​On Tuesday 28th September, Botswana Accountancy College (BAC) launched the celebration of their 25th year anniversary, a milestone Debswana Diamond Company is proud of and applauds.
The college was the brainchild of Debswana in the 1980s when the company started training accounting students locally rather that in overseas institutions. As such, 25 years ago, when Debswana decided to invest in establishing an institution to train professional accountants, Botswana gained an innovative higher education institution that transformed many lives across the accountancy profession and other business principles. In 1987, four students were selected to study accountancy courses, namely AAT and CIMA. The small Debswana Accounting Training Centre, as it was called then, attracted the interest of Government who had identified a similar need in the public service and in the country and decided to enrol some public servants in the programme.
Debswana suggested that in view of the national demand for qualified accountants, the Government should become a shareholder rather than pay Debswana the training fees. The Government welcomed the idea which culminated in the merger between Debswana Accountancy Training Centre and Botswana Centre for Accounting Studies; and eventually led to the establishment of BAC.
The partnership continued as the best model that saw BAC growing in leaps and bounds. Debswana continued its support to a point where BAC was now able to run on its own financially. The annual financial contributions into the running of the college were discontinued. However, Debswana retained its shareholding and continued to support BAC through the Board of Directors representation to date.
Debswana is grateful that since its inception, BAC has been training, grooming and producing graduates with practical skills to take on the challenges prevailing in the constantly changing business environment we operate in. From the four (4) students trained in 1984, to date BAC has produced more than 13,000 graduates across all programmes.
​CONGRATULATIONS TO BOTSWANA ACCOUNTANCY COLLEGE (BAC) ON ITS SILVER JUBILEE YEAR!