Financial Reporting Awards to be Held on October 25

NAIROBi, Kenya

Preparations for the excellence in Financial Reporting (FiRe) Award have kicked off in earnest with corporates submitting entries for the various award categories.

The FiRe Awards, which is in its 12th year, is theinitiative of the Institute of Certified Public Accounts of Kenya (ICPAK), the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Kenya and the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) seeking to promote transparency in financial reporting, fostering sound corporate governance practices, and enhancing both corporate social responsibility and environmental reporting in East Africa.

The preparations werelaunched today at the Stanley Hotel in Nairobi. In attendance was Mr. Stanley Mbugua, the CEO Institute of Certified Public Accounts of Kenya (ICPAK) and Mr. Paul Muthaura, Chairman, CMA.

This year, the guest of honour at the wards ceremony and gala inner to be held on October 25, 2013, will be Dr. Jendayi. E. Frazer, the Managing Partner of the Rwanda-Based East African Commodity Exchange and former U.S Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.

“The FiRe Award is an extremely important and prestigious award that promotes good corporate governance, transparency and corporate social responsibity,allkey stones for building the globally competitive and inclusive economies across East Africa that will serve all its citizen,” said Dr. Frazer in a pre-recorded video confirming her acceptance as Chief Guest.

The ceremony will be preceded by the second FiRe Award Conference on 24th October 2013 and the entries will close on 19 July 2013. Since its launch in November 2002, the FiRe Award seeks to promote and institutionalise transparency, integrity and accountability in the financial reporting by complying with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the CMA Guidelines on corporate governance and promoting disclosures on social and environmental initiatives by private, public and other entities based in East Africa.

One of the major benefits of participating in the FiRe Award is that each institution that submits its financial accounts also receives feedback from the FiRe Award evaluators, a confidential assessment of the highlights and shortcomings of their documentation.

The feedback is intended to enable the institution to improve on its reporting and by extension its communication with stakeholders The award categories will include overall winner, banks, insurance service providers, industrial and services, savings and credit cooperative societies, best Kenyan, Rwandan, Tanzanian and Ugandan companies, among other categories.