Demand for Accountants in Botswana: Views of Employers

Abstract

The objective of this study was to explore the problem of shortage of accountants in Botswana in order to establish which types of accountants are in short supply, identify the sector of the economy which has been most affected by the shortage and find out how this shortage could be curtailed. A survey of the views of employers of accountants revealed the vacancy rate of professional accountants in Botswana as 15% of the establishment, with that the ratio of local to expatriate accountants about 1:1. These findings do not support the findings by the Botswana Institute of Accountants in 2009, which estimated the supply of qualified accountants in Botswana as 20% of the demand and the ratio of indigenous to expatriate accountants as 3:7. This study also indicated that the commerce and industry sector had the highest level of vacancies for professional accountants followed by accounting firms.