A Renowned icon and pioneer in the accounting profession in Nigeria, Pa Akintola Williams is dead.
Pa Williams who died at the age of age of 104 years old after celebrating his birthday barely a month earlier on August 9 played a leading role in the development of the accountancy profession in the country.
At its early stage, Pa Williams spearheaded the establishment of the Association of Accountants in Nigeria, which metamorphosed into the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
He is reputedly the first Sub-Saharan African to become a chartered accountant after he passed the qualifying examination of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) in 1949.
He went on to become a founding member of ICAN and was also involved in establishing the Nigerian Stock Exchange, now the Nigerian Exchange Group.
He worked with the Inland Revenue as an assessment officer from 1950 to 1952, when he left the civil service and founded Akintola Williams & Co., the first indigenous firm of chartered accountants in Africa (now Deloitte & Touche Nigeria).