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Needed: Accountants to actualise financial service hub

Wednesday November 07 2018
Graduands

The country faces an acute shortage of professional accountants even as it bids to become a regional financial hub. PHOTO | CYRIL NDEGEYA

By ARAFAT MUGABO

Rwanda faces a critical shortage of accountants as the country currently has only 450 professional accountants with about 250 being non-Rwandans.

Professional Accountants have appealed to the government to revise the curriculum and merge courses to ensure inclusion of professional accounting courses at the university level.

This will help to increase the number of professionals accountants especially as the country seeks to become a financial service hub.

Currently, only one out 3,250 people in the country is a certified public accountant, according to officials from the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Rwanda (ICPAR).

In 2008, the World Bank conducted a study to review the standards and codes of accounting and auditing, and advised the government on the need for a professional accountancy organisation.

Standards

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It is through this initiative by the World Bank that the government authorised the establishment of ICPAR as a sole professional accountancy organisation with the mandate to grow and regulate the accountancy profession in the country.

The establishment sought to help Rwanda align its accounting and auditing practices with international standards, accountability and favourably compete on the international market.

At the seventh Annual Conference of Certified Public Accountants, which brought together more than 250 professionals, Amin Miramago chief executive officer of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Rwanda said if accountants are to stay relevant they need to keep upgrading their skills to match changing technology

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