By Oluwatosin Maliki
The legend of the accounting profession, Pa Akintola Williams, has passed away at the age of 104 years old.
Quest Times reports that the foremost accountant celebrated his 104th birthday on August 9.
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Pa Williams was the first Nigerian to qualify as a chartered accountant.
Pa Williams was born on August 9, 1919, into the family of Thomas Ekundayo Williams. He had his primary education at Olowogbowo Methodist Primary School, Lagos in the 1930s. From there, he attended the CMS Grammar School, Lagos, for his secondary education.
As a result of his academic brilliance, he won a UAC scholarship for his higher education at the Yaba Higher College where he obtained a diploma in commerce.
He then proceeded to the University of London in 1944 to study banking and finance where he graduated with a bachelor of commerce degree in 1946.
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Pa Williams, continued his studies, and three years after, he qualified as a chartered accountant in England in 1949, making him the first African to achieve the feat. He was only 30.
Then, he returned to Nigeria in 1950 and served with the Inland Revenue as an assessment officer until March 1952 when he resigned to start his accounting firm, Akintola Williams and Co., which became the first indigenous chartered accounting firm in Africa.
He served as the first president of the association and also as the pioneer president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
Subsequently, he was also involved in the establishment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 1960, a market that he was actively involved in to date as an adviser to the operators.
