Duramany-Lakkoh Urges Accountants to Shape Organisational Strategy

Professor Ezekiel Kalvin Duramany-Lakkoh has urged management accountants to take a more active role in organisational strategy, arguing that their contribution should extend beyond the preparation and reporting of financial figures.

He made the call during a 2026 convocation in Ghana while reflecting on his admission as a Chartered Global Management Accountant. Duramany-Lakkoh, who works at the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), a constituent college of the University of Sierra Leone, said the profession should be closely involved in the decisions that shape institutional performance and long-term sustainability.

“Accounting has gone far beyond reporting figures,” he said, according to the account of his remarks.

Broader responsibilities for accountants

Duramany-Lakkoh said management accountants should provide executives and boards with informed financial and commercial perspectives on investment, performance, sustainability and governance.

He said they should help decision-makers understand risk, assess performance and consider the long-term consequences of proposed actions. Their responsibilities, he added, should include testing assumptions, explaining the financial implications of decisions and supporting the responsible allocation of resources.

He identified budgeting, forecasting, cost management, financial modelling, internal control and risk assessment as core areas of the profession. Financial information, he said, is most useful when it is converted into practical insight that supports sound decisions and accountability.

At board level, he said accountants should help directors assess an organisation’s financial resilience, determine whether investments are aligned with institutional priorities and establish whether management forecasts are supported by reliable evidence.

Governance and professional collaboration

Duramany-Lakkoh separately addressed an executive training programme in Accra organised by the West Africa Bankers Association. In those remarks, he said effective governance depended on cooperation among boards, company secretaries, human resource leaders and other professionals.

He also called on non-executive directors to provide independent oversight and ask difficult questions about management decisions and institutional risks.

Duramany-Lakkoh said he had qualified as a Chartered Accountant years earlier and had long been interested in management accounting because of its links to financial strategy, corporate finance and enterprise risk management.

IPAM expands regional cooperation

The remarks came as IPAM advances a 2025–2028 agenda focused on strengthening its academic programmes, facilities, partnerships and institutional services. The agenda includes sustainability, digital transformation, entrepreneurship and closer links between academic programmes and employment.

On 22 September 2026, IPAM signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Liberia Institute of Public Administration. The agreement provides a framework for cooperation in public administration, governance, procurement, entrepreneurship, professional development and digital transformation.

The available account does not specify an implementation timetable or outcomes for the agreement.

IPAM has also been developing facilities as part of its institutional agenda. A four-storey annex at the institution’s Old Campus is expected to provide lecture theatres, seminar rooms and faculty offices when completed. The institution was also preparing to commission facilities at its A.J. Momoh Street campus on Tower Hill.

Duramany-Lakkoh encouraged alumni and other partners to support IPAM’s institutional development, while the progress of the wider transformation agenda will depend on implementation across facilities, student services, academic programmes and partnerships.