The Institute of Certified Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU) has released the December 2022 Examination results and launched new syllabuses for the Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (CPA) and Accounting Technicians Diploma (ATD) courses.
ICPAU President, CPA Constant Othieno Mayende, presided over the release of results and launch of the syllabuses Thursday at Skyz Hotel in Naguru, Kampala.
Speaking at the launch,
John Bosco Ntangaare, the ICPAU Director-Education, said the syllabuses have been approved by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) as required by the Accountants Act, 2013. They are effective from January 1, 2023.
He said the new standards have taken into account the international education standards (IES) as required by the international federation of accountants (IFAC).
According to Ntangaare, professional accountancy syllabuses are periodically revised to match the rapidly changing environment.
“The revision has taken into account the developments in the regulatory framework, reporting standards, and business environment within which organisations operate,” he noted.
“Therefore, we are responding to the market demands of the business environment in which we operate, both locally and globally,” he added.
He said the CPA syllabuses continue to have four levels with 18 subjects whose content and learning outcomes have been refreshed.
“The ATD course has three levels and 12 subjects. The course has been aligned to the CPA such that those who complete will be exempted from the entire level 1 and start CPA at level 2.”
December 2022 Examination results
The results were presented by CPA Prof Laura Orobia who represented the Chairperson of the Public Accountants Examinations Board (PAEB).
She said for 2022, they had four examination diets to enable students to recover lost time due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“…going forward, we shall have three examination diets: May, August and November in 2023,” she noted.
The examinations were conducted from Monday 12 to Friday 16 December 2022 at seven examination centres; Arua, Fort Portal, Gulu, Kampala, Mbale, Mbarara and Nkozi.
Altogether, 5,279 candidates attempted the December 2022 exams compared to 4,940 in June 2022 representing an increment of 6.8%.
According to Prof Orobia, more female students are pursuing their qualifications, especially ATD (80 females vs 70 males) and CPA (2,806 females vs 2,246 males).
In the Accounting Technicians Diploma (ATD) examinations, the average pass rate declined from 53.2% n June 2022 to 46.8% in December 2022.
The cumulative number of students who have completed the Accounting Technicians course is now 1,825.
In the Certified Tax Advisor (CTA) examinations, the average pass rate has remained more or less the same at 44.6% in December 2022 compared to 44.7% in June 2022.
The cumulative number of students who have completed the CTA course is now 77.
In the Certified Public Accountants Of Uganda (CPA) examinations, the average pass rate has declined slightly from 38.5% in June 2022 to 35.8% in December 2022 sitting.
The cumulative number of students who have completed the CPA course now stands at 4,803.
Prof Orobia said the poor performance in core subjects was due to students’ failure to integrate reporting standards, tailor their answers to questions that relate to real-life situations, get up to date with professional standards like taxation and laws, interpret examiners’ requirements as well as cram work, etc.
The graduation ceremony of the finalists for 2020-2022 will take place on Friday, March 10, 2023.
