Steven Seimavula, head of the Liberia Institute of Certified Public Accountants, told a press conference last week that the few accountants in the country were of retirement age.

This could result in a bleak future for accounting and impact the economy, he suggested.

He said: “The Internal Auditing Agency, the General Auditing Commission and the Liberia Revenue Authority are major institutions that heavily rely on the expertise of accountants to operate, and therefore, it is important the government gives attention to training of young accountants at a professional level to replace those aged technicians who are already on their way out.”

Although, reported the local news outlet Liberian Daily Observer, there were a lot of Liberian students studying accounting at university.

Seimavula added that students cannot afford the cost of training, so the institute has opened its training programmes to the public, free of charge.

A total of 750 students have now registered to study business law, basic accounting processes and systems, and communication skills and economics.

But this has put increased financial strain on the institute as it has had to hire new teachers to meet the demands of students.

LICPA has already received $16,000 from the government but asked for more to support the institute in its work.

The institute has also launched three new textbooks on taxation, business law and public sector accounting, which it says will help students understand the profession in the Liberian context.