Few months after assuming the vice presidency, the Liberia Institute of Certified Public Accountants (LCIPA) has made a record-breaking penetration amongst accounting bodies of the West African region by its election to the presidency of the Accountancy Bodies of West Africa (ABWA).

The elevating honor was realized on July 19, 2013, when the Association of Accountancy Bodies in West Africa (ABWA) elected Mr. Nim'ne E. Mombo, Sr., who currently heads LICPA as President of the Association, succeeding Mr. Kofi Ekon, President of ONECCA Togo (Institute of Chartered & Certified Accountants of Togo) whose term of office in that post expired June, 2013.

Prior to Mr. Mombo's election to the presidency of ABWA in his capacity as President of the LICPA, he served as the Vice President of ABWA.

"For reasons of practicality, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) puts forward a member of that institute to serve as Executive Secretary (ES) of ABWA, subject to approval of the Council of ABWA. The ES heads the Secretariat of ABWA, which is located in Abuja, Nigeria," a LCIPA statement clarified the process of ascendency in the association.

In a bit to throw light as to how one ascends to the highest office of the association, a statement from LCIPA pointing to the election of Mr. Mombo, said the presidency of ABWA and other positions are vested in a member institute, rather than in a particular individual, provided that the individual who is elected to the post is the current President (or where applicable, the Acting President) of a member body of ABWA.

The formal investiture marking the induction of Mr. Mombo into office will take place at the next Annual General Meeting of the Association in October, 2013, in keeping with the standing tradition of ABWA.

Also clarifying the process of investiture as a common practice within the British sphere of influence that involves a formal handing over of the trappings of office, the LCIPA statement noted that "This is done by a custom-made emblem of authority around the shoulders of the inductee."

"Such formal induction is done only at an Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association. The next AGM is scheduled for October, 2013. The LICPA President will serve as President of ABWA for two years, i.e., until June, 2015. Thereafter, the Presidency of ABWA shall pass to another who, per the constitution of ABWA, must be from a French speaking member country."

The 2013 revised constitution of ABWA requires rotation of the positions of president and vice president of the association between its English‑speaking and French‑speaking member bodies. On this basis, whenever the President of ABWA is from a member institute whose national official language is French, it is mandatory that the Vice President must be elected from among member institutes whose national official language is English and vice versa.

The statement said this is the first time that the LCIPA has assumed the presidency of ABWA since it joined ABWA during the very early years of its founding, blaming the 14- years-civil war as being responsible for the delay principally because the LICPA was, for all practical intents and purposes, inactive during that period.

According to the revised Constitution of ABWA, those occupying the positions of president and vice president should not come from the same language speaking group, meaning that when the President is from an English-speaking country, the Vice President should come from a French-speaking country, or the way around.

Relishing his election to the presidency of ABWA, Mr. Mombo extolled his colleagues for the confidence reposed in him, saying that the recognition and honor bestowed on him and the LICPA is ultimately for the benefit of young Liberian accountants.

According to him, the better known and respected the LICPA is within and outside of Liberia, the more widely accepted and respected the professional accounting credentials the LICPA bestows on graduates of its credentialing programs are.

At the same time, because of the success achieved, the authorities of ABWA have requested LICPA to undertake promotion of the ATSWA Program in other member countries, a mandate LCIPA has accepted.

In keeping with the mandate LICPA has been working with ICAN, as they visited Sierra Leone in 2010, Cameroun in 2012 and The Gambia in 2013 to promote ATSWA to the national Professional Accountancy Organization (PAO) in each country.

"All visits were successful, the most gratifying of these being the trip to Banjul, Gambia. As in the case of the LICPA, the Gambian PAO has commenced efforts to integrate ATSWA into the accounting curricula of tertiary institutions of learning in that member Country," LCIPA is quoted as noting.

ABWA which is comprised of the national Professional Accounting Organizations (PAOs) of all member states of ECOWAS, and is the only regional body of the Accounting Profession in West Africa was inaugurated in 1982.

It is. In 2012, ONECCA-Cameroon, the national Professional Accountancy Organization of Cameroon, requested and was granted admission to ABWA even though Cameroon is located in central Africa. ABWA, headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria, is a founding member of the Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA), which is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. Individual national members of ABWA also have direct membership in PAFA. Similarly, the member institutes of PAFA also have direct membership in the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), which is the highest authoritative standard setting accounting organization in the world.

The mission of ABWA is to provide leadership in the development, enhancement and strengthening of the accounting profession throughout West Africa and to provide service of consistently high quality in the public interest in member countries and thereby contribute to the sustainable growth of economies of the sub-region. The Association's flagship program towards this end is the Accounting Technicians Scheme, West Africa (ATSWA), a foundation credentialing program, which is currently being administered throughout English-speaking West Africa.

The Association is now working to additionally put in place a full regional professional credentialing program, similar to the ones now being individually administered by member institutes such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN); the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG) and the Liberian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (LICPA).