Accountants Told to Innovate as ACCA Uganda Members’ Convention 2024 Opens in Munyonyo

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Rt Hon Thomas Tayebwa, has urged accountants to make integrity an integral part of their tools of trade to boost investor confidence in the economy and improve tax collections.

Tayebwa made the remarks on Wednesday, November 13 while opening the ACCA Uganda Members’ Convention 2024 at Speke Resort Munyonyo. The three-day convention is running under the theme “Empowering Finance Professionals for a sustainable future”.

In her opening remarks, ACCA Uganda Country Manager, Charlotte Kukunda, encouraged members to continue to participate in such platforms to network and become better equipped to take on the continued challenges presented by the ever evolving finance landscape.

Speaking as the chief guest, Tayebwa thanked ACCA for the role played in building the accounting profession in Uganda, congratulating members for successfully completing and practicing what they learn through their involvement with ACCA.

“When looking at sustainability, we must look at three aspects. Innovation in relation to adaptability to technology and digitization, impact on the community, and integrity which is the most important factor,” said Tayebwa.

He added: “The public is expecting you as accountants and experts to look into the books and help detect fraud and protect the public finances. You have to go beyond and show people that as government, we deliver value. What we report and what people see and expect should be very close.”

Future Trends

Speaking during a panel on the “Future Trends in Accounting and Finance”, Josephine Ossiya, Chief Executive Officer of Capital Markets Authority (CMA), said companies must recognize the fact that investors would like to know everything about their businesses because they invest in transparent businesses that drive comparability across different companies and markets.

“As a regulator, ours is to develop the right standards to guide you to be able to do what you need to be. Do we have the skills to be able to do the reporting accurately? We need to acquire those skills that will enable us to do what is required,” she remarked.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Peter Kawumi, East African Regional Director of Interswitch Group, urged accountants to stop simply thinking of themselves as an accounting profession but as all round advisory.

On Artificial Intelligence (AI), Kawumi said several regulators have been doing different things to ensure data is protected and kept safe.

“We have a significant gap in who can carry out the system audits and the finance profession has a great opportunity to fill this gap,” he noted.  

Prof Stephen K. Nkundabanyanga, Head of the Department of Accounting at Makerere University Business School (MUBS), on his part, said AI depends on how much information it is fed.

“What we should be doing at the university is to ensure that the information we give out is what is needed by the recipient. AI will not replace natural intelligence.”

Prof Nkundabanyanga cited a challenge of numbers in the teaching process, saying they are teaching students to differentiate, organize, plan, and reproduce.

“We are also looking at collaboration. Most of the parents don’t want to pay for their children to study business courses. Nobody is building robots without looking for money,” he said.

According to him, over 10,000 students have been registered but the University lacks infrastructure.

He called upon the government and accountants to support the university in availing the necessary resources to ensure the availability of the facilities required to deliver the right-fit graduates to match the growing needs of the economy.

The panel, moderated by Micheal Otonga, Director of Finance & Administration at the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, was also attended by Stephen Ineget, the Managing Partner at KPMG.