The Association of Women Accountants Ghana (AWAG), a group of professional female accountants, have been sworn into office to steer the affairs of the association for the next two years.

Speaking to Joy Business after the inauguration ceremony, the newly elected president of the institute Patience Mawushie Dzikunoo said the main focus of her leadership will be to attract more females into the accountancy profession in the country.

According to her, data as of January 2023 revealed that only 1,900 out of 10,000 members of the institute were females, a development that defeats the aim of the association.

She has therefore pledged that the new leadership will work assiduously to increase the numbers by intensifying the already rolled out AWAG Mentorship and outreach Programmes in Senior High Schools across the country.

“Our focus currently is to ensure that we have a lot more females getting into the accountancy profession and how are we going to do that; that is going to be done through our mentorship and outreach programmes in schools”.

“Currently we know that many students are going away from business studies, so we intend to go into the schools and encourage them to take the profession so that we increase the numbers”.

Patience Mawushie Dzikunoo also attributed the dwindling interest in the accountancy profession to the inconsistencies in the Ghana’s banking sector.

“Previously it was a prestige to work in the bank but right now they tend to get scared because they do not know what is going to happen tomorrow. The future looks kind of bleak. That’s why a lot of parents are not encouraging their children…is not just the females…both males and females”.

The seven-member committee led by Patience Mawushie Dzikunoo as President, has Akua Bonsu-Owu as Vice-President, Diana Commey as the General Secretary, Elizabeth Ohene Bampo as the Financial Secretary, Victoria Nipah as the Public Relations Officer, Frances Enyonam Sosoo as the Welfare Organiser and the immediate past President of AWAG, Elsie Bunyan.

The immediate past President of AWAG, Elsie Bunyan charged the incumbent board to work diligently to continue the associations Small and Medium Enterprises project which aims at promoting good governance.

“My charge to the new executives is to work and bring more people into the association so that together we can build our noble institution. Also, we started the SME project, a project that we intend to give back to society using our experiences and our skills and our talents to be able to support them, their audit etc.”

“So I will charge them to continue to do that to encourage them and show them how to keep their books. It will all help to promote good governance and together we will be able to build our nation Ghana”.

The Association of Women Accountants Ghana (AWAG) will next year mark its 30th anniversary celebration.