The Paramount Chief of Essikado and President of the Western Regional House of Chiefs, Nana Kobinah Nketsia V, has called on chartered accountants to bring to bear their relevance to the country by contributing their quota in the fight against corruption.
He said corruption had become so endemic that it was almost impossible and a malignant threat to the existence of the country.
He said chartered accountants must "give us better understanding and auditing of our financial resources by supporting businesses".
Understanding
He said as accountants, they must also understand the social values, motivation and beliefs of society in order to have true meaning of what pertained in the Ghanaian society.
"A good chartered accountant must have a profound understanding of social values with motivation, values and beliefs in order to have a truly meaningful and fulfilling existence to society and your individual self," he added.
Speaking at the 2025 accountants conference in Takoradi last Tuesday, Nana Nketsia said the Institute of Chartered Accountants, as an institution, should continue to be built "day by day, brick by brick”, so it can stand on the shoulders of other institutions.
The conference was on the theme: “leveraging the transformative power of AI — the role of the professional accountant", and is being attended by almost two thousand chartered accountants across the country.
He said it was his humble plea that the Institute of Chartered Accountants, created on the basis of accountability and responsibility, their thoughts and inputs in the administration of the court would go a long way to make an impact on the Ghanaian society.
Lack of Chartered Accountants
Nana Nketsia said the lack of enough Chartered Accountants in the country had led to more corruption with people of dubious characters parading themselves as accountants.
He said ICAG should inspire accountability from the ability to accept responsibility rather than pointing accusing fingers at other people.
Touching on Artificial Intelligence (AI), he urged accountants to be wary of its usage in their work since some of the information churned out were not accurate.
Nana Nketsia was confident that AI could never be a threat to the accounting profession.
On galamsey, the Essikado Paramount Chief was worried about its devastating nature and quoted an Akan adage which says "if you urinate into the stream, either your mother or father suffers" -- to wit: when you think you are destroying water bodies everyone suffers.
The Western Regional Minister, Joseph Nelson, commended ICAG for promoting efficiency in the accounting profession in Ghana.
The President of ICAG, Augustine Addo, thanked the sponsors of the conference and was optimistic that that it would go a long way to enhance efficiency of the work of the chartered accountant.
