ICAEW Foundation’s Building Futures bursary program provides much needed financial assistance to students of new professional accountancy qualifications in Malawi, Ghana, Lesotho, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Nepal.
In recent years we have grown our geographical reach and created our Building Futures programme. This programme provides bursaries to a growing number of talented and ambitious students undertaking new professional accountancy qualifications in countries such as Ghana, Malawi, Lesotho, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Nepal.
Our work during 2025 summarised:
Ghana
Khadijah Iddris was previously featured in our foundation video above in 2018 and has received support from the ICAEW Foundation throughout her PhD studies in finance, her ultimate ambition being that of becoming a lecturer in the subject. We are proud to report that Khadijah was awarded her PhD in 2024, gaining top marks when presenting her viva. Her thesis was titled ‘Foreign Bank Presence, Financial Development, Inclusive Growth and Foreign Direct Investment in Africa’.
During 2025, approval was given by the trustees for Khadijah to publish a book entitled ‘The Infrastructure Financing in Africa: What to Know’. The book is expected to be complete during 2026, with some hard copies displayed in London at Chartered Accountants’ Hall and available to purchase online.
Cambodia (KICPAA)
The first ever Cambodian professional accountancy qualification (ATQ), due to launch in 2020, was delayed predominantly due to the impact of Covid 19. Nearly all students have been heavily impacted over the past three years as not only were they unable to get the usual part-time jobs to fund their studies but in addition, all universities/colleges remained closed throughout 2020 and only reopened at the beginning of 2023.
£25,500 was approved in 2020 to support forty students over 2 years studying the new ATQ. This finally launched and the first instalment of £12,750 was paid in January 2023 with the second instalment due to be paid during 2026.
Zimbabwe (ICAZ)
In 2010 ICAEW signed a reciprocal membership agreement (RMA) with ICAZ which was renewed in 2012 and again in 2023.
The bursary scheme gives students who are facing economic hardship an opportunity to obtain relevant degrees and train to become Chartered Accountants, delivering against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by allowing social mobility and gender balance.
Sri Lanka (CASL)
ICAEW has worked with CA Sri Lanka (CASL) for more than 20 years and signed the first recognition agreement with them in 2010 which set out an expedited route to membership for appropriately qualified members of both bodies. This was renewed in 2014, 2018 and again in 2023.
The Joint Student Scheme, provides good graduates in economic hardship an opportunity to become ICAEW Members, thus providing them with international employment opportunities, provide an important milestone in the ICAEW-CASL partnership and raise ICAEW’s and the ICAEW Foundation’s profile in Sri Lanka.
Since launching the Joint Student Scheme, ICAEW has delivered several workshops, both face-to-face and virtually to promote the scheme to students; approximately 105 students have joined to date, including 10 from a previous bursary funded by ICAEW Foundation.
ICAEW have also received high levels of support from the big four and key firms in Sri Lanka who are keen to help ICAEW and CASL to promote this route to their existing and future trainees.
Nepal (ICAN)
ICAEW’s long-standing collaboration with ICAN dates back to 2015, when the two institutes began working together under a UK Government–funded initiative to strengthen ICAN’s Professional Qualification (PQ). Since then, ICAEW has supported ICAN through successive phases of qualification review and development, including a major World Bank–funded project in 2022 that modernised the PQ syllabus, developed new tuition guides, and delivered tutor and examiner training.
In August 2024, the ICAEW International Capacity Building team embarked on a year-long project, the first of its kind for ICAEW, which was self-funded by ICAN to develop a set of internationally aligned learning materials. This project was successfully completed in August 2025.
This ongoing partnership has strengthened ICAN’s capacity to deliver an internationally benchmarked qualification, creating a strong platform for the introduction of a bursary scheme that will enable talented but financially disadvantaged students to access and complete the new ICAN qualification.
The ICAEW Foundation approved £36,300 for 15 ICAN students to support them through the new ICAN Professional Qualification. This will be a four-year project, commencing in 2026 with completion scheduled for 2029.
Make a donation
ICAEW Foundation’s bursary programmes depend entirely on the financial support of ICAEW members. You can donate by setting up a regular payment via direct debit or by making a one-off gift. ICAEW members also have the option of including a donation to ICAEW Foundation when renewing their annual membership on the online member renewal donation.
