Certified Public Accountants (CPA) is so far the most popular certificate in Kenya, but considering employment dynamics in Kenya,ACCA is by far better than CPA-this is why
There is a general perception in Kenya that CPA has been diluted, which is true; it’s no longer the powerful professional course it used to be some years back when not more than 10,000 had the certificate.Nowadays,there are many loopholes that make the course ordinary.
To begin with, business profession has been flooded, rendering several graduates jobless. Nowadays, for every 10 bachelor of commerce graduates applying for the same position in a company, 9 have a certificate in CPA while one has a certificate in ACCA.If you are the one short listing for interviews, your eyes will be directed to ACCA because it stands out.
One thing you should note is that ACCA is a global course. If for instance you want a job in UK and you have a certificate in ACCA, nobody will question your qualifications. But if you have a certificate in CPA and you want a job in USA, gates might be closed for you. What are we trying to imply here, that ACCA will market you beyond Kenya.
As I write this, more than 200,000 Kenyans have completed the three levels of CPA, but only less than 2,000 Kenyans have ACCA qualification. One would wonder why Kenyans are not so enthusiastic about ACCA.It’s because they are used to shortcuts and easy things-they don’t want to hustle.ACCA is thorough and requires someone who is fully prepared to face the tough examination. But if you look at CPA, questions are almost the same year in year out and the people who set those exams are the same people who tutor at popular colleges in Nairobi.
Take this to the bank! Employers prefer ACCA graduates to CPA certificate holders. They know what they will get from ACCA graduates. Even the salary of ACCA graduates is higher than CPA holders. More interesting is that there are high chances of climbing the career ladder faster when in possession of ACCA to CPA.
The only advantage you’ll get when studying CPA is that there are many colleges which train the course.even so,Strathmore and Oshwal are popular colleges for ACCA.
The bottom line,ACCA is better than CPA