Winner of 2016 National Accounting Olympiad

Byron Christou of King Edward VII School in Gauteng has been crowned the national winner of the 2016 National Accounting Olympiad

The other winners of each of the regions received the following:

• The winners in each region received R2,000 each
  
• The runner up in each region received R1,000 each

The National Accounting Olympiad recognises youthful accounting talent, and nurtures an interest in accounting as a profession amongst young South Africans. It attracts entries from South Africa's top high-school accounting pupils. This year's Olympiad attracted 4738 grade 11 and 12 learners from 373 schools from around the country, with cash prizes for the winners, runners-up and top educators in each province.

Gugu Makhanya, SAICA's Senior Executive Nation Building, says: "Our goal with the Olympiad is to support the transformation and growth of the chartered accounting profession in South Africa by sparking interest in accountancy as a subject at school level. The Olympiad draws the link between accounting at school and a possible career in an accounting or business field. This is in line with SAICA’s strategy to grow the number of chartered accountants as well as to transform the profession. Once again, we are delighted by the high quality of the entries and the superb results the learners achieved. We commend them and their teachers for their hard work preparing for the Olympiad - it shows that we have a great pipeline of accounting talent for the future. We do hope that these are the learners who will be looking after the economy of this country in future.”

Adds Steven Cohen, Head of Sage One International (Africa, Australia, Middle East and Asia): “We support this initiative each year because we know how important identifying and building young accounting talent is to South Africa's entrepreneurial future. We are always excited by the passion, dedication and skill we see among the participants and by how the competition grows every year.”