Mr. Fredrick Riaga

Professional Profile

Previously, Fredrick worked as the pioneer Chief Executive Officer of the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board whose sole mandate was to set accounting and internal auditing standards, prescribe risk management procedures and monitoring implementation of the set frameworks across the public sector in Kenya. As the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the Board, Fredrick established a robust Secretariat supported with strong systems for efficiency and effectiveness.

Prior to joining the Board, Fredrick spent ten (10) years working at the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya, the largest professional member organization in the East and Central Africa, as Chief Manager – Public Policy and Research. He led the Institute’s policy advocacy and research in the areas of governance and accountability. To drive financial oversight, he facilitated interventions with the Parliamentary Oversight Committees, the Parliamentary Accounts Committee and the Parliamentary Investment Committee. He also facilitated capacity building sessions for the two Committees on effective oversight.

Over the many productive years at the Institute, Fredrick championed public policy research, in which position, he oversaw the research function resulting in many research and position papers including and not limited to; Baseline Survey on the Success of Devolution in Kenya – ICPAK 2014; Study on Effectiveness of Audit Committees in the Public Sector in Kenya – ICPAK 2015; and Analysis of Kenya’s Revenue Performance from 2010 – 2015 – ICPAK 2016. Fredrick was equally instrumental in national budget making process having led the institute’s policy discourse with the National Treasury Budget Technical Committee as well as effectively engaged the National Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee.

He championed the international relations function at the Institute.   To this end, Fredrick facilitated negotiation and consummation of MRAs/MoUs with:

• The EACIA MRA
• ICAEW MoU
• SAICA MRA
• ZICA MRA
• ACCA MoU
• CPA Australia among others.

Relatedly, he coordinated the EAC agenda on integration within the regional accountancy profession. This was achieved as the Coordinator of the East Africa Community Institutes of Accountancy.

Fredrick has been a leading resource person on matters public finance and taxation. To this end, he did facilitate many training sessions organized through the Institute’s training programmes. He also represented the Institute at international for a at which he delivered well-thought presentations at workshops hosted by the World Bank in Cape Town – South Africa, Port Louis – Mauritius and Addis Ababa – Ethiopia and at UNCTAD Annual Conference in 2014 in Geneva Switzerland. For these efforts, Fredrick was awarded fellowship of the Institute in 2021.

Fredrick also served as a Member of the County Executive Audit Committee of the Government of Makueni County. He has coordinated governance of Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies through guiding the processes to establish the governing bodies as a member of the Nominating Committees of Mwalimu National SACCO Limited and Stima SACCO Limited respectively, the leading SACCOs in Kenya with joint asset base of over USD1 billion. He has recently, stepped down as the Chairman of the Nominations Committee of Ufanisi SACCO – Nairobi and also previously served as the Treasurer of Newlife SDA Church, Nairobi.

Prior to joining the Institute, Fredrick worked in the Tax Consulting unit at PricewaterhouseCoopers Nairobi, UNES Limited and NIC Bank Limited. Through the twenty-one (21) years of work experience, Fredrick has demonstrated competence in establishing institutions through onboarding structures, policy and accountability frameworks that create and manage value. He has thrived in nurturing stakeholder relations for mutual benefit.

Fredrick holds a Master of Business Administration Degree in Finance and Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) Degree, both from the School of Business of the University of Nairobi. Fredrick is a Fellow of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya and a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors – Kenyan Chapter.