With the continued downward spiralling of the economy, strategic policy development and implementation are deemed a critical component to driving economic growth. This is the core of the Africa Advocacy Programmes (AAP), a fresh initiative of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
Launched on Friday in Nigeria, AAP is regional advocacy to amplify ACCA’s force for the public good. The programme is structured to support industry specialists across disciplines and sectors, such as human resources, education, technology, governance, SMEs, and finance.
The advocacy programme was designed to help ACCA contribute to policy debate, identify pain-points in the country and provide sound, robust, actionable policies to solve the economic woes of the country, especially those affecting the most vulnerable—the youth, women, and MSMEs.
The programme establishes a committee that will serve as a think tank that aims to provide a holistic national perspective and provides an integrated joint platform, to influence and contribute to public interest Activities.
“…We will think, that’s why it’s a think tank. We will translate our thought into insights and those insights into robust policy actions and more importantly, we will support practical implementation to achieve meaningful outcomes for our stakeholders and society at large,” said Taiwo Oyedele, chairman, APP committee.
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Oyedele who is also the Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader, PwC with the AAP, what ACCA as the leading professional accountant body across the world has done is so say, is to leverage on its resources, people, capacity, and brand to bring people together, who are passionate with dealing with the challenges that we face to think about what can be done differently, make policy recommendations to policymakers for them to develop interventions that will solve real problems for the most vulnerable stakeholders and members of the society.
Nigeria’s unemployment rate is getting worse as shown by data released a couple of days ago, this comes underscores the significance of the advocacy programmes as committee members at the inauguration event were optimistic about its future outcome.
For Oyedele, AAP will be the focus on tackling problems like unemployment, which according to the recent data, affects mostly young people between the ages of 24 and 35.
“So, we need to get a point very quickly where we are thinking and applying our best ability towards tackling the problems that we face,” he said.
Expressing her views on the expected impact of the programme, Tarae Onyeje, co-founder of WOWBII Interative and a committee member noted a lot of the changes that happen around the world do not transition into Africa at the right time or with the right amount of push.
So, she believes that the advocacy programme will help to look at where the gaps are and how they can actively, deliberately, aggressively move to make sure that the impact is being felt where it needs to be felt.
There are so many changes that we do not even understand, and more changes are still happening, according to her, stating that it is critical to think ahead, and identify where you would like to go and what you would like to do and work to make it happen.
“So, I’m excited about what the whole advocacy programme is about and what it stands for. And the people on the committee are amazing and I think there is so much we can achieve if we put our minds together,” she said.
Franka Ovaje, executive director, Danne Institute for Research, said too many decisions in Nigeria are based on intuition and not on enough facts.
She said we need to have more facts on the table and ACCA, through the advocacy programme will provide evidence-based solutions in different areas. The calibre of the committee member, of which she is a part, was optimistic that in about a year or two, concrete policies will be pushed forward to improve the country.
She further described the APP initiative as a corporate social responsibility that is unique. Other committee members include Tara Fela Durotoye, CEO, House of Tara International, Babajide Ibironke, global council member, ACCA, Zaccheaus Olusegun, management consultant and strategy professional, Clara Bot-Mang, business manager, consultant and project manager, and many others.
Speaking about the quality of people constituting the AAP’s committee, Jane Ohadike, regional head of policy for Africa, ACCA bringing the people together was a way of saying “let us put our minds together and think through social issues we want to deal with,” have conversations with the real sector players who are the people in the committee.
Tom Isibor, country head, ACCA Nigeria said the composition of the committee itself, include individuals, who have the requisite skills, passion, and experience to drive this advocacy programme.
While stating that the committee would start working, identifying the critical areas of the country, and proffering solutions to them, he noted that ACCA will ensure their operations go smoothly in all ramifications, even as they would be working pro bono.
“Our role is to support whatever solutions they come up with, to ensure that we’re engaging with the right policymakers, industry practitioners, and even individuals. We have different subcommittees, so, whatever comes up from each subcommittee we’ll ensure that the targeted audience for that solutions are engaged with,” Isibor said
