Two hundred and forty-eight newly qualified accountants were at the weekend inducted into the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAG).
An additional 221 affiliates were also admitted to the institute.
At the institute’s 28th graduation and admission ceremony in Accra, the accountants were presented with their professional certificates.
The Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, in a speech read on his behalf, congratulated the accountants on the important role they played in the development of the country.
He said the functions of accountants had been significant in national economic development, especially in the areas of planning and budgeting, tax policy formulation and implementation, revenue mobilisation as well as expenditure monitoring and project evaluation
Dr Opoku-Prempeh said the role of ICAG in the country’s development had become important because of the need to train accountants with integrity and moral uprightness.
He called for the strengthening of the ICAG’s role as a sole regulator of accountancy profession, to ensure good financial reporting procedures in the business environment of the country in order to attract investor confidence.
Call to duty
Dr Opoku-Prempeh further challenged accountants to have a wider perspective of issues as the world moved towards a global market economy.
He said as professional accountants they “need a broad global outlook to understand the context in which businesses and other organisations operate”.
The minister added that: “Today’s professional accountants need to be technical experts with excellent communication skills, and also act as business advisors, financial analysts, negotiators and managers.”
The President of ICA, Mr Christian Sottie, who gave a historical overview of the accountancy profession in the country, said efforts to establish a local accountancy regulator in the country resulted in the establishment of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1963 (Act 170).
Today, he said, the ICAG in addition to giving local qualifications also gave membership to affiliates of foreign accountancy bodies, who had either met its pre-qualification or post-qualification criteria for membership.
He charged the newly qualified accountants to eschew corrupt practices and dared them to be different.
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