John Ekongo
15 September 2008
Windhoek — Namibia faces the risk of losing chartered accountants (CAs) to South Africa if the private sector and Government do not put measures in place to train more CAs locally as opposed to the current trend of training them at South African institutions.
This is the view of professionals in the accounting and auditing field, as well as that of Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila. She was speaking at the Namibia Graduate School of Accounting's (NGSA) Open Day which was held at the Polytechnic of Namibia (PoN), last week Friday.
For every 10 000 people in Namibia there is one CA. This means that the country has a mere 200 chartered accountants serving a population of almost two million.
In order to alleviate this shortage, the NSGA was conceived in 2007.
The NGSA is a joint venture initiative between various audit, accounting and financial firms and is funded by the accounting industry and hosted by the PoN.
It came about as a result of a cooperation agreement between the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Namibia (ICAN), the Association of Black Accountants in Namibia (ABAN) and PoN.
NGSA caters for Namibian students registered for the Honours Accounting (CTA) and the Intermediate programmes at the University of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN) on a distance education mode, by providing learning support, either full-time or part-time.
The CTA is a mandatory requirement for students aspiring to take examinations leading to the professional chartered accountant (CA) qualification.
The Chairperson of the Steering Committee of NGSA, Patty Karuaihe-Martin, who addressed students including stakeholders at the open day, confirmed: "There is a need for CAs in Namibia."
She invited the private sector and state-owned enterprises to contribute to the NGSA through a yearly grant, so that it allows for intake of more students who want to obtain a qualification in CA.
"Currently, it is only the private sector that is contributing," she added.
Karuaihe-Martin opined that it will be cheaper to have locally trained CAs and Namibia will not risk losing those CA students who opt to remain and work in South Africa upon completion of their studies.
The cost for a qualification in CA in South Africa is anything between N$60 000 and N$100 000 depending on the institution.
The NGSA offers part-time studies for N$12 000 as well as full-time studies for N$28 000. Currently, the NGSA has an enrolment of 76 part-time learners.
Keynote speaker and Minister of Finance, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, said Government is aware of the critical shortage of CAs in the industry, citing her ministry as an example, where they have lost accountants due to job migrations.
"Due to a general shortage in this field, the ministry has had to compete with the private sector. Unfortunately, the ministry cannot match the remuneration packages the private sector offers and therefore loses out."
The minister said that initiatives such as NSGA are welcome as they optimize training in the country.
"We should optimize the training capacity in institutions in Namibia so that students do not go out of the country to study. We might lose them to these countries once they finish their studies," she added.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila stressed that skills development is an urgent priority and assured those in attendance that Government is committed to the advancement and promotion of initiatives such as NGSA as part of its commitment to provision of education and accelerated growth and in the end, ensuring qualified skills across all sectors that drive the economy.
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