ACCA president coming to Botswana

ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) President Martin Turner will be in Botswana in two weeks in a visit that is expected to boost the national campaign drive to address shortage of professional accountants – CIMA Country Manager Helen Chilisa announced Friday. President of the global body for accountants comes at a time when Botswana is grappling with a serious shortage of professional accountants. “Only 20% of the demand is satisfied at the moment. Even then, 66% of these are expatriates” revealed Chilisa. A World Bank report released last year stated that Botswana needs 3000 Professional Accountants in the next 10 -15 years. At the moment only 34% of professional accountants in Botswana are citizens. Chilisa explained that, “this demand figure is a conservative estimate considering the requirements of government.” In a bid to attract and retain of professional accountants, the government pays a 40% scarcity allowance to professional accountants. Trying to illustrate the importance of Turners’ visit, Chilisa said “It is like Chris Barnard ÔÇô the surgeon who performed the first heart transplant in history coming to Botswana”. Founded in 1904, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants is the global body for professional accountants offering the Chartered Certified Accountant qualification. Although ACCA is based in UK, it has 147,000 qualified members and 424,000 students globally with Support offices/centres in 83 countries. Mr Turner qualified with ACCA in 1976 and became a Fellow of ACCA (FCCA) in 1981. He is currently a freelance management consultant, advising the health sector in countries including Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Serbia. He has recently returned to the UK from Australia where he worked as Chief Executive for the Health Services in Adelaide. Martin worked for over 20 years as a Chief Executive in the National Health Service in the UK and prior to that he worked as a senior Finance Executive in the Health Service. He is also the Finance Director of a small company in the UK.