Tizita Kebede
7 November 2008
Addis Ababa — Local and international accountants along with business personnel deliberated Wednesday on the merits and challenges of a global model of financial reporting system (IFRS) if adopted amid prevailing commercial, legal, political, technological, and else contexts in Ethiopia where they largely agreed in favor of it.
A half-day conference entitled "Global Standards: the business benefits" jointly organized by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Ethiopian Professional Accountants and Auditors Association (EPAAA) basically highlighted major challenges and opportunities that may follow the possible adoption of the IFRS in Ethiopian business economies.
The discussion looked at why global business standards are gainful for Ethiopian as well as worldwide businesses through study presentations by local and foreign expert speakers from Microsoft, the USAID-WTO Accession Plus Project, the Ugandan Capital Market Authority, and the World Bank.
The experts conferred on topical issues of business efficiency, accountability, public sector reporting, and international valuation standards together with accounting and auditing provisions within the recently revised Commercial Code of Ethiopia in light of the growingly rapid pace of commercial globalization.
Hikmet Abdella, Country Manager at ACCA Ethiopia office, who was also serving as a moderator of the discussions and comments, told The Daily Monitor that there is no need now to promulgate a national financial reporting standard, but an international one as many African and Asian countries have endorsed IFRS and succeeded in their respective road maps yielding profitable bearings on their businesses - a verity which she put as "no need to reinvent the will".
The convergence of the giant economies of the US and UK into the international auditing and financing standards is a case-in-point lesson for Ethiopia that it is wasteful to spend resources on adopting separate financial models, she added.
"The extraordinary events in capital markets around the world underline just how interlinked and interdependent our economies are," said Nebiyu Samuel, Deputy Director General at the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority, at the opening adding that as social time and space have become more complex, the need for common standards has become a driving force in human development.
"A sound financial reporting system, supported by high quality standards and appropriate regulatory and governance frameworks is an integral part of economic development," he stated.
Participants included accountants, managers, and the business community at large.
ACCA is the global body of professional accountants that aims "to offer business-relevant and first-choice qualifications to people around the world seeking careers in accountancy, finance, and management." ACCA says to hold 325,606 students and 122,426 members in 170 countries worldwide presently.
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