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After spending a great deal of effort to face the often confusing marketplace, accounting professionals seem to have repositioned themselves in a major way.

Professional Accountants who have harboured aspirations of joining the C-suite are finding out that their accounting background is a golden ticket as most of them increasingly take up the lion’s share of emerging CEO positions in the country’s corporate scene.

Corporates in sectors ranging from insurance, media, banking and manufacturing, have found a soft spot in hiring accountants to their corner offices, with eyes on driving their growth agenda.

National Bank of Kenya is the latest to pick an accountant, Peter Kioko, as acting managing director. Kioko replaced Paul Russo, who took over the second-biggest lender by assets – KCB Bank – as CEO following the expiry of the term of long-serving boss Joshua Oigara.

Just this month, Anne Muraya took over the mantle of CEO at Deloitte East Africa. She succeeded Joe Eshun, who has been appointed as the Deloitte Africa Managing Director for businesses, where he will oversee Deloitte’s business functions at a continental level.

The trend has continued with Utility firm Davis & Shirtliff also appointing its long-serving finance director, George Mbugua as the new CEO, taking over from David Gatende, who retires after 36 years with the company. Mbugua is a Certified Public Account (K) from Strathmore University, with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Leicester.

Financial position

The change of guard comes as the water and energy solutions provider is redefining its distribution strategy to capture the bigger African market, improve customer experience and play an even bigger role in helping the continent address perennial water and energy challenges.

The Commission on Revenue Allocation also appointed James Katule as its new CEO, bringing his expertise in Public Finance, Strategic Management, Leadership, Corporate Governance and Fiscal Decentralisation to CRA.

Earlier another accountant, Philip Lopokoiyit, took over insurer ICEA Lion as the CEO and Principal Officer.

Experts say that the recent trend is set to continue as organisations follow in the footsteps of their competitors.

Samson Orero, an author of human resource practises, said that the ability of accountants to understand the financial health of their organisations gives them an edge over other professions.

“Having a clear financial position of an organisation under any particular time helps CEOs with accounting knowledge in establishing what particular decision can be implemented and at what particular time,” he said.