The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Director for Africa, Jamil Ampomah has said that if Africa is to achieve its grand agenda for economic sustainability and regional harmonisation, accountancy and finance professionals must improve their understanding of how to interpret these priorities.
Ampomah stated this during the closeout of the organisation’s biennial Africa members convention in Sandton.
In the same vein, ACCA’s Vice President while speaking at the convention said “the requirement for businesses to operate sustainably, to protect the long-term habitability of the planet, is increasingly a business question, not just an ethical and a moral one. It is a question of risk.”
She said businesses will be punished in the marketplace if they cannot show a long-term commitment to sustainability.
“People won’t work for them. Consumers won’t trade with them. Investors won’t back them, and these truths shine a bright spotlight on the urgent necessity for a more sustainable way of running our economic affairs,” she noted.
During the three-day event accounting and finance professionals explored the critical questions of sustainability in Africa, almost 700 ACCA members unpacked how the organisation helped its members build the capacity to implement, manage and guide organisations on sustainable reporting.
The accountants further discussed how accounting and finance professionals could influence and drive the advancement of international standards and the adoption of policies and regulations by governments.
It also explored how its members and key stakeholders could engage and deliver value to businesses and governments, including driving the unification of the profession and leveraging its member specialist communities, employers and country partners.
“We’re delivering this approach through initiatives to advance sustainability reporting, and ESG/ Sustainability Development Goals across sectors,” Ampomah said.
He added that members could contact ACCA country offices to ensure it could identify where it had resources to collaborate on its public policy, regulatory development and capacity-building activities.
Strategic partnerships and collaborations, with national, regional and global partners, have led to several successes including an MoU with the CFA Institute development of a climate finance certificate which ensured that finance professionals could gain the skills and knowledge they need to lead confidently on sustainability issues.
ACCA’s global MoU with the Institute of Internal Auditors provided the opportunity to gain the coveted Certified Internal Auditor designation through an accelerated pathway which enabled members to qualify in one examination rather than the current three.
The members also celebrated the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors’ recent decision to accredit ACCA South Africa, a development that followed significant shifts in global regulation to drive sustainable development and climate action standards for reporting and assurance.
“Accountants, whether they come from South Africa or Sierra Leone, Singapore or anywhere else, are going to play an enormous role in making these critical reporting standards work. They will bring the expertise and the skills necessary to guide businesses through new reporting standards; bringing the accurate reporting and assurance that will guarantee fairness; protect integrity; and guard against greenwashing,” Proffitt added.
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