"Doing good is the reason we exist"

Improve Your Chances

We promise to provide you with the tools you might need to improve your chances of making it big and provide for your family, whether as junior bookkeeper, accountant, financial manager, financial director or accountant in practice.

We will continuously engage with government, employers, legislators, and SMEs to explain and demonstrate the value of CIBA’s training certificates and designations with the aim of influencing them in a way that will give you more job opportunities.

"We will help you stand a little bit taller so you get noticed"

A recognized controlling body and registered professional body for business accountants

• CIBA is a professional body for accountants.
• CIBA was established in 1987 as one of many professional bodies within the accounting sector. CIBA members were granted accounting officer status on 7 July 1996. Accreditation was also granted to the Institute in terms of the Namibian Close Corporations Act, 1988, on 13 June 2006. The Institute is registered as a Non-Profit Company (NPC) under the South African Companies Act, 71 of 2008, and are governed by a board elected by members. We have more than 9000 members and are a level 2 BBBEE contributor with more than 60% black membership.
• We have the legal authority to verify and monitor the delivery of quality professional services by business accountants.
• We are authorised to issue designations as registered with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) in terms of the National Qualifications Framework Act, Act 67 of 2008 and the SAQA Policy and Criteria for Recognising a Professional Body.
• The Act, Regulations and Policies require that we:
  1. Be a legally constituted entity with the necessary human and financial resources to undertake its functions, governed either by a statute, charter or a constitution and be compliant with and adhere to good corporate governance practices.
  2. Protect the public interest in relation to services provided by its members and the associated risks.
  3. Develop, award, monitor and revoke its professional designations in terms of its own rules, legislation and/or international conventions.
  4. Submit a list of members in a form acceptable to SAQA;
  5. Set criteria for, promote and monitor CPD for its members to meet the relevant professional designation requirements.
  6. Publish a code of conduct and operate a mechanism for the reporting and investigating of members who are alleged to have contravened the code.
  7. Not apply unfair exclusionary practices in terms of membership admission to the body or when recognising education or training providers, and
  8. Make career advice related information available to SAQA.
• We protect the public interest by adopting and enforcing standards of ethics, conduct, quality, and service engagement standards that seek to ensure the delivery of accountable and transparent professional service.
• In this way we protect the interest of government, CIPC, SARS, SMEs, Corporates, and the general public. We regulate the following services provided by designated and licensed business accountants:
  1. Tax compliance, Preparation of financial statements, Compilation, Agreed Upon Procedures, Accounting Officer Reports, Limited Assurance reports, Assurance on non-financial information, Commissioner of Oaths, Business Rescue Practitioner Engagements, Tax Returns and Advise, Financial Intelligence Reports (Namibia). Business advisory services.
• We are further required to monitor the professional engagements performed by our members in terms of the following statutes and supporting regulations:
  1. Tax Administration Act, 2011, Companies Act, 71 of 2008, Immigration Act, 13 of 2002, Justices of the Peace and Commissioners of Oaths Amendment Act, 1967, Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act, No. 8 of 2011 (Exemption from Chief Ombud), Trust Property Control Act, 57 of 1988 and the Trust deed, SA Schools Act 84 of 1996, Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002 (Accounting Officer exemption), Non-profit Organisations Act 71 of 1997, National Credit Act 34 of 2005 (Application submitted), Co-operatives Act 14 of 2005, Fund-Raising Act 107 of 1978, Lotteries Act (No 57 of 1997), Broadcasting Act, Act No 4 of 1999, BEE Act 53 of 2003 (Affidavits for EME BBBEE Certificates), Construction Industry Development Board Act No. 38 of 2000, Immigration Act, No. 13 of 2002, Namibian Financial Intelligence Centre Act, No. 13, 2012, Tax Administration Laws Amendment Act 21 of 2012, Close Corporations Act 69 of 1984.

We help accountants help clients run better business.

• We support our designated members with career guidance, mentoring, coaching, practice management support, and technical resources.
• We issue six designations relevant to a variety of job functions within the finance department, as follows:
  1. Bookkeeper / Abbreviated as CBK:
     • Chartered Bookkeeper based on a NQF4 qualification,
  2. Financial Administrator / Abbreviated as CFAD:
     • Chartered Financial Administrator based on a NQF5 qualification.
  3. Financial accountant / Abbreviated as BA(SA) or CBAC:
     • Business Accountant (SA) based on a NQF6 qualification,
     • Chartered Business Accountant in Commerce based on a NQF6 qualification,
  4. Accountants in Practice / Abbreviated as BAP(SA) or CBAP:
     • Business Accountant in Practice (SA) based on a NQF7 qualification.
     • Chartered Business Accountant in Practice, based on a NQF7 qualification,
  5. Financial manager / Abbreviated as CBA(SA) or CFM:
     • Certified Business Accountant (SA) based on a NQF8 qualification.
     • Chartered Financial Manager, based on a NQF8 qualification,
  6. Financial Director / Abbreviated as CertFinOff(SA) or CCFO:
     • Certified Financial Officer (SA) based on a NQF9 qualification.
     • Chartered Chief Financial Officer, based on a NQF9 qualification.
• Designations are issued based on:
  1. Qualifications: Relevant, and CHE accredited university qualifications,
  2. Experience: Appropriate years of verified work-place experience,
  3. Assessments: Assessments that align the acquired academic, technical, and pervasive skills to competency frameworks relevant to each level of designation.
• Designations are maintained by:
  1. CPD: Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is mandatory for all levels of designations.
  2. Annual assessments: Relevant levels of designations are subject to annual ethics assessments, annual practice license assessments, financial controller assessment, CFO assessment.
  3. Professional Indemnity: BAP(SA) designations are subject to mandatory PI Insurance included in membership fees.
  4. Practice Support: BAP(SA) designations are supported by an extensive Practice Support Library and Accredited 3rd Party Providers.
• Designations are monitored:
  1. Conduct and disciplinary: All levels of designations are subject to the IFAC Code of Ethics and as relevant the IAASB Engagements standards.
  2. Disciplinary procedures: All designations holders are subject to an independent disciplinary process in response to complaints, and subject to random practice visits.
• Designations can specialize
  1. BAP(SA) that specialize are require to do a CIBA license prior to offer specialist professional engagements.
• Our BAP(SA) designated members are recognised in statute as accounting officers, independent reviewers, and independent accounting professionals. Section 60(4) of the Close Corporations Act, 1984 (accounting officers), Regulation 29(4) of the Companies Act, 2008 (independent review), List of Accredited Professional Bodies whose members are eligible to be licensed as business rescue practitioners, and Tax Practitioners as referred to in Section 240A of the Tax Administration Act.
• Our members operating in Namibia are included under the FIC Namibia (Accountable Institutions).

You Deserve to be Called an Accountant

“We believe that with the right exposure, commitment, support, and ability – anyone can be an accountant.”

So we remove all the nonsense and fluff from traditional entry requirements and allow you to show us what you are made of.

If you can pass our assessment process, and maintain your professionalism, then you deserve the right to be called an accountant.

By combining your hard work and potential with our knowledge and expertise, we can assist in fast tracking and future proofing your career.

CIBA’s purpose is to develop a community of successful accounting professionals who excel in their career goals.

To achieve our purpose, we focus on three core functions:

“JOIN - Building a community.”

“EARN - Offering reliable and relevant designations.”

“SHARE - Mutual Benefits with members, their clients and society.”

CIBA – a movement is born

In 1987, a new professional accountancy association is formed to provide a home for accountants focused on improving business performance as opposed to accountants that are just IFRS specialists.

The association is called the Chartered Institute for Business Accountants (CIBA).

“In 1990 CIBA obtains accounting officer status in South African and Namibia.”

In 2013, CIBA adopts a new business model that follows a bottom-up approach to the development of accountants.

“The old theoretical model based on 7 years of study to be called an accountant is outdated as it cannot keep up with the explosion of information. Just by studying for many years does not mean you know how business works and should not be used as the measure of whether you are a specialist.”

CIBA's New Business Model

The new business model recognises an accountant’s current competencies and based on their experience awards a designation.

“In real life all of us start of as junior bookkeepers and develop new skills and knowledge as we learn on-the-job and study further.”

CIBA’s assessments and courses are designed to give recognitions, and award designations to this evolutionary professionalisation process.  This new model allows CIBA to deliver thousands of new accountants to the South African market that are work ready and accessible to small, medium and large businesses alike.

In 2016 CIBA joins the International Association of Finance Executive Institutes (IAFEI) and registers the first ever world-wide designation for CFOs – the Certified Financial Officer (SA) or CFO(SA) in short.

In 2017 CIBA launches its publications: www.accountingweekly.com, www.cfotalks.com, and www.bandareview.com.

In 2018, CIBA is registered as a professional body with the South African Qualifications Authority in terms of the National Qualifications Framework Act, 67 of 2008.

Specialised Licenses for Accountants

Also in 2018 CIBA starts developing specialised licenses that allows general accountant members to obtain recognition as specialists in regulated and semi-regulated areas of accountancy, such as Independent review and Business Rescue, making them the only professional accounting association that allows for specialisation after having earned a general designation.  This model safe guards the public interest by ensuring only qualified accountants are allowed to perform specialist work whilst maintaining the market share of general accountants and keeping prices low for SMEs.

In 2019 CIBA establishes www.saiba.academy to become the centralised platform for all CIBA exams, courses and CPD’s grouped under:

• Qualify: For aspiring accountants that have a commerce degree and relevant experience but lack the critical subject to be awarded the designation BAP(SA). These subjects are: Accounting, Auditing, Tax, Management accounting, and Commercial law.
• Maintain: For general accountants that require CPD hours and need monthly updates on all changes in law or standards affecting them in the world of commerce or practice.
• Specialise: For general accountants that wants to add some spice to their practice by branching out into an area of specialisation such as independent review or business rescue.
• CFO: For CFOs, FD, and Finance Executives that require higher level critical thinking to equip them to be high performance CFOs.

In 2020 CIBA commences talks with the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) with the view of creating an alternative route to qualifying as a Registered Auditor.  This will allow for smaller company audit standards that could be serviced by small company auditors, with the ultimate aim of reducing the compliance burden for auditors that provide services to non-public interest companies.

At the start of 2022 the CIBA Board considered the international growth and expansion of CIBA and the relevance of our current designations to reflect our international expansion. The Board approved alternative designations for members working in international markets as shown below removing the reference to (SA) as limited to South Africa. In a similar way an alternative name for CIBA has been approved by the Board i.e. Chartered Institute for Business Accountants (CIBA):

• Chartered Bookkeeper,
• Chartered Financial Administrator,
• Chartered Business Accountant,
• Chartered Business Accountant in Practice,
• Chartered Financial Manager,
• Chartered Chief Financial Officer.

Telephone and email

Tel: 0126431800

Email: saiba@saiba.org.za

Physical address

South Africa - Pretoria:

The Workspace

Cnr Pinaster Avenue & 18th Street

The Club Shopping Centre

Hazelwood

Pretoria

South Africa - Cape Town:

Spaces Century City

No 1 Bridgeway Road

Bridgeways Precinct

Century City

Cape Town 7441

Namibia - Windhoek:

Regus Office Building

3rd Floor

Maerua Mall

Windhoek

Philipines: Makati City

FINEX Office

Unit 1901, 19/F

139 Corporate Center Valero Street

Salcedo Village

Makati City

1227