Lessons from Technology Infusion in Accounting During COVID-19 in the African Context

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has altered the status quo of every aspect of life globally. Its most impactful effect was the drastic acceleration of the adoption of emerging technologies by most economic sectors globally, with businesses moving online. This drastic shift also affected the accountancy profession globally. However, accounting firms in the majority of African economies have always lagged behind in terms of adopting digital technologies for various reasons. The pandemic introduced a new normal that saw a transformation of the way accountants conducted their work after adopting technology. The new status quo was a unique global experience that warranted new research to be conducted to identify lessons from the accelerated infusion of technology in accounting practices during the pandemic crisis. Therefore, this chapter sought to present key lessons drawn from the infusion of accounting technology during the COVID-19 pandemic from the African context. This study contributes to the scarce literature on the impact of technology adoption by accountants during a pandemic crisis. A critical review complemented with content analysis was employed to achieve the study goal. The study identified three categories of lessons, namely, tactics that worked for accountants in coping with the pandemic, opportunities arising from technology infusion in accounting, and wider ramifications for the future of accounting. The study concluded that the accountancy profession in Africa benefited more from the COVID-19 global crisis, as it always lagged behind the profession in developed economies in terms of adopting technology for practice. Furthermore, the silver lining of the accelerated adoption of technology in the accountancy profession in Africa not only provided opportunities but also underscored wider ramifications for the future of the accountancy profession on the African continent. This would speed up the changing of roles of accountants from mere generators of passive information only to having an additional aspect of the control function of management, as repetitive accounting tasks would be automated, thereby freeing more time to accountants for management tasks.