The ruling All Progressives Congress, has mourned the death of the pioneer of the accounting profession in Nigeria, Pa Akintola Williams.
The APC mourned the death of Pa Williams through a post on its X handle on Monday, September 11, 2023.
Punch Metro had earlier reported the demise of the doyen of the accounting profession, who passed away, at the age of 104 years.
According to the Punch Metro, Pa Williams played an important in placing Africa on the global accounting map, alongside a major South African firm, led by Howard Pim.
Reacting to the news of his death, APC tweeted: “A grateful nation bid farewell to the Doyen of Accounting and an accomplished Statesman, Mr. Akintola Williams (104).”
Born Akintola Williams on the 9th of August, 1919, Pa Williams’s grandfather, Z.A Williams, was a merchant Prince from Abeokuta and his father, Thomas Ekundayo Williams, a clerk in the colonial service, set up a legal practice in Lagos, after his law training in London.
Late Akintola Williams attended Olowogbowo Methodist Primary School on Lagos Island, in the early 1930s, and CMS Grammar School, in Lagos respectively.
He however obtained a diploma in commerce, based on a UAC scholarship at the Yaba Higher College, before travelling to England in I944, to study Banking and Finance at the University of London, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1946.
He qualified as a Chartered accountant in England, in 1949, and because of his Youruba Chiefly background, Pa Williams was one of the founders of Egbe Omo Oduduwa Society, which Dr Oni Akerele was the President, and Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the Secretary, while in England.
He served as an assessment officer with Inland Revenue after his return to Nigeria in 1950, until 1952, when he left the civil service to found his private organization, Akintola Williams & Co in Lagos, which was the first ingenious chartered accounting firm in Nigeria, and the whole of the African continent.
