Akintola Williams: 100 Years of Grace!
Ojo Maduekwe
As he clocked 100 years old on Friday, August 9, 2019, felicitations came flooding in from all over the world for an African icon, chartered accountant, administrator, businessman and one of Africa’s top financial experts, Chief Akintola Williams. President Muhammadu Buhari, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, commended the elder statesman for his achievements and pioneering roles in establishing notable institutions such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), which he was its first president; the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON); the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), and several others.
Of the NSE, Williams is the only surviving signatory to the original Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Exchange at its founding in September 15, 1960. Also, the MUSON Centre maintains a special seat for him during any of their events.
“President Buhari extols the centenarian’s adventurous spirit of seeking and taking up challenges like music, arts and promotion of culture, underscoring his willingness to always serve the country and move it to greater heights through knowledge, wisdom and counsels’ to leaders,” part of the statement read.
Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, took to Twitter to felicitate and pray for good health for Chief Williams. “Pa Williams redefined the accounting profession in Africa and inspired several generations of Africans to break glass ceilings and imbibe the spirit of excellence while doing so,” part of Saraki’s Tweet read.
Chief Williams’ life has been one of many firsts, impressive achievements, and great honours, that all started in 1944, when he was admitted into the University of London, England, and bagged a Bachelors of Commerce Degree, two years after in 1946, majoring in Banking and Finance.
He would later go ahead to qualify as a chartered accountant and member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 1949, becoming the first African to do so.
Upon his return to Nigeria in 1950, after his studies in England, Williams first worked with the Inland Revenue as an assessment officer until March 1952, when he left to start his firm, Akintola Williams and Co., which was the first indigenous chartered accounting firm in Africa, competing
with more established foreign firms.
Impressive turn of events for a man, whose life one can attribute to grace. In no time, Akintola Williams and Co., began amassing a rich array of notable clients.
Some of Williams’ early clients included businesses owned by some of Nigerian heavyweights like the Ojukwu Transport Company; the West African Pilot owned by prominent politician and first president of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe; K.O. Mbadiwe’s African Insurance Company, and Fawehinmi Furniture.
Public institutions that his firm also serviced included then newly established Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, the Western Nigeria Development Corporation, the Nigerian Ports Authority, the Nigerian Railway Corporation, and the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation.
Twelve years after founding his firm in 1952, Akintola Williams and Co. branched out of Nigeria to establish in Cameroon, then followed by Cote D’Ivoire and Swaziland, with affiliates in Ghana, Egypt, Kenya and some other African countries.
And by 1992, the company had grown to become the biggest indigenous accounting firm in Africa, boasting of a workforce of 19 partners and over 500 employees.
Between 1999 and 2004, Akintola Williams and Co. would go on to merge with two other accounting firms to become Akintola Williams Deloitte (now Deloitte & Touche), the largest professional services firm in Nigeria with a workforce of over 600.
Like his work achievements, his honours are enormous and global, some of which include being honoured Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (OFR), Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFR), Knight of the Order of Rio Branco of the Federative Republic of Brazil and First Gold Medalist, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria