The legendary accountant Akintola Williams has passed on in the early hours of today September 11 2023. He was 104 years old.

He was born on 9 August 1919 and his grandfather was Z. A Williams a merchant from Abeokuta. His father was Thomas Ekundayo Williams, a clerk in the colonial service who set up a legal practice in Lagos after training in London. Akintola Williams was the older brother of Rotimi Williams popularly called Timi the Law and had a younger brother, the late Rev. James Kehinde Williams.

Akintola Williams attended Olowogbowo Methodist Primary School in Lagos in 1930 with his brother Rotimi. Akintola proceeded to CMS Grammar school, Lagos. He went to Yaba Higher College on a UAC scholarship obtaining a diploma in commerce. Thereafter, he traveled to England in 1944 to study at the University of London he graduated in 1946 with a Bachelor of Commerce. He became a chattered Account in 1949.

He was one of the founders of Egbe Omo Oduduwa Society in London with Dr. Oni Akerele as President and Chief Obafemi Awolowo as Secretary. When he returned to Nigeria in 1950, he served with the Inland Revenue as assessment officer until March 1952 where he left to found his accounting firm Akintola Williams and co that same year. That was the first indigenous chartered accounting firm in AFRICA. Nnamid Azikiwe’s West African Pilot was one of his clients as well as K.O Mbadiwe’s African Insurance Company. Other clients were Fawehinmi Furtinture, Ojukwu Transport, Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, Western Nigeria Development Corporation, Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation, Nigeria Railway Corporation, Nigeria Ports Authority and many others.

Charles S. Sankey was the firm’s first partner in 1957, followed by Mr. Njoh Litumbe from Cameroon who opened offices in Port Harcourt and enugu and spearheaded overseas expansion, including Camroons in 1964 Cote d’ivore, Swaziland and affiliates in Ghana, Egypt and Kenya.

By march 1992, the company had 19 partners and 535 staff according to Wikipedia. Demands grew as the result of the companies Act of 1968, which required that companies operating in Nigeria formed locally incorporated subsidiaries and published audited accounts annually. The drive in the early 1970s to encourage indigenous ownership of businesses also increased demand. In 1973, Akintola Williams consultancy headed by Chief Arthur Mbanefo spun off. The company acquired a computer service company and a secretarial service company in 1977 and entered into an agreement with Touche Ross International Based on profit sharing.

In 1983, Akintola Williams retired. April 1999 and May 2004, the firm merged with two other accounting firms to create Akintola Williams Deloitte (now Deloitte & Touche ) and became the largest professional services firm in Nigeria with a staff of over 600. Akintola williams played a leading role in establishing the Association of Accountants in 1960 with the goal of training accountants and became the first president. He was also the founding member and first president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.

He was involved in establishing the Nigeria stock exchange and also a member of the Federal Income Tax Appeal Commissioners 1958 to 1968. He was a member of the Coker Commission of inquiry into the statutory Corporations of the former Western Region of Nigeria in 1962.

SOURCE: VANGUARD