The Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Association of BEE Verification Agencies (ABVA).

ABVA Member organisations, which include Empowerdex, Honeycomb BEE Ratings (Pty) Ltd and the National Empowerment Rating Agency will be encouraged to implement the ACCA Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) and ACCA Professional qualifications within their organisations.

“ABVA was looking for a suitable qualification which could be instituted by member organisations nationally. Having approached various stakeholders without success, ABVA realised that ACCA’s qualifications are a perfect fit in terms of the way in which their auditors function, and the way in which their national verification agents are structured,” ACCA South Africa Head of Business Development, Cindy Parvess, explains.

ABVA Board Director in charge of Training and Development, Brigitte Brun, provided the rationale for implementing the ACCA qualifications: “The fundamental reason that ABVA supports this initiative is in ensuring that verification analysts gain formal qualifications. The key qualifications are in accounting and auditing, which in essence is the work of verification analysts.”

Addressing members at ABVA’s most recent Board meeting, Parvess cited ACCA’s flexibility as its greatest differentiator, “we can work within ABVA’s organisation to suit its unique needs. Classroom based tuition, online tuition, self-study and even The London School of Business & Finance is also available to each and every student,” she explained.

Parvess also mentioned ACCA’s Social Economic Development Beneficiary Fund as another benefit in becoming an ACCA approved employer. “If ABVA members want to increase their BEE score, they are able to donate their funds to ACCA which will use the monies to create bursaries.”

ABVA and ACCA are proud to announce this partnership, which will benefit not just the verification industry, but also the accounting and auditing sector.