According to the minister, accountants should not only focus on corporate bodies and institutions, but also tailor their services to suit the needs of traders, farmers, small businesses and those in the informal sector.

Such a move, he said, would not only help small businesses in effective book keeping, to expand their businesses, but would also create jobs for many graduate accountants who were seeking for employment opportunities.

Council members

The 11-member council, which has been sworn in, is chaired by Sena Dake, the Director of Internal Audit of the University of Ghana, Legon, as President, with Augustine Addo as Vice President.

Other members include Paul Kwasi Agyemang, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ICAG, Ellen Abena Addo and Dr David Annan-Bonny — representatives from the Ministry of Education; Agnes Otoo-Yeboah, Emmanuel Mc–Coffie Ankamah, Dr Isaac Nyame, Patience Mawushie Dzikunoo and Dr Cynthia A. Sallah, who are all members of ICAG.

ICAG was established in 1963 and it, among other things, regulates the practice of accountancy in the country, approves courses for the study of accountancy and maintains a register of chartered accountants and accounting firms in good standing.

Dr Adutwum said accountants played a critical role in nation building and socio-economic development and, therefore, his outfit, as the supervising Ministry of ICAG, would support ICAG to continuously improve on the teaching of accountancy.

He, however, urged ICAG to not only train and certify chartered accountants, but to also provide some form of certification for accountants in public schools known as bursars to help further improve on their expertise.

Public interest

For her part, Ms Dake, on behalf of the council members, thanked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for appointing the current members to steer the affairs of the regulatory body of the accounting profession.

She assured the public that the new council would diligently and patriotically discharge its mandate to ensure that ICAG, as the regulator of the accounting profession, would improve on the already high standards in the profession and ensure that accountancy continued to contribute positively to development.