S. F. Ahmed & Co (SFACO) is a registered firm of accountants and consultants in Bangladesh and is nationally, and internationally, recognized as one of the leaders in contributing to professional practice for various undertakings in the public as well as private finance and other relevant sectors. It was established in 1958 and has successfully completed assignments for a large range of clients including the national government and international funding agencies and has been providing accounting, auditing, tax advisory, consultancy, corporate secretarial services and business advisory services to various multinational and local clients, such as, banks and non-banking financial institutions, and those engaged in oil, gas and power generation, telecommunication, mobile phones, manufacturing and trading, government, semi-government, autonomous bodies, non-government organisations, international donor agencies, etc. While SFACO's emphasis is on the design of appropriate solutions for local problems, its policy is to provide professional services compatible with the highest international standards.
SFACO is the first firm of Chartered Accountants that installed IBM computers in early 1960’s at the offices of the then Habib Bank Ltd of erstwhile East Pakistan, now Agrani Bank Limited of Bangladesh.
Areas of specialization
SFACO has undertaken numerous assignments for the rationalization and critical review, analysis and evaluation of performance of various levels of management of Bangladesh Government organs and agencies as well as of a wide range of non-Government clients in areas, like:
Performance evaluation of the entire country’s fiscal, budgeting, accounting and expenditure control practices (all computer-based) including standard outputs for presentation of national budgets in the national parliament of Bangladesh
- Reforms in Budgeting and Expenditure Control Project (RIBEC/DFID-financed)
Indepth critical review and evaluation of banking operation and portfolio management (for country's central bank, development financing institutions, nationalized commercial banks, foreign and national private banks) and banking economics (macro-level research) –– in most cases, encompassing the entire country –
- Financial Sector Reforms Project (FSRP/World Bank, USAID-financed)
- Bangladesh Shilpa Bank (BSB) and Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Sangstha (BSRS)
- Rehabilitation Project (USAID-financed)
- Rural Finance Experimental Project (RFEP/USAID-financed)
- Rural Finance Project (RFP/USAID-financed)
- Sonali Bank Restructuring Project (SBRP/World Bank-financed)
Review of life and general insurance management operation (accounting, reporting, regulatory, etc), pension and provident fund operations and of insurance regulations of the country – primarily targetting Jiban Bima (life insurance) Corporation and Sadharan Bima (general insurance) Corporation (ADB-financed)
Formulating policies and detailed implementation plans, in conformity with recommendations of Asian Development Bank and their agreement with Government of Bangladesh, for splitting ICB by functions, formation of 3 new subsidiary companies to undertake functions to separately operate in capital markets, namely, merchant banking, asset management (and mutual fund operation) and securities trading (stock brokerage); preparing financial projections; designing all necessary operational manuals, etc.
- Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB)
Project management (planning, designing the infrastructure, appraisal and evaluation of projects and logistic support)
- Numerous projects, targetting manufacturing industries, service-oriented industries, banking and insurance organizations, social projects, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), etc.
Business and commercial laws, fiscal and taxation policy, internal resource mobilization and expenditure control
Fund and liquidity management
Accounting, auditing, internal control, budgeting and performance evaluation
- Numerous assignments covering a large range of clientele drawn from various ministries of Government of Bangladesh, and its bodies and units, multinational companies, national listed and unlisted companies, special and social projects, NGOs, etc.
Reporting techniques and inventory management
Computerized data processing
- Numerous assignments, both for foreign- and locally-funded business organizations and entities
Resource personnel and human resource management
Valuation and due diligence review
- Numerous projects with both foreign and local investments
Training
- Numerous assignments, on our own as well as in association with our local and foreign associates.