By Our Reporter
ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Uganda held its members’ Conference 2018 at the Speke resort and conference center Munyonyo Kampala on 22-23 November under the theme, “Human, Financial and Natural Capital: enablers of sustainable development.”
The event was well-attended by over 250 conference participants. Attendees were highly engaged in sessions focused on the developments of Human Capital and the trends and future developments that will shape the way accounting professionals operate.The conference also explored the implications of massive technology development, talent management and capital flow.
The audiences were warmly received by Beatrice Isagayite Head, ACCA Uganda, as well as other senior member dignitaries including Japheth Katto, the outgoing council member, ACCA. In her opening remarks Ms Beatrice Isagayite, the head of ACCA Uganda reiterated the call for growth in membership, and said professional accountants are playing an important role in meeting the demands for both private and the public sector.
“We at ACCA have evolved our qualification to ensure that it continuously meets the needs and demands of our stakeholders including business and government. Through our qualification, we are developing dynamic and professional accountants, who are strategic forward thinkers, and equipping people with real world expertise they need to make an immediate impact in all types of organizations, be they public or private.
“About two weeks ago, we released an ACCA research report entitled, ‘The Sustainable Development Goals: Redefining context, risk and opportunity in Africa’. This research provides a new prosperity creation framework for government, businesses and society to adhere to, and how their effective delivery will increasingly call upon the skills of professional accountants like yourselves,” she remarked.
Hon. Felix Mutati FCCA – ACCA Global Advocate 2017/18, was the keynote speaker at the Conference. Hon Mutati shared some challenges that he believed were hindering sustainable development in Africa. These included the increasing youth unemployment which is heightening inequalities in society, environmental degradation, trade conflicts between Western and Eastern superpowers impacting volume and pricing of African exports, inadequate foreign exchange reserves and the poor implementation culture in Africa when it comes to trade integration resolutions.
According to Hon. Mutati, accountants need to stop being shy and penetrate the public sector, which is the biggest engine of public resource in any country. He charged them not to let purely accounting issues be decided by economists or worse, politicians with no background in accounts.
The convention had a star-studded cast of presenters, each an expert in their field, to equip the accountants to do business in the ever changing global business environment. Alfred Brian Agaba broke down sustainability with his famous interpretation, “Here today, here tomorrow and here the day after tomorrow” while talking about the art of doing business in light of the U.N Sustainable development goals, Twebesa R. Mugisha charged the accountants to learn how to adapt to the situations, whether it is the surge of China on the world business scene or the advent of artificial intelligence. Francis Kamulegeya spoke about networking strategically and Daniel Kalinaki closed day one with an insightful discussion on social media and its impact on business today.
There were mixed feelings on day 2 as Dr. Enoch Twinoburyo told the participants that China was here to stay and they needed to look for the opportunities that lie in the increasing Chinese presence in Ugandan business. The convention was concluded with an in depth look at the economy business drivers for the future where Amos Wekesa spoke about tourism and the opportunities therein, Ernest Rubondo shared about oil and gas and how to leverage that to create sustainable development and Pepe Minambo challenged the participants to cultivate emotional intelligence.