Report of the OHADA Seminar - University of Buea (Cameroon), on September 15-16, 2005

• 26/09/2005
• 11607
• 2 commentaires

Through the initiative of the Department of Law and the Deparment of Economics, the University of Buea under the supervision of Dr Mrs. Martha Simo Tumnde, in collaboration of the French Cooperation in Yaounde and UNIDA, the University of Buea hosted in the Amphitheatre 750, an International Seminar for the dissemination of the OHADA law, titled:The Implementation of the OHADA Accounting System: Practice, Problems and Prospects. The opening ceremony was chaired by the Governor of the South West Province, Mr Eyega Zanga Louis and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea, Professor Cornelius Lambi. The seminar had as resource persons, Mr Oumar Sambe from Dakar (Senegal), Dr Charles Elad from the University of Aberdeen(Scotland UK), Professor Kamdem David, Head of the Department of Finance and Accounting, University of Douala,Mr Paul Acha, Accountant from Deloitte and Touche Douala, Mr Michel Nzitsa, General Manager FIDA Conseil Yaounde, Dr Mrs. Martha Simo Tumnde, Dean of the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, University of Buea, Mrs Irene Sama-Lang, Lecturer University of Buea, Mr Jean Alain Penda, UNIDA representative, Cameroon. The participants at this seminar were composed of French and English-speaking legal practioners, Accountants, professors and students from almost all African countries. Mr Oumar Sambe presented on the Evaluation of Asset and Interpretation of Financial Statements Based on the OHADA accounting system and on The Method of Evaluation and Financial Statement of the New Accounting System respectively. Mr Michel Nzitsa summarized the passage of OCAM to OHADA which was very significant in tracing the history of the OHADA accounting system. Dr Mrs Martha Simo Tumnde, with Mrs Irene Sama-Lang discussed on the legal requirements of the OHADA Acccounting Law. Dr Charles Elad made a brilliant and useful presentation while comparing the British Accounting System and the OHADA accounting system. In Mr. Elad's view, the OHADA accounting system has just taken the best from all International Accounting Systems, reason why the OHADA Acccounting System is so appropriate in the current modern Business environment. This landmark and indeed wonderful seminar was geared at promoting the harmonization of business law in Africa especially Anglophone Cameroon being the testing ground. It is in this regard that Mr. Jean Alain PENDA encouraged other institutions of learning to do so with the support of UNIDA. The idea flowing from the success of this seminar is to organize other seminars in the future on all the eight OHADA Uniform Acts so as to assure and encourage the applicability of the OHADA Uniform Acts in Anglophone Cameroon as well as others Anglophone African countries. At the end, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Bea closed the seminar with words of encouragement to the participants in promoting and learning the OHADA laws while cautioning that the journey ahead toward the extension of OHADA to Anglophone Africa will be long and difficult; however, the Vice Chancellor insisted that all efforts and endeavors to promote OHADA across the African continent were worthwhile, African unity, peace and prosperity throughout the continent being at stake. RESOLUTIONS 1. In view of the bilingual nature of Cameroon, the OHADA Uniform Acts relating to accounting need to be translated into English. Ideally, a working party should be set up to carry out this translation. Members of the working party will be specialists in accounting who are conversant with its legal and regulatory framework. 2. It would be helpful if authors were encouraged to publish textbooks on the OHADA Accounting System in English, specifically written to meet the requirements of Anglophone students in secondary schools and universities. 3 At the institutional level, there is a need for OHADA to establish an Accounting Standards Board that will guide the development of accounting, making it more responsive to issues that arise in practice, particularly in the context of: - International accounting standards. - Cash flow statements. - The notion of gross profit. - Income statements that are based upon a classification of costs by functional cost centre. - Etc...