ACCOUNTANTS

Wednesday 12 September 2012

HISTORY OF AN ICON AND LEGEND IN THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION IN NIGERIA-- MR AKINTOLA WILLIAMS

                                               
                                             MR. AKINTOLA WILLIAMS

        Mr. Akintola Williams is Nigeria’s first chartered Accountant if not first black African Chartered Accountant. Especially noted for integrity, he is a distinguished and experienced professional accountant, who has made outstanding contributions and pioneered the accountancy profession in Nigeria.
    Born in lagos on the 9th August 1919, Mr. Akintola Williams started his formal education in 1928 at the Baptist Academy, Lagos. His successful completion of his secondary education at the CMS Grammer School in 1938 paved way for his entry, the following year,1939, into the only tertiary institution that existed then in the country, Yaba Higher College.
     He choose to study commerce at the college. Originally, he had thought of studying surveying, since his best subjects were English, physics and Mathematics, but later changed his mind when he found that the course was not yet available at the college. Akintola carried to Higher College, Yaba, the diligence and academic brilliance that had characterized his CMS grammer school days. This yielded a handsome reward in the form of a scholarship by the United African Companies, UAC.
     He left the shores of Nigeria in 1944 to pursue the study of Accountancy in London. It probably did not occur to him that he might be the first black African to embark on such venture. But for his courage and determination, he would probably have given up the pursuit completely, not because of lack of ability, but because of his colour, and Nigeria (indeed black Africa) would have been the worse for it. It was a herculean task for him to find a firm willing to accept him for articleship because he was black, and without serving articleship with a firm of chartered accountants for a certain period, he could not qualify as a chartered accountant. However, with the help of one Mr. Bankes, he was offered the opportunity of serving his articleship In Mr. Hamlyn’s firm.
    In 1946, he obtained his degree in B.Com. from the University Of London where he was a part time student, Three years later, in 1949, he again sat for and passed the finals of the professional accounting examinations of the Institute Of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and thus distinguished himself as the first Nigerian, if not the first black African to qualify as a Chartered accountant in the United Kingdom.
   Following the difficulty he experienced in London in getting a firm to accept him as an articled clerk, he had resolved, even before he qualified, to set up a practice of his own on returning to Nigeria, in his own words “to get our own people trained locally and to have our own institutions’ accounting qualification”. This resolve made him to prefer contract employment on his return to Nigeria in 1950 as an Assessment officer in the Inland Revenue Department in order to have the option of renew or terminate at th end of each contract’
    Therefore in March 1952, he resigned his appointment with the civil service in preparation for the establishment of Akintola Williams & Co. as the first indigenous firm of Chartered Accountants in Nigeria. The firm later opened office in Ivory Coast and Cameroon.
     The other ambition was to form a local professional accounting body. His efforts, in collaboration with other professional accountant in the country, led to the founding of Association Of Accountants in Nigeria. This body, the immediate predecessor of the present Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), was incorporated in 1960. Mr. Akintola Williams became the founding president of the Association.
    He was one of the founders of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (formerly Lagos Stock Exchange). He had also served at various times on the Boards of Director of a number of quoted public limited liability companies which among others included BEWAC Limited, Nigerian Tobacco company plc, John Holt Investment Limited etc. His public sector contributions included the following national assignments: Chairman of the Federal Income Tax Appeal Commissioners,1958-1968; Member, Coker commissions of Inquiry into the Statutory Corporations of the former western Region of Nigeria,1962; Nigerian Trustees on the board of trustees of the commonwealth foundation, 1966-1975; Chairman, Lagos State Government Revenue Collection Panel,1973
Some other contributions include community service. He has for instance, been: Chairman of William Street Trustees; Chairman of Investment committee of UBA Trustees Limited; Founder and council member of Nigerian Conservation foundation; and Chairman and Founder of the Board of Trustees of the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON).
    Akintola Williams’ retirement in 1983 from the firm he founded over three decades earlier was historic in many respects. First, he retired before the age stipulated in the partnership agreement. Secondly, he also became the first Nigerian Chartered Accountant to retire from the firm he founded, with the original name of the firm remaining intact. Finally, by the time he retired, he did not only make a name for himself nationally and internationally, but had also guided the firm, with the cooperation of committed and dedicated partners and staffs, to expand the area of operations beyond the shores of Nigeria. His retirement thus became both a national and international event.
    Akintola Williams has been honoured a good number of times by various bodies and organizations. Most notably is the honour by the Federal Government of Nigeria who conferred on him, the honour of Officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (OFR). He was also awarded the Honorary Commander of the most Excellent order of the British Empire (CBE), 1997 for service to the accounting profession, the promotion of art and music through the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) and encouraging friendly relationship between Nigeria and Britain. Not only that, he out his wifeis also a Knight of the order of Rio Branco of the Federal Republic of Brazil; First Gold Medalist, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria 1988; and was honoured by the Harvard Business School Association of Nigeria as the Business Statesman for 1992.
     One cannot talk about Mr. Akintola Williams without talking about his late wife Mrs. Oye Williams, who knew how to build her home like the wise woman of the bible. Late Oye Williams was the first secretary of his firm, Akintola Williams & Co. She worked late into the night to ensure that reports and accounts were typed and bound up in the way that became the firm’s house style. She would always be remembered for her great contribution to the growth of the firm.
    She was the strong support he had from the day he decided not to renew his contract with the civil service and established the firm Akintola Williams & Co. and MUSON up to the time of her death in 2009. Mr. Akintola Williams retired in March 1983 as Managing Partner of Akintola Williams & Co., a member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International..
                      THANK YOU SIR….                                        
                                             
                

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