Episode 36: A Profession in Motion: Three Stories Shaping Chartered Accountancy

A Profession in Motion: Three Stories Shaping Chartered Accountancy

The latest Chartered Accountants Global Update highlights how the profession is evolving in powerful ways.

First, Manuel Rodrigues shows what’s possible when financial expertise meets purpose. His organisation in Mozambique has built a self-sustaining micro-economy supporting thousands of farmers—proving that accountancy can drive real social impact.

Second, Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms (CBAM) are set to reshape global trade. With complex reporting and the UK rollout coming in 2027, the message is simple: start preparing now—or risk falling behind.

Finally, Accountancy Ireland has gone digital, reflecting a broader shift toward faster, more accessible, and sustainable content.

🔍 The takeaway

From rural development to climate regulation and digital transformation, Chartered Accountants are no longer just reporting on change—they’re helping lead it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello! Welcome back to the Chartered Accountants Global Update, the audio newsletter that keeps you connected to ideas, people, and developments shaping our profession across the globe. This is episode 36. Today we have three things worth your attention. A remarkable difference maker who's using his chartered accountancy training to build a microeconomy in rural Mozambique. A deep dive into carbon border adjustment mechanisms and what they mean for your clients and your practice. And some exciting news from Chartered Accountants Ireland about a digital upgrade to one of the profession's most trusted publications. Let's get into it. Chartered Accountants Worldwide has been exploring that question all through season four of Difference Makers Discuss, and one of the most compelling conversations in the series features Manuel Rodriguez, a chartered accountant qualified through the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, and the co-founder and managing director of EDP Mozambique. EDP stands for Escolha do Povo, which translates as the People's Choice, and that name really does capture what Manuel has built. EDP is a social enterprise operating in the Tet province of Mozambique. And when I say enterprise, I mean it in the fullest sense, we're talking about a vertically integrated operation that works with over 55,000 maize farmers and 14,000 soya farmers, supported by 11 retail stores, a commercial hatchery, and its own distribution network. Manuel calls it a microeconomy flywheel, and it's a beautiful description. Each component of the system feeds the others. EDP supplies farmers with seeds, fertilizer, and training. The farmers grow the crops. EDP buys the crops back and processes them through its own facilities. The feed goes to poultry production, which creates another income stream for local families. The stores provide accessible goods at affordable prices, fortified with added vitamins, and the whole thing turns, generating resilience and income where there was very little before. What makes Manuel's story particularly relevant for this audience is the role his chartered accountancy training played in all of this. Building complex multi-entity systems, managing cash flow across a frontier market, structuring operations to attract government backing and external funding, these are not things you improvise. Manuel qualified with both a law degree and a CTA, and he placed in the top ten in his board examinations. He became a managing director at twenty-nine, named in the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants Top 35 Under 35. And yet the story he tells is less about individual achievement and more about what's possible when rigorous financial thinking is applied to community problems. He joins host Sinead Donovan in the upcoming episode of Difference Makers Discuss, airing on the sixteenth of April. And I'd strongly encourage you to register and watch it in full. The details are on the Chartered Accountants Worldwide Website. But for now I'll leave you with the question Manuel's work raises for all of us. What happens when a chartered accountant decides the bottom line and community development are not in conflict, but actually drive each other? Now, if Manuel's story is about possibility, what you can build when you apply chartered accountancy skills expansively, our second topic is something a bit more immediate. It's about a regulation that is live in the EU and on its way in the UK, and which many businesses are still not prepared for. Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms, or CBAM, are essentially a carbon price applied to certain imported goods. The logic is this: if the EU has strict domestic carbon pricing, but goods can be imported from countries with weaker environmental standards at lower cost, you've created an incentive to outsource emissions rather than reduce them. CBAM closes that gap by applying a levy to high carbon imports, currently covering sectors like steel, aluminium, cement, fertilizers, electricity, and hydrogen. The EU CBAM has been in a transitional phase, and what's emerging from that experience is both instructive and somewhat sobering. Businesses are finding the data requirements complex. Supply chain visibility, knowing the embedded carbon content of what you're importing, is proving harder than anticipated, and regulators are watching compliance carefully. For UK-based importers, the timeline is clear. The UKCBAM comes into effect in 2027. That sounds like a comfortable distance, but the lead time required to build reporting systems, engage suppliers, and understand your exposure is significant. A recent webinar delivered in partnership between Chartered Accountants Worldwide, the Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland, and Chartered Accountants Ireland brought together a CBAM regulator and advisors working with clients on the ground. The consistent message was start now. And here's where I want to bring in that broader question, because I think it applies beyond CBAM, to almost every complex regulatory shift we face. How you think about a challenge like this shapes how you respond to it. If CBAM is framed as a compliance burden, a cost to be minimized, a reporting obligation to be met, you will likely do the minimum necessary and remain exposed. But if it's framed as a signal, about where supply chains are heading, about how carbon accounting will become embedded in financial reporting, about the role chartered accountants will play as sustainability and finance converge, then the response looks completely different. You're ahead of it, rather than behind it. That reframing, that shift in how we approach the problem may genuinely matter more than the mechanics of any individual regulation. It's something we'd encourage every member to sit with. For the full details on what EU and UKCBAM means in practice, the specific reporting requirements, how the regimes differ, and how to prepare your clients or your business, the webinar recording is available on the Chartered Accountants Worldwide Website, and there's also a dedicated register page through Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland if you want to access CPD credit. And finally, a piece of news that will be of particular interest to members of Chartered Accountants Ireland and anyone who's been a longtime reader of Accountancy Ireland magazine. Accountancy Ireland, one of the profession's most respected member publications, has just made the leap into a fully digital experience. Chartered Accountants Ireland has transformed the magazine into a dynamic app, available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. It brings together the editorial depth and quality you'd expect from the print edition, but with the advantages of a digital platform, real-time updates, intuitive navigation, and content available on the go wherever you are. It's the same rigorous journalism and thought leadership the magazine has always delivered, just faster, greener, and a lot easier to carry around. Worth downloading if you haven't already. That's your chartered accountant's global update for this edition. Three stories a chartered accountant transforming rural Mozambique, a regulatory shift reshaping global trade, and a beloved publication evolving for a new era. That's all for episode 36 of the Chartered Accountants Global Update. Until next time, take care.