The national body in charge of accountants in Kenya, the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK), wants Islamic finance institutions to take responsibility for upgrading the skills level among their staff to ensure that accounting standards in Shari'ah compliant companies are up to international financial reporting standards.
"It's a question of expanding the knowledge and skills gap for accountants to appreciate Islamic finance processes because the accounting standards remain the same," said Caroline Kigen, CEO of ICPAK.
Kenya has experienced real growth in Islamic finance and questions are being raised on the availability of talent that understands Shari'ah compliant financial processes. Industry players have indicated that they find it a challenge to get qualified employees for senior management roles.
Kenya's Islamic finance industry comprises two banks and an insurance company plus several Shari'ah compliant windows of about a dozen conventional banks.
"We plan to have a deeper engagement with the Islamic finance companies so that we can identify where there are skills gaps for accountants and then help them to cover those gaps," said Kigen on the sidelines of a conference for accountants in Nairobi. She said the institute would also help in the development of the accounting guidelines that Islamic finance institutions must follow.
Lack of trained Islamic finance talent among accountants is partly because of the low level of awareness of the concept in sub-Saharan Africa: many accountants simply do not understand the concept.
Last week a higher learning institute owned by the Central Bank of Kenya started to offer diploma level training in Islamic finance.
© The Islamic Globe 2011
