September 11,2023 NewsOrient

The doyen of the accounting profession in this part of the world, Pa Akintola Williams, has taken his final bow. He was 104 years old.

It would be recalled that the accounting guru celebrated his 104th birthday on August 9, 2023, barely a month before his final grand exit.

Known as the first Sub-Saharan African to become a chartered accountant, Pa Williams passed the qualifying examination of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) in 1949.

He played a leading role in the development of the accountancy profession in Nigeria and beyond, including facilitation of the establishment of the Association of Accountants in Nigeria, that later became the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

Report by Channels Television said “after his early education in Nigeria, Williams obtained a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (majoring in Banking and Finance) from the University of London in 1946 before he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in England.

He worked with the Inland Revenue as an assessment officer from 1950 to 1952, when he left the civil service and founded Akintola Williams & Co., the first indigenous firm of chartered accountants in Africa (now Deloitte & Touche Nigeria).”

NewsOrient