ICAN vows to checkmate proliferation of accountancy bodies

•Urges FG to unleash human capital to reduce borrowings

By Chinwendu Obienyi

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has vowed that it will checkmate the proliferation and balkanisation of the accounting professional bodies in the country.

 This is even as the institute called on the Federal Government to reduce borrowing by unleashing its human capital in the nation.

 The 59th President, ICAN, Dr Innocent Okwuosa, stated this during a press conference in Lagos on Tuesday. He noted that the accounting profession in Nigeria is currently facing an existential threat arising from proliferation and balkanisation of regulatory bodies, stressing that the Council will engage more with other professions in Nigeria as well as cooperate with any national Professional Accountancy Organisation (PAO) in order to make the practice what it should be.

 Okwuosa said, “What happened with proliferation is that quacks come into the profession and accept everything when it comes to rendering a service. It is something that the profession needs to work on and we hesitate to talk about how this new profession that emerged recruits members. 

 When you look at the process through which they recruit members, you would see the challenge we are talking about. I do not want to stir a controversy, but a situation where someone sits in his house and a certificate of membership is posted to him without going through the rigours of what it takes to become a professional gives you an idea of the challenge. 

 This is because the process through which an individual becomes a professional can never be bought. One of the problems people have with the institute is because of its rigorous processes and they claim people do not pass the exams”.

 He noted that ICAN is on a new trajectory and will engage with the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) to finalise the amendment of ICAN Act taking into consideration the dynamics of the Nigerian environment.

 Okwuosa also stated that some of the loans taken by the government were not necessary as those funds could have been sourced internally by opening up other aspects of the economy.

 “We have vast and untapped resources. Why would the government not exploit these resources rather than taking the easy approach of taking loans? We understand that we do not even know about some of the mineral resources we have in this country. Can we not engage our scientists and engineers to go to work?

Take the oil industry for instance, we have been exploiting oil for over 60 years now, but I am not sure we have been able to develop indigenous scientists and engineers that can take up the roles of multinational companies that do these things. It is not as if Nigerians do not possess the skills, because it is these same Nigerians that go abroad and create groundbreaking records. But here, we do not have the enabling environment for them to excel. So, something must be wrong with creating an enabling environment to unleash the human capital that we have in this country.

If we are able to unleash the human capital that we have in this country, there would be no need to borrow”.