His Excellency the acting Chairperson of the OHADA Council of Ministers,

His Excellency the Permanent Secretary of OHADA,

The acting President of the Common Court of Justice and Arbitration,

The acting Director General of the Higher Regional School of Magistracy,

The President of the National OHADA Commission of the Republic of Congo,  

Members of National OHADA Commissions,

Members of the OHADA Accounting Standardisation Commission,

Members of Orders of Chartered Accountants of the OHADA zone,

The Representative of the Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA),

Representatives of Technical and Financial Partners of OHADA,

Representatives of sub-regional and regional integration organisations,

Distinguished invitees,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is with real pleasure that I personally take part in this important meeting on the reform of our accounting law and standards.

I equally express great satisfaction at the fact that this meeting is holding in my country, which presently holds the post of Chairperson of our institution’s Council of Ministers.

I seize this opportunity to congratulate the Permanent Secretary of OHADA, Professor Dorothé Cossi Sossa and his team, for the great job they did to make our regional body a real economic and social development instrument, recognised internationally.

I equally thank the World Bank for its constant support and precious advice, particularly within the framework of the Investment Climate Improvement Programme (PACI), a real capacity building opportunity for us.

My profound gratitude equally goes all technical and financial partners who accompany OHADA initiatives on a daily basis.

To all experts, thank you for placing your expertise at the service of OHADA and our countries. It is quite noble for you to take off your precious time to respond to different invitations from our institution.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I listened with great interest to the address of the Permanent Secretary of OHADA which enlightened us on the history of our accounting law and standards, as well as on progress of the reform on the Uniform Act on organisation of business accounting.

I was deeply moved by the rigour of the revision process which showed proof of the consensual, participative and inclusive nature of such an approach. This affirms that the new Uniform Act will very much be an instrument for accounting professionals, technical and financial partners, economic operators, investors as well as our political authorities.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Innovations introduced in our new accounting standards makes it more modern and more adapted to requirements of a business world which is going global and becoming more and more difficult to understand.

I acknowledge a will to proceed with thorough analysis of economic facts, while giving priority to the pre-eminence of economic reality over the legal aspect in order to better evaluate the production tool of businesses operating within our economic zone.

Just like accounting standards recognized worldwide, this intensified approach is real progress in the modernisation of our yard stick for economic transactions and performance of our enterprises.

Moreover, asking quoted companies in our stock exchange markets to produce their financial statements to investment and regulatory organs on IFRS standards in all legality, while maintaining the production of corporate accounts (separate financial statements) on reformed OHADA accounting standards, equally constitute a remarkable improvement of our accounting standards.

Benefits of various discussions have to be preserved, for this approach gives the opportunity to investors and technical and financial partners to appreciate the economic reality of our country and the performance of our companies in an understandable language with possibility of comparability at the global level.

The strengthening of the quality of accounting treatment of small- and medium-sized enterprises, particularly very small enterprises, is equally a major innovation which needs to be encouraged.

Finally, simplification of the presentation of financial statements also constitute a major progress which needs to be registered as a fall out of this new reform.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Before concluding my address, I can say at this stage of our work that we already have a good tool and I remain convinced that your expertise and the pooling of your knowledge will enable us guarantee achievements of previous meetings.  

Thanks to you, the Brazzaville plenary assembly of OHADA national commissions will help us pursue our reforms towards continuous progress.

Thank you for your kind attention.