Emirati woman finds her place in auditing and accounting

Aisha Al Mazrou's interest was a far cry from her family's background in ship chandlery.

Aisha Al Mazrou, managing partner at Tamim Chartered Accountants, at her home in Sharjah. Reem Mohammed / The National

DUBAI // Aisha Al Mazrou’s interest in accounting was a far cry from her family’s background in ship chandlery.

But the 36-year-old Sharjah woman was adamant about starting up her own business in auditing.

“My father encouraged me at a young age to get into auditing,” she said. “He said there weren’t a lot of people in this field and that it would become a big market later on, so he really had a vision for the future.”

After studying accounting at the Higher Colleges of Technology in Dubai and graduating in 1999, Ms Al Mazrou started work at the family business.

“But I couldn’t focus on both opening a business and working with him,” she said. “So I went to the Ministry of Economy and applied for a licence to open my business 13 years ago.”

A few years later she was introduced to two Indian chartered accountants who became her partners.

“We basically help entrepreneurs do feasibility studies and show them what it takes to set up a business from start to finish,” she said. “There aren’t many local auditing companies and we’ve acquired a lot of experience in the past 13 years.”

Although Ms Al Mazrou has five children at home, all under 10 years old, she has refused to sit back as a silent partner.

“I think it’s important for me to be involved in the business because I know this is the future of our country and we will need businesses like this one,” she said. “I was not interested in just giving money and sitting on the side. I know people who have done that but that’s not what I’m interested in.”

Last year the company, Tamim Chartered Accountants, helped 155 companies, throughout the Emirates, to get on their feet.

“We believe this field has a wider scope because in the near future, they will introduce international financial reporting standards as mandatory with which all companies in the UAE will have to comply, which means they will have to be audited and present their audits,” she said. “So it’s inevitable that it is the future.”

She said her aim was to follow halal standards of auditing.

“In this part of the world, they view things from an Islamic point of view,” she said. “So we want to do it from an Islamic point of view and following Malaysia’s example is very important.”

Her family’s business genes were also passed down to her 10-year-old daughter, Layla.

“I can see that this generation is wiser than ours,” Ms Al Mazrou said. “We decided what major we would get into only when we got to university, but this generation knows what they want from an early age.

“My daughter doesn’t want to get into science or accounting, she feels she’s into art. That’s amazing to me – at such a young age to know what path you want to follow.”

She said she hoped more young Emirati women would become entrepreneurs.

“I can now see the results of all the hard work we put in,” she said. “And I have hope for the future generation of Emirati women, that they’re getting more into it. It’s important that we build the future of our country.”