January 29, 2020: Rwanda today assumed the chair of the East and Southern African Association of Accountant Generals (ESAAG) and thus is poised to host the 28th Annual conference in February 2021.
The developments took place at in the 27th ESSAG Annual conference in Swakopmund, Namibia where Rwanda was represented by a delegation led by the Accountant General, Marcel Mukeshimana. The one-year rotational chairmanship role was handed to Mukeshimana by Ms. Albertina Taina Nankela, Namibia’s acting Accountant General and the outgoing chair. The conference’s theme “Rethinking PFM reforms to accelerate economic growth” underscored the need for a holistic approach aimed at ensuring public finance management reforms which contributes to economic growth through enforcing proper utilization of public resources. Speaking at conference Mukeshimana shared Rwanda’s experience of aligning national priorities in a way that allows effective use of resources to maximize intended outcomes.
“Having a clear vision of what we want to achieve as a country and putting in place a solid planning framework has allowed us to register significant gains despite limited resources,” Mukeshimana said. At the three- day conference, participants discussed different PFM issues including the African Professionalization Initiative (API) which is a continent-wide initiative to facilitate capacity development in accounting and auditing in key government institutions concerned with Public Finance. API is expected be rolled out across the region irrespective of language subgroups involved. “The Initiative aims to facilitate the development of necessary mechanisms and infrastructures to support the delivery of public sector professionalization in individual countries, sub-regions or to other interested stakeholders,” Mukeshimana noted. Meanwhile, African Union Commission is championing the formation of African Association of Accountant Generals (AAAGs), in the hopes that they would play a technical role in supporting the African Union in addressing public sector finance management issues in partner states hence support the Africa 2063 agenda to become a reality. ESSAG was established in 1995 in Arusha Tanzania with aim of sharing best practices in government accounting. Today ESSAG annual conference bring together over 1000 experts from 14 member countries to discuss public sector finance management related issues and chart a way forward.