Mr. James Akonor Afari holds a Final Certificate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana and Parts I & II Certificates of the Institute of Data Processing Management, London, IDPM, now IMIS. Mr. Afari is a Chartered Accountant with well over thirty –one (31) years post qualification experience in Accounting, Auditing, Taxation and Finance, Local Governance and spanning from the public service, commerce, industry, education, private practice, consultancy and local governance. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana).

He was an Audit Manager with KPMG and has more than twenty-eight (28) years’ experience in the Audit of large Private and Corporate firms. He has enormous experience in computer system based auditing and review of internal controls. He has consulted for many organizations on Accounting, Financing, etc as well as organizing training programmes particularly for local government personnel. From 1985 to 1987, he lectured in Accountancy at The Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana). He has worked with the Ghana Internal Revenue Service as the Assistant Inspector of Taxes as well as an internal auditor for Food Specialist Ghana Limited.

He has also been involved in many projects in various managerial positions/capacities. A selected few include:

• Northern Region Poverty Reduction Programme, Tamale (Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development & Environment) -Financial Controller
• Project Accountant – Urban Environmental Sanitation Project (Urban IV), Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly, Sekondi (Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development & Environment)
• Financial Adviser, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) under the (Urban II Project)
• Finance Manager – Promoting Partnerships with Traditional Authorities Project (PPTAP), Manhyia Palace, Kumasi. An IDA Grant of US$ 5.0 MILLION to Asanteman Council to build the capacity of Traditional Authorities in Asanteman to be responsive to development
  Between 1988 – 1992, he was a member of the Accounting and Auditing Standards Committee of The

Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana. He was also part of a team that did the preparatory studies and work which led to the formation of the Ghana National Accounting Standards Board.

He has been associated with WasteCare as the business development and finance expert. He has played a leading role in the preparation of the Strategic Environmental Sanitation Investment Plan (SESIP) – a first attempt at providing a financing plan for environmental sanitation services in Ghana. He has also been involved the Youth Engagement in Service Delivery (YES)/ Value-Chain Analysis (VCA) of Solid Waste Management in Accra, Ghana project by Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF)-Ghana.

James Afari’s current vision is to institute a sustainable financial performance monitoring and evaluation systems for all environmental sanitation services and to spur micro, small, and medium-scale enterprises to engage in the re-use, recycling, and recovery business.