By Martin Luther Oketch
Kampala — The president of Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU) has asked the public to seek advice from financial experts before taking bank loans.
Financial illiteracy has seen people taking loans from financial institutions without proper scrutiny of the terms, worsening high interest rates and loans defaults.
Addressing journalists last week in Kampala during the release of ICPAU August 2016 examination results for the Certified Public Accountants, Mr Protazio Begumisa said the advice will help the public understand the loan terms and make the right decision.
"How can you borrow at 24 per cent and the return on your business is 15 per cent. People need to seek professional advice from the accountants before borrowing because it's only the accountants who understand the value of money well," Mr Begumisa said.
Speaking on the examination results, Mr Begumisa said there were 3,452 candidates who sat for the August compared to 5,132 in June.
"The average pass rate was 39.2 per cent compared to 42.7 per cent in June 2016. There are 122 candidates who completed the course compared to 225 in June 2016, the number of female and male finalists was surprisingly equal that is 61 (50 per cent). Hopefully, we have achieved gender parity," he said.
Mr Begumisa said so far, a cumulative total of 2,629 students have completed the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) course.
Commenting on the examination results, Mr Uthman Mayanja, the chairman of the Public Accountants Examinations Board (PAEB), said the International Education Standard (IES) 5: Practical experience requires a professional accountancy organisation to ensure that aspiring professional accountants complete practical training before one is confirmed as a professional account.
"This is reinforced by The Accountants Regulations 2016.
The practical training has to be supervised by a member of the institute or at an approved organisation. The programme has already been rolled out," he said.
The ICPAU is the National Professional Accountancy body, established by the Accountants Act.
Mr Derick Nkajja, the chief executive officer of ICPAU, said ICPAU maintains the standards of accountancy; prescribes and regulates the conduct of accountants and practicing accountants in Uganda.