Accountants to offer free services to SMEs
The President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ghana (ICAG), Prof. Kwame Boasiako Omane-Antwi, has disclosed that the institute has decided to provide pro-bono services for enterprises.
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Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that cannot afford the services of accountants would be particularly targetted.
Prof Omane-Antwi said accordingly, the institution as part of its 2014/2016 agenda, has contacted its experienced retired accountants across the country to commence the project.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at the ICAG’s second induction of 250 accountants in Accra yesterday, Prof Omane-Antwi, said the project would commence next year and had the aim of helping SMEs to grow.
Initiative
Outlining other steps to ensure the smooth start of the project, Prof. Omane-Antwi described advocacy on sound accounting practices embarked on by the institute as “yielding a lot of fruits.”
He added that the next stage would be the setting up of an office to enable SMEs get access to the services to be provided.
Earlier in a welcome address, Prof.Omane- Antwi reminded the new accountants of the institute’s motto, which is,”integrity,” and charged the inductees to always uphold the public’s trust.
“The public must trust you; already we have what we call public expectation gaps. The public already thinks something is wrong with us and, therefore, we are trying to bridge these gaps. Therefore, the young ones that are coming should make sure to uphold the public trust,”he stressed.
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He also charged accountants to be mindful of the high level of corruption being exhibited in the country by ensuring that the right thing was done.
Technical know-how
In her key note address, the Managing Partner of Jones-Mensah and Co, Mrs Penelope Jones-Mensah, said accountants needed more than technical know-how to steer their businesses in the right direction.
She was of the view that modern finance function had to be able to cope with changes, as there would always be efficiency improvements, technical and regulatory changes to deal with along the way.