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Ramathan Ggoobi, Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, called on professional accountants to help businesses in the informal sector formalize, highlighting its 53% contribution to Uganda’s GDP.

The Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury Ramathan Ggoobi has asked Professional Accountants to support businesses in the informal sector to formalise.

According to Ggoobi, despite operating under informalities, the informal sector currently contributes 53% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The call was detailed in a speech read on his behalf by Joseph Enyimu, a Commissioner Economic Development Policy and Research Department at the Ministry of Finance.

This was during the opening of the 12th CPA Economic Forum that happened at Imperial Resort Beach Hotel under the theme: Enhancing the Productive Sectors for Sustainable Development.

This theme is in line with the government’s growth strategy and the country’s vision for 2040.

“I want to commend your contribution as professional accountants towards the growth of our economy, however, I want to implore you to support our informal sector formalise by extending your services to their businesses,” Ggoobi noted.

Ggoobi added that just like access to justice for ordinary Ugandans remains a challenge, businesses in the informal sector too struggle to use the professional services of accounts that in most cases are deemed costly.

He stressed that these businesses, if well guided, have the potential to offer quality services underlined in most government projects and turn would spur their growth.

“Informal businesses in most cases find it difficult to pay for the services you offer and yet they are needed, things like basics of bookkeeping. The legal fraternity currently offers pro-bono services to communities to boost access to justice, can the accounting profession do the same?”

The Forum is an economic policy think tank that generates thought leadership discussions aimed at developing economic policy recommendations and forwards the same to the Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development as input into the national budgeting process.

According to CPA Josephine Ossiya, the president of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants (ICPAU) the previous forums have generated policies that have been considered by the government.

“I am pleased to report that the CPA Economic Forum has yielded impact as seen in the adopted recommendations over the years. When we met at the 11th CPA Economic Forum in July last year, we discussed the national priorities for socio-economic development under 8 areas, national security, oil and gas among others.

The others include education focusing on the reforms in the new curriculum, labour exports, industrialization, value addition in agriculture, tourism, and cooperatives as a driver for socio-economic transformation,” Ossiya explained.

Regarding education, we are happy that support for the new curriculum is one of the listed priorities for the 2024-2025 financial year.

Tourism is one of the sectors that contributed to CPA DerickNkajja, the Chief Executive Officer of ICPAU encouraged the participants to deliberate on pertinent issues that will spur output of the productive sectors as described by the government.

“Through the National Development Plans, the Government has continually emphasised the promotion of productive sectors such as agriculture, industry, and services. These have over time proven to be potential generators of household income and employment opportunities,” CPA Derick Nkajja, the Chief Executive Officer of ICPAU noted.