Winners of this year’s prestigious scholarship have been announced

Five winners from across three continents have won this year’s Simpson Scholarship which gives a helping hand with expenses to gain the ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Qualification.

The winners will have their exam fees, annual student or affiliate fees, and membership admission fees paid for them by the scholarship fund for up to five years, or until ACCA membership is achieved, whichever happens sooner. BPP Learning Media, ACCA’s Platinum Approved Learning Partner of content, is also providing them with study materials for every ACCA paper they are studying.

The 2012 winners are:

·Mr Goodluck Kewe - Kenya

·Mr Tiam Loong Tan - Malaysia

·Mr Kasirye Moses Sendagire - Uganda

·Miss Shahlimar Omar Shah - Pakistan

·Ms Borana Puto - Bulgaria

Alan Hatfield, director-learning at ACCA, said: “The talent of our scholarship winners is just outstanding. They have put in a lot of hard work into gaining their ACCA qualifications and the boost of the scholarship should hopefully help them to achieve it and lead to a fulfilling and successful career in the accountancy profession.

“The successful candidates showed they understood ACCA’s public value agenda and the role they can play. Judges also wanted to see that candidates understood and would exemplify ACCA’s core values such as opportunity, diversity and integrity. Innovation in accounting and advancing the profession were also key to the success of applicants.

“The judges were particularly impressed by candidates who have clear agendas to give something back to their communities and countries, especially where they have clear goals and plans. This helped to differentiate the applicants.

“It never ceases to amaze me the calibre of the applicants year on year. The decision was hard to make, but I wish all our applicants the very best in their future endeavours.”

For the chance to be awarded the scholarship, applicants had to have excelled in the exams they had already sat, and submitted a 1000-word essay on how the scholarship would help them achieve their full potential.

The Simpson Scholarship has been running in its current form since 2008. ACCA Fellow, Muriel Simpson, who left the remains of her finances in her will to ACCA in 1977, requested it run a scholarship to recognise the achievements of high-calibre students.

Last year’s winners came from China, Malta, Nigeria, Russia and the UK. Since 2008, the Simpson Scholarship has helped 25 ACCA students, from 17 different countries.

More information about the scholarship can be found at www.accaglobal.com/scholarship

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For more information, please contact:

Alana Sinnen, ACCA Newsroom

+ 44 (0) 207 059 5807

+44 (0) 7715 812120

alana.sinnen@accaglobal.com

Notes to Editors

1.   ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants. We aim to offer business-relevant, first-choice qualifications to people of application, ability and ambition around the world who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management.

2.   We support our 154,000 members and 432,000 students in 170 countries, helping them to develop successful careers in accounting and business, with the skills required by employers. We work through a network of over 80 offices and centres and more than 8,400 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide high standards of employee learning and development. Through our public interest remit, we promote appropriate regulation of accounting and conduct relevant research to ensure accountancy continues to grow in reputation and influence.

3.   Founded in 1904, ACCA has consistently held unique core values: opportunity, diversity, innovation, integrity and accountability. We believe that accountants bring value to economies in all stages of development and seek to develop capacity in the profession and encourage the adoption of global standards. Our values are aligned to the needs of employers in all sectors and we ensure that through our qualifications, we prepare accountants for business. We seek to open up the profession to people of all backgrounds and remove artificial barriers, innovating our qualifications and delivery to meet the diverse needs of trainee professionals and their employers.