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From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Abakaliki Society and District, Ebonyi State, is poised to lay a solid foundation for prospective accountants in the state by catching them young.
As a matter of policy, the new leadership, headed by Mrs. Chima Ijeoma Okikechi, disclosed that the initiative was already on in some selected secondary schools.
Speaking at the inauguration of the new executive committee recently, Okikechi, who is the second female and eighth chairman of the chapter, said the idea was to harness the potential of some Ebonyi children to enable them become good and credible accountants in future.
She noted that the catch-them-young initiative would be quite productive even as she appealed to members of her team to work in oneness so as to surmount whatever challenges that might come their way.
She said: “My team has already geared up on how to get more student members; that is why we had made all the necessary arrangements on 24th May, 2022, to reach out to some SSS 3 students in different schools to prepare their minds towards ATS September Diet and I thank God that the outing was successful.
“We have equally concluded arrangements to enlarge the horizon by visiting some universities.”
She further listed other plans of her administration to include: going for membership drive by paying visits to their senior members and other colleagues who have been away for a long time, organizing digital training and retraining for members to enable them fit optimally into the digitalized world and creation of awareness about ICAN in the state and beyond.
“In the area of togetherness, my team as I earlier mentioned is set to bring all our members under one body because we believe in team work and we cannot be a team without being together,” Okikechi added.
Prior to this period, the new chairman had served the organization in the membership committee in 2015/2016 presidential year, Annual Accountants’ Conference Committee 2016/2017 and 2018/2019 presidential years consecutively, publicity and image committee in 2020/2021as well as 2021/2022 presidential years, among others.
National President of ICAN, Mallam Tijjani Isa, who performed the inauguration, said that the emergence of the new chairman was necessitated by the institute’s neutrality on gender issues. He expressed excitement for having carried out his first inauguration of a female chairman of the organization since assuming office.
“I am urging every member of the executive and the rest members of the District to readily offer Mrs. Chima Ijeoma their unflinching support. I also encourage the chairman to toe the path of all-inclusive leadership in line with the famous proverb that says, if you want to go far, go together,” he advised.
Isa disclosed that the ICAN was established by Act of Parliament No. 15 of 1965 mainly to regulate the accountancy profession which involves examinations characterized with the ethics of the profession for the interested candidates.
He further said: “I can recall that we started with 250 members but in our last count, we were more than 55,000 members and 69 other District Societies across the 36 States of the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory and five International Districts in United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Malaysia and Cameroon.”
He said the District Societies had embraced the vision of the professionals and are poised to promote accountability and transparency in their various jurisdictions in addition to giving mentorship to the prospective Chartered Accountants and building the capacity of the institution.
The Auditor-General of Ebonyi State, Dr. Uduma Udu, appealed to those who had not identified with the professional organization to do the needful to enable them belong to a body saddled with the responsibility of regulating their activities.
Udu counselled: “No matter the type of educational qualification one may have without belonging to this professional body, it is not acceptable in accounting profession because this is the body that can monitor the person’s conducts, so that if the person misbehaves, he will be disciplined and it equally encourages professionalism and behavioral ethics which one must adhere to strictly.”
