The agreement will help increase the number of qualified management accountants (those trained to analyse and use both financial and non-financial information to advise strategy and drive business success) in the region and bring together students, academics, accounting professionals and business experts to further strengthen and promote the profession across the country.
Through the MPA, ICPAK members will have an expedited pathway to both the CIMA Professional Qualification and the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation, the most widely held management accounting designation in the world. The programme is open to all fully qualified ICPAK members with relevant work experience in finance and business functions. Candidates are exempted from 11 exams of the CIMA Professional Qualification and get direct entry to the Strategic Case Study exam – the final capstone exam of the CIMA Professional Qualification.
In turn, CIMA members who hold the CGMA designation can earn the ICPAK Accountancy Qualification via the same pathway.
The MPA was signed at the CPA Centre in Nairobi on Tuesday, 9 July. Present at the ceremony were CIMA Regional VP Tim Simba and ICPAK CEO Edwin Makori, CPA.
Tim Simba said: “This partnership is indicative of our ongoing commitment to building a strong management accounting profession in the region. The CIMA Professional Qualification has been designed to ensure management accountants remain employable and competitive in an ever-changing business environment. Accountants who earn a dual designation through this agreement will build the skills they need to remain relevant and excel in a rapidly evolving business world. This will have positive implications for career progression and workforce capability in the region.”
Addressing workforce capability needs in an ever-changing finance function is a key theme that will be explored at the upcoming CGMA Africa Conference: finance transformation in the digital world.