The France-Maghreb Expert Network (Réseau Experts France Maghreb – REFM) was launched to help French Maghrebis accountants in their careers, as well as to act as a bridge over the Mediterranean Sea for cooperation with colleagues from the Maghreb region. Its president Alexandre Touami talks to Vincent Huck
The Accountant: What is REFM about?
Alexandre Touami: REFM is an association created in 2002 by French professional accountants with origins from the Maghreb. It was created with a number of objectives, notably to play a role in linking professionals in the Maghreb region with professionals in France, and also between the institutes: the two French institutes as well as the different professional bodies in the Maghreb. Morocco and Tunisia have only one body each, while Algeria has two like France.
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We had also a role to play for professionals established in France, especially by helping young people start their careers. Training is really important for us so we have started to organise workshops on financial laws, or IFRS, or any topic that touches on practising accountancy.
Another way of helping French professionals was by becoming more influential by participating in the institute. We mobilised our members to integrate the different councils and committees. The cooperation committee in particular was interesting for us because obviously we have a lot of expertise in cooperation as we sit on the fence between France and Maghreb.
One of our objectives is also to push the French institutes to help the professional bodies in Maghreb in strengthening their accounting practises, be it in terms of standards or law. By doing that we are also defending and promoting the French qualification.
We are French-qualified accountants, and we have to defend this qualification because at the moment there is a strong competition notably from Anglo-Saxon qualifications which are starting to target Maghreb and francophone Africa in general.
The OEC has responded to this advocacy work and is now facilitating internships in Maghreb. Before, students used to have to do their internships in France which was complicated because they had to get a visa, plus the costs and finding an internship wasn’t easy. So we asked why not relocate the internship? The OEC agreed and we have done that to Morocco.
We’re now looking at doing the same in Tunisia and Algeria, but we have to take into consideration the difficulties the countries are facing but it’s a work in progress. In Tunisia the Arab Spring has created a bit of turmoil, but they are working on it. Algeria has a different legal framework so they are looking at it.
The Accountant: how many members do you have?
Touami: Currently 100, potentially we could reach 350.
The Accountant: Is it wrong to say that originally the association was created to help the France Maghreb minority to access the profession?
Touami: That’s also true. We have to tell the truth. Before, French chartered accountants with origins from Maghreb kept a low profile. We were not considered and didn’t have a voice. So here came the idea; we represent a community of destinies, so we needed to create something and we started with a club to meet and exchange. Slowly this meeting brought about the idea of a more structured association. With it came a lot of questions: is it a French association? Or for people with origins from the Maghreb? Or is it open to everyone?
We didn’t want a communitarian association so we opened it up to all chartered accountants.
The Accountant: In terms of actions, what do you do exactly. Do you do referrals of clients for example? Or only cooperation between institutes?
Touami: Both. It’s clear that investors who want to invest in Morocco or in Maghreb when they ask us if we know someone we can help because we have all the connections there. We have daily contacts not only with professionals there but also the president of the professional bodies. And in terms of cooperation we did play a role especially when it comes to training and we are not the ones doing it but we facilitate and promote MoUs between the different professional bodies.
The Accountant: Are you part of the OEC?
Touami: No, we are a partner and recognised by the OEC and they solicit us to help to promote the relationship and exchanges between the institutions.
The Accountant: I don’t want to go into clichés and stereotypes, but does your network have activities to promote the accounting profession to the youth of the disadvantaged suburbs as a source of opportunity?
Touami: Unfortunately no, simply because we have limited resources.
The Accountant: So your organisation is 14 years old, what’s in store for the next 14 years?
Touami: First, something we haven’t managed to do so far and that is to create a unity between the different professional bodies in Maghreb. Second, we need to be more recognised by the OEC, because we are in France and our voice should be heard more. So we try to mobilise our members to get that voice heard.
