News
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Trained accountant numbers surge upwards in Uganda
KAMPALA, Uganda - Professional accountants in Uganda have increased from less than five in 2001 to 1349, the Institute of Certified Public Accountants (ICPAU) recently announced.
The Assistant Auditor General, Keto Kayemba, who presided over the official release of the results, said their target is to have qualified professional accountants in every Uganda district.
There are currently just over 110 districts in Uganda, but there are plans for more when the money is available.
While giving highlights of the November 2013 Accountancy Examination results, Uthman Mayanja, the Chairperson of the Public accountants Examination Board (PAEB) said 150 students completed the professional accountants’ course in November 2013.
“In a young economy with a series of budding Small and Medium Enterprises, this addition to the number of accountants is timely as SMEs, the renowned engine for economic growth are largely supported by the professional accountants,” Mayanja said.
The 450 candidates sat for the Accounting Technicians (ATC) examinations in November 2013 while 479 sat in June 2013.
According to ICPAU, there was an improved performance in the November sitting at an overall pass rate of 57.9% up from 51% in June.
For the November 2013 sitting, 4606 candidates sat for the Certified Public Accountants compared to 4257 in June 2013.
Mayanja said there was an improvement in the overall pass rate for November at 46.5% up from 40.7% in June 2013.
ICPAU executive director, Derrick Nkajja said the increasing performance to pessimistic attitudes by students towards arithmetic subjects.
According to Nkajja, law and economics are largely literary subjects while tax, audit, financial reporting involve plenty of arithmetic, logic and calculation.
“Right from the beginning, they infuse in themselves a lax attitude towards maths and discover later in life that they cannot evade it,” Nkajja said.
Nkajja emphasized the relevance of career guidance. “Career guidance should be refocused so that professionals are invited early in a child’s life to help in realigning children’s focus towards their ambitions,” he said.
By Paul Tentena, Saturday, January 18th, 2014