Malawi and other countries in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) economic bloc are set to have a harmonised accounting course and certificate, according to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi (Icam).<\/p>\n
But while Icam has described the move as a milestone that will help countries in the region to export labour, the time frame\u2014as to when the already set plan will come into fruition\u2014has not yet been indicated.<\/p>\n
Icam president, Henry Chowawa, confirmed this in an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the objectives of the group is to facilitate the free movement of professionals across borders, and the accountancy profession has taken a leading role. As part of this initiative, there is a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) for Professional Accountancy Organisations (PAO) that has already been drafted. This will make it easier for accountants to work within the region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He further said Icam is a member of the International Federation of Accountants as well as Pan African Federation of Accountants (Pafa) and that they work hand in hand with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.<\/p>\n
\u201cIcam constructively takes part in pre-budget consultations. We make that our distinguished mandate as we help in advising the government on measures that could lead to financial and economic independence,\u201d Chowawa said.<\/p>\n
He said as it stands, accountants from Malawi and other countries fail to export accounting professionals to each other\u2019s country as is the case in other countries outside Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccountants, especially from Malawi and the whole Sadc region, despite how they are trained, face hurdles to compete on the international market with regards to job opportunities because their courses or certificates are not harmonised,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said Malawi cannot afford to be left behind in financial and economic management, hence the idea to join forces with other countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to say that right resources should also be channelled to right departments. Malawi can also save on resources if qualified accountants are employed in public and private sectors,\u201d Chowawa said.<\/p>\n
Icam thinks the milestone attained in training accountants to the chartered level entails, therefore, that Malawi will be able to save those resources, thus eventually stabilising the local currency.<\/p>\n
Radom interviews with financial and economic experts from private and public offices found that the move is meant to deal with corruption and in the process promoting social economic development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malawi and other countries in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) economic bloc are set to have a harmonised accounting course and certificate, according to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi (Icam). But while Icam has described the move as a milestone that will help countries in the region to export labour, the time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":47661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47662,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47658\/revisions\/47662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}