About ACCA Caribbean
Focus on the Caribbean
Although most of the islands in the Caribbean focus on tourism as their mainstay, many are also offshore financial centres, oil, natural gas and petrochemical producers, international clothing manufacturers and arts and crafts exporters. And to top it off, if you like to eat or drink we have the best and most diverse cuisine in the world.
The entire English-speaking Caribbean comprises merely about five million people. There are almost eighteen thousand active ACCA students and members, most of whom are from Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago.
ACCA's Office opening in the region
In 1998, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants held a meeting to assess and identify additional support for its stakeholders in the Caribbean. The stakeholders who attended this meeting included members, students, tuition providers, institutes of chartered accountants, public and private sector organisations and non-governmental organisations.
Subsequent to that meeting and consistent with the ACCA's drive to establish a committed presence in the Caribbean, the ACCA's council agreed to the opening of a Caribbean office in Trinidad, West Indies. This office (3rd Floor Tatil Building, 11 Maraval Road, Port-of-Spain) was officially opened in 1999.
Our stakeholders
The ACCA currently has joint scheme relationships with the national accounting institutes in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Barbados and Belize. In Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, the ACCA has joint scheme relationships for the professional and technician qualifications. These are new initiatives, along with the joint schemes in Belize.
The ACCA Caribbean Office, together with the local accounting institutes provide student and member support for the region. District Branch Societies for members and for students were formed in Tobago, St Lucia, St. Vincent, The Bahamas, Cayman Islands, and the British Virgin Islands. In addition to holding regular student, member and tuition provider meetings, the ACCA Caribbean Office, is largely responsible for Graduation ceremonies, Continuous Professional Development (CPD) seminars, Career fairs/visits to schools, Membership drives, Teachers' conferences and Charity drives.
Given the global portability of ACCA members and students, many of them pursue the ACCA qualifications and use it as a "stepping stone" to migrate to other countries - mainly Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.