Botswana Accountancy College

The Botswana Accountancy College, also known as BAC or bac, is a business school located in the city of Gaborone, Botswana. Initially funded and established through a joint venture between The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and Debswana, the college caters for both the accountancy and IT tertiary needs for the country. BAC has two main campuses; the main campus being located in Gaborone, and the secondary one in Francistown. The college has collaborations with both The University of Derby and The University of Sunderland.

History

The Botswana Accountancy College was established in 1996 as joint venture between the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), The Debswana Diamond Company and the Botswana Institute of Accountants (BIA), enrolling 349 ACCA, CIMA, AAT and NCC diploma students. The objectives of the college were to reduce the reliance on expatriate accountants and in the long term to be a self funding project. BAC is a company limited by guarantee with three sponsors as the shareholders. The MFDP and Debswana funded BAC until 2007. The Gaborone Campus is located in the Fairground Office Park of south-east Gaborone.

BAC opened its second campus in Francistown, locates in the city centre at Barclays Plaza, in 2007 with 45 AAT students.

BAC's location in Gaborone's Fairgrounds district is among the top accounting and financial firms in the area, including Stanbic Bank, BancABC, KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, Grant Thornton, Botswana Life Insurance, BomAid, Botswana Development Corporation and Aon Insurance. This location provides the blue-chip firms with access to skilled university and college students, as well as permitting BAC's students to receive training and potential employment from these global institutions.

Facilities

Within Gaborone, BAC operates from 3 closely linked campuses.^[1] These include the BAC Main Campus, the BIFM (Fairgrounds Office Park Block D building) 2nd Floor across the road from the main campus, and the Fairgrounds Financial Centre, located within the Fairgrounds location.

Cafeteria

Accommodation

BAC can accommodate 112 students to stay at the main campus in Gaborone. There are three residential blocks to accommodate the students, named after three of Botswana's revolutionary leaders; Khama, Bathoen and Sechele.

Student Life

BAC offers a number of extra-curricula societies and clubs to students. These include:

• The Business Hive - Founded in August 2011, the Business Hive is an Entrepreneurship and Finance fraternity to allow students to sample the corporate world during their academic tenure at BAC through numerous workshops, training and competitions with Botswana's premier entrepreneurs, mentors and finance professionals.^[2]
• The Debate Society - Founded in January 2011, the Debate Society has seen the students represent BAC across Southern Africa in numerous debating tournaments, as well as Berlin, Germany for the upcoming World Universities Debating Championship.
• BAC Rugby team

Programs

The Botswana Accountancy College offers a variety of accounting, business, insurance, taxation and computing course, including:

Professional Programs:

• CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) - BAC is recognised by CIMA as a Quality Learning Partner
• ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) - BAC is recognised by the ACCA as a Platinum Learning Partner
• AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians)
• CIA (Certified Internal Auditor)
• BICA (Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants)

Undergraduate Programs (Business) in collaboration with the University of Derby

• BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance
• BA (Hons) Business Enterprise
• BA (Hons) Travel and Tourism Management

Postgraduate Programs:

• MSc in Strategic Management (University of Derby)
• MBA (University of Derby)
• MSc Information Technology Management (University of Sunderland)

Undergraduate Programs under the IT department in collaboration with the University of Sunderland

• BSc (Hons) Applied Business Computing
• BSc (Hons) Computer Systems Engineering

Along with the above programs, BAC offers a number of short business courses for corporate clients, including:

• Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)/Call Centre Management
• Risk Management
• Project Management
• Taxation
• Balanced Scorecard training

Stakeholders

There are a number of stakeholders in BAC, the most notable including:

• Ministry of Finance
• Ministry of Education
• Debswana
• Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA)
• Tertiary Education Council (TEC)

With Strategic Partners including:

• The University of Derby
• The University of Sunderland
• The Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS)
• The Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA) among others

Alumini

Management Team

• Michael Lesolle FCCA ACPA - Executive Director
• David Cropper FCMA, CGMA - Director of Academic Affairs
• Ishmael Sebolao - Finance Manager
• Galamoyo Male MSc, BSc - Director of Computing Programmes
• Tebogo Mophuting MSc - Marketing & Corporate Development Manager
• Prinah Setlogelo BSc, MScHR - Human Resource manager
• William Sekgatsa BA - College Registrar
• Lorraine Koobokile BSc (Psychology), MA Counselling - Head of Student Support & Welfare
• Benjamin Yeboah BSc Hons - Francistown Centre Manager

Course Managers:

• Goodwill Nkala BA (Hons), MBA - Course Manager in Computing and Information Systems
• Oscar Chomba MBA, AIISA - Insurance Programmes Director
• Ayton Namwaza-Banda Bcom, Msc, ACCA - AAT Course Manager
• Elliot Luka MBA, FCCA, ACPA, ACFE - CIMA Course Manager
• Moses Mwalyambwile FCCA - ACCA Course Manager
• Eugene Mwaba ACMA, CGMA - BICA Course Manager
• Brian Chiyangwa MBA, ACCA, ICB - CIA Course Manager
• Cecilia Ramabu BCom, ACCA, MBA - Course Manager BURS Taxation Coarse
• Veronica Ofaletse - Programme Leader - BA(Hons) Business Enterprise Degree program, Business Hive Patron

References

External links

• Botswana Accountancy College  Official Website
• Botswana Accountancy College at the University of Derby

Coordinates: 24°40′49.26″S 025°55′34.4″E / 24.6803500°S 25.926222°E / -24.6803500; 25.926222