Just in: Nigeria’s first chartered accountant, Akintola Williams, dies at 104

Nigeria’s first indigenous chartered accountant, Akintola Williams, is dead. The doyen of accounting died at the age of 104.

According to a source, who does not want to be mentioned, Williams died at his house in Lagos, on Monday (today).

The graduate of accounting at the University of London was born in 1919.

He began his education at Olowogbowo Methodist Primary School, Bankole street, Apongbon, Lagos Island, Lagos, in the early 1930s; the same primary school his late junior brother Chief Rotimi Williams attended.

His youngest brother Rev James Kehinde Williams was a pastor in the same church. Olowogbowo Methodist Church.

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His firm, founded in 1952, later grew organically and through mergers to become the largest professional services firm in Nigeria by 2004.

Williams participated in founding the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. During a long career, he has received many honours.

Williams played a leading role in establishing the Association of Accountants in Nigeria in 1960 with the goal of training accountants.

He was the first President of the association. He was a founding member and first president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. He was also involved in establishing the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

He remained actively involved with these organisations into his old age. At a stock exchange ceremony in May 2011, he called on operators to protect the market and ensure there was no scandal. He said that, if needed, market operators should not hesitate to seek his advice on resolving any problem.

In 1982, Williams was honoured by the Nigerian Government with the O.F. R. Following retirement in 1983, Williams threw himself into a project to establish a music centre and concert hall for the Music Society of Nigeria.

In April 1997, Williams was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to the accountancy profession and for promotion of arts, culture and music through the Musical Society of Nigeria.

The Akintola Williams Arboretum at the Nigerian Conservation Foundation headquarters in Lagos is named in his honour.

On 8 May 2011, the Nigeria-Britain Association presented awards to John Kufuor, past President of Ghana, and to Akintola Williams, for their contributions to democracy and development in Africa.