Business News

Cima lobbies industry, raises awareness

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (Cima) has urged the industry to employ its members because they have strategic business and leadership skills required in today’s competitive business environment.

Cima Zambia country manager Kennedy Msusa, speaking in an interview after the Cima Malawi Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Blantyre on Friday evening, said today’s businesses are looking for people with skill and ability to drive performance.

“Cima [qualified] people are strategists with financial skills and broad-based business strategy skills,” he said.

Msusa appealed to employers to understand the value of management accounting and the role they play in business growth. He said if employers begin to support their staff and students in training under Cima, businesses stand to benefit more in the long term in terms of strategic growth.

Chartered management accountants, among other things, help organisations in evaluating a company’s existing financial systems and devising a way to do things more efficiently through monitoring their spending or assessing effectiveness of their financial controls.

Currently, Cima has embarked on a publicity campaign in Malawi to raise awareness of the programme among current and potential students.

To take the Cima qualification closer home, Msusa said, in 2011 Cima accredited the Public Accountants Examination Council (Paec) diploma, a development that gives students seeking to study for a Cima professional qualification five exemptions and the certificate in business accounting.

During the AGM, Cima Malawi elected a new executive committee chaired by Jordan Chipatala of Sunbird Tourism Limited with Charles Ulaya of the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) as vice-chair person and Tiya Somba Banda of the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) as secretary.

The house also elected Angad Singh as a students’ representative while Grace Dzoole and Richard Milanzi were elected executive committee members. Due to low turnout of members, the new committee was mandated to co-opt additional executive members, including vice-secretary, treasurer and vice-treasurer.

Speaking in an interview after the meeting, Ulaya said Cima Malawi expects to have a Cima office in the near future, a development, he said, will position the institution to carry out aggressive awareness campaigns and recruit more students.

Currently, he said, Cima has 345 students in Malawi and about 100 qualified professionals.

Ulaya said under the awareness programme, Cima Malawi plans to reach out to universities and colleges and have them accredited as Cima approved centres.

Related Articles

Back to top button