The private sector operating across Africa is at the forefront of delivering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a report from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has found.
The report states that accountants will have a key role in helping businesses achieve the socio-economic benchmarks. It emphasises the importance for accountants to engage with non-financial colleagues and become more involved in a wider understanding of the external environment.
ACCA noted that professional accountants across Africa are facing growing demands for greater precision in reporting on performance beyond the financial. ACCA said that for the SDGs to be achieved an ‘unprecedented degree of collaboration, innovation and problem solving skills that will test and overturn traditional orthodoxies’ will be required.
Head of ACCA Africa Jamil Ampomah said: “To make delivery of the SDGs a reality will demand investment, innovation, evaluation and communication. Across these areas the role of the professional accountant is clear.
“Their unique role in helping businesses with proposition, creation and capture of value, and their trusted position in effective assessment and communication of progress made, will be vital towards achieving these new benchmarks and building a more sustainable future.”
Head of sustainability at ACCA Jimmy Greer said: “Through learning and sharing experiences of ACCA members working in business and finance across Africa, and how they can be involved in the challenges and opportunities presented by the SDGs, we can continue to strengthen our knowledge platform and its on-going mission of activating the profession to play its part in building the global economy of the future.
