Emirati Ayesha Naser completes the ACCA course much ahead of her peers
She readily admits the pressure to succeed reduced her to tears on more than one occasion.
But the Emirati Ayesha Naser Al Zaabi had a lot to prove.
She was the first person in her company’s finance trainee programme to study the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualification.
“It was tough. I was crying sometimes, but when the results came out I was gaining level after level, and it was rewarding,” she says. “There was a point where I was struggling but if you believe you are going to do it, you are going to do it.”
And she did. Ms Al Zaabi passed each level the first time, graduating in just two years and three months, significantly shorter than the three to five years it takes on average to complete the programme.
ACCA, the global body for professional accountants that has 170,000 members and 436,000 students in 180 countries, has now launched a national chartered accountancy qualification for the UAE, in cooperation with the UAE Accountants and Auditors Association (AAA) to enable Emiratis and residents get globally and locally relevant qualifications. The partnership means ACCA members such as Ms Al Zaabi are eligible to apply for membership to the AAA, allowing them to use the titles ACCA and UAECA after their names.
“We are very serious about improving the profession,” says Ahmad Darwish, the head of the chartered accountants committee in UAE AAA, and the manager of the management accounting team at DP World for the region.
“We initiated a project called AAA 100 to have 100 Emiratis qualified by 2021 with ACCA and the UAECA qualification. We just started this programme this year. And we are hoping to have more than 20 or 30 this year.”
United Arab Emirates Chartered Accountant (UAECA) has ACCA qualification as its basis and provides a unique opportunity for UAE nationals and residents to get a globally and locally relevant qualification.
Demand for accountancy is growing across the UAE, says Stuart Dunlop, the regional director of ACCA.
And because the partnership supports the government’s initiative to develop the profession, students will also benefit from improved career opportunities as more employers choose to work with the programme in the future, he adds.
And it is not only the professional bodies and government that hope the UAECA will attract more Emiratis to accounting. “We welcome the news that the UAE AAA have joined forces with the ACCA,” says Toby Simpson, the managing director at Gulf Recruitment Group.
“This is not because we will view the qualification any differently, but because we hope it encourages more participation from local graduates in the accountancy sector and further strides forward in accounting standards, governance and transparency in the UAE.”
Ms Al Zaabi completed the programme in January.
Graduating from school with a 97.3 per cent pass grade, Ms Al Zaabi wanted to study science, geology or maths, and opted for accounting because the others were not an option for her in Abu Dhabi, where she had to remain because of family commitments.
She graduated with distinction from the Higher Colleges of Technology to join the Mubadala Development Company soon after as a finance trainee in January 2011.
“They had this new programme that was a finance trainee development programme. I joined like that as a fresh graduate and I was the first one, so it was a very exciting experience,” she says. And being the first, she had the opportunity to shape the trainee programme and help select the qualification she would be studying for.
They considered many qualifications, but chose the ACCA because there was a variety of good training providers in the country.
The qualification was also comprehensive, covering core accounting, management accounting and investments, which help create a “well-rounded” accountant, says Ms Al Zaabi, who is now a senior accountant at Mubadala.
But it was only when she was working that she learnt the true value of the vocational programme.
“When I graduated from the college with a bachelor’s degree I thought, that’s it. I’m ready to work. But when I came to an organisation like Mubadala it was totally not enough. Mubadala is just a competitive environment where you need to prove yourself all the time,” she says.
With each level that she studied she became more familiar with what the subject matter being discussed in meetings.
“When I finished I felt OK, now I understand 80 per cent of what they are saying and also I can continue giving more comments. I can’t say 100 per cent because the world is always moving,” says Ms Al Zaabi.
business@thenational.ae
Married Malala
Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.
The 24-year-old married Pakistan cricket executive Asser Malik last year in a small ceremony in the UK.
Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
WITHIN%20SAND
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Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
Bridgerton%20season%20three%20-%20part%20one
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Company%20Profile
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Results
5.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,400m; Winner: Mcmanaman, Sam Hitchcock (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer)
6.05pm: Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Bawaasil, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson
6.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (Dirt) 1,400m; Winner: Bochart, Fabrice Veron, Satish Seemar
7.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Mutaraffa, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
7.50pm: Longines Stakes – Conditions (TB) Dh120,00 (D) 1,900m; Winner: Rare Ninja, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
8.25pm: Zabeel Trophy – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh120,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Alfareeq, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
9pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (T) 2,410m; Winner: Good Tidings, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
9.35pm: Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (T) 2,000m; Winner: Zorion, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi, Helal Al Alawi
Europe wide
Some of French groups are threatening Friday to continue their journey to Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the European Union, and to meet up with drivers from other countries on Monday.
Belgian authorities joined French police in banning the threatened blockade. A similar lorry cavalcade was planned for Friday in Vienna but cancelled after authorities prohibited it.
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
Drishyam 2
Directed by: Jeethu Joseph
Starring: Mohanlal, Meena, Ansiba, Murali Gopy
Rating: 4 stars
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Company profile
Company name: Nestrom
Started: 2017
Co-founders: Yousef Wadi, Kanaan Manasrah and Shadi Shalabi
Based: Jordan
Sector: Technology
Initial investment: Close to $100,000
Investors: Propeller, 500 Startups, Wamda Capital, Agrimatico, Techstars and some angel investors
MATCH INFO
Day 2 at the Gabba
Australia 312-1
Warner 151 not out, Burns 97, Labuschagne 55 not out
Pakistan 240
Shafiq 76, Starc 4-52
Abu Dhabi card
5pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 2,400m
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 2,200m
6pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 1,400m
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 1,400m
7pm: Handicap (PA) Dh85,000 1,600m
7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m
The National selections:
5pm: Valcartier
5.30pm: AF Taraha
6pm: Dhafra
6.30pm: Maqam
7pm: AF Mekhbat
7.30pm: Ezz Al Rawasi
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
Business Insights
- As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
- SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
- Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
CRICKET%20WORLD%20CUP%20QUALIFIER%2C%20ZIMBABWE%20
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Seven tips from Emirates NBD
1. Never respond to e-mails, calls or messages asking for account, card or internet banking details
2. Never store a card PIN (personal identification number) in your mobile or in your wallet
3. Ensure online shopping websites are secure and verified before providing card details
4. Change passwords periodically as a precautionary measure
5. Never share authentication data such as passwords, card PINs and OTPs (one-time passwords) with third parties
6. Track bank notifications regarding transaction discrepancies
7. Report lost or stolen debit and credit cards immediately