07 Jul 2022

eriodic strategy reviews are necessary to allow Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) to reflect and ensure that it is aligned to its mandate as defined in the accountants’ act, BICA chief executive officer Ms Verily Molatedi has said.

In her welcome remarks during the launch of the 2022 – 2026 BICA strategy on Tuesday, Ms Molatedi said the strategy emanated from the recognised accomplishments made to date, as well as the shortfalls from the previous strategy.

She said the previous 2017 – 2021 strategy which ended December 31, 2021, was a learning experience and brought about achievements driven by the BICA secretariat, council as well as key stakeholders.

“The new strategy comes at a time when BICA is implementing the accountants’ amended act 2020 which will bring bold changes to the institute and requires all stakeholders to be audacious in executing the plan for operational excellence,” she said.

She said with changes in the business landscape brought by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Russia - Ukraine War, 4IR wave and fluctuating economic trends, it was important for their internal processes to adapt and remain relevant to their members.

Ms Molatedi further noted that in crafting the strategy, a lot of consultation was done with stakeholders including reference to the strategy of organisations for purposes of alignment. These include the PAN African Federation of Accountants and the International Federation of Accountants, and the Ministry of Finance with all the relevant documents coming from there.

Meanwhile, the President of BICA Ms Susanne Swaniker-Tettey said time had come to close the 2017-2021 strategy, citing that the achievements were a combined efforts of the BICA Secretariats and its stakeholders.

Ms Swaniker-Tettey stated that the institute achieved a 94 per cent performance on the corporate scorecard at the end of the strategic period.

These achievements, she said were measured and recorded in the areas of increase in revenue generation, of which when the strategy began in 2017 it was sitting at P11.5 million and now at the end of the period it had increased to P18.9 million, she said.

As for BICA membership, she said the institute began the strategic period with a total of 3 355 against the target of 6 234 by 2021.

 As of December 2021, the membership was at 5 073 and the variance was attributed to the unanticipated non-renewal of memberships and resignations of members. 

With regards to BICA qualified accountants, Ms Swaniker-Tettey highlighted that there had been an increase from six qualified accountants to a total of 35 at the end of the period under review.

She said this was because the institute took an initiative to engage ICAEW-approved trainers in the UK to provide revision classes for advanced-level students.

With the newly launched strategy, Ms Swaniker-Tettey outlined that the institute’s vision statement had been found to be relevant and as such had been maintained so as to, “support Botswana’s development through a dynamic and ethical accountancy profession.”

However, she indicated that the mission statement has been revamped to put emphasis on the institute’s regulatory aspects, it will read, “to protect public interest through the development and effective regulation of the accountancy profession.”

“The 2022 -2026 strategy plan will be driven by 14 strategic objectives including but not limited to enhancement of brand reputation, improvement of stakeholder satisfaction, achievement of financial sustainability and optimisation and digitalisation of key processes,” she said.

Ms Swaniker-Tettey said with the help of the objectives the institute would achieve its strategic intent which was to drive effective regulations and enhance stakeholder value by 2026.

ENDS