Botswana faces acute shortage of accountants

KEIKANTSE LESEMELA
Correspondent | Thursday May 23, 2013 00:00

 

Tshegofatso Modise said last week that the country needs more than 3,000 accountants but BICA professional membership is less than 1,000 and this leaves a huge gap in the economy. “There is a big shortage of accountants in the country. Currently, there are 254 students enrolled for BICA qualification,” she said at the launch of the new BICA strategic plan. She said the plan contains the full spectrum of BICA priorities. Some of the priorities include protecting the public interest by promoting the accountancy profession and facilitating quality accountancy services through the monitoring and regulation of professional accountants and developing professional accountancy.

“The strategy aims to identify what may hinder the organisation from achieving its goals and how these barriers will be removed and to provide an understanding of the industry’s competitive environment,” said Modise.She explained that the current BICA pass rates are low primarily because of the compulsory requirements to study and work simultaneously, the calibre of the current student pool and other challenges in the delivery of the qualification.

BICA has three classes of membership, namely: Fellows, Associates and Accounting Technicians who qualify by meeting stringent requirements of international standards. “BICA, which is a member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), is currently working to make the BICA qualification the professional accountancy qualification of choice in Botswana. BICA’s membership of IFAC means that the BICA accounting qualification is also internationally recognised,” said Modise.

She said that by developing the strategy, the organisation seeks to provide distinctive competencies for practical work experience (supervised and monitored) through approved training employers in support of its qualification.“Our stakeholders need to be satisfied with our services.

Most of our accountants are not yet qualified in the BICA standards so that is why we introduced the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in Botswana for entities not applying International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS),” she explained. The BICA qualification is the first homegrown professional accountancy qualification in Botswana. It is equivalent to ACCA, CIMA, SAICA and the ACA of the Institutes of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Botswana has changed its laws to ensure that its accounting profession matched international standards.

A recent amendment to the Accountants Act stipulates that every person or entity providing professional accountancy or related services to the public, for either a salary or a fee, must register with BICA for purposes of regulation and monitoring.