission of advocacy and creating wealth by enhancing efficiency.
“We are professionals of accountancy and developers of the economy, which is why we are not threatened by technology. We do systematic training within our organisations so that members remain relevant and well up to date,” he said while responding to concerns about threats posed by technology on some professions.
SAAA chief executive officer who is one of the local organisers Mr Taka Svosve said Zimbabwe was honoured to host PAFA as he reiterated the call for members to embrace technology.
“We are hosting the rest of membership from across Africa and it’s something that we are happy to do as local PAOs. As for technology, it’s not a question of being threatened or not, technology is here to stay and is the future. What needs to be done in the wake of new developments and changes taking place is for us to make use of changes in technology to achieve the desired results. We need to embrace technology and use it to produce results in terms of effectiveness and productivity,” he said.
ICAZ technical director, Mr Owen Mavengere, who chaired the local organising committee said the accountancy field is a trusted advisor for Government as members are consulted on various issues. – @ncubeleon
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