The accounting industry in Nigeria is grappling with a twin crisis: the exodus of skilled professionals and persistent gaps in technical competence.
The profession in Nigeria stands at a turning point, as a growing wave of talent migration, popularly known as “brain drain” or the “Japa” movement, combined with widening skill gaps, has created a significant threat to the industry’s future.
Both public and private institutions are feeling the impact, and the consequences go far beyond staffing challenges.
These challenges, experts say, are undermining the quality of financial reporting, weakening institutional capacity, and exposing deficiencies in accounting education across the country.
Olusegun Vincent, a senior lecturer at Pan Atlantic University (PAU), speaking at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) public lecture, held at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), emphasised that talent retention and competence gaps is two critical issues confronting the accounting ecosystem in the country.
“Talent retention is the ability of an organisation to keep a skilled and high-performing employee over time.
“In the accounting profession, it involves ensuring that qualified accountants, auditors, and finance practitioners remain within the firm, institutions, or the public sector rather than migrating to other industries or countries,” he stressed.
Competence gap refers to the mismatch between the skills accountants currently possess and those required to perform effectively in today’s complex business environment.
According to Ekpamfon Akrasi, the financial controller at DormaSigns Limited, many firms face shortages of accountants and financial experts.
“When an organisation lacks talented and competent staff, minimisation of cost becomes impossible,” he said.
“In accounting, we have different branches, including reporting, fiduciary, internal control, auditing, taxation, software, and forensic, among others. The ability of the organisation to retain an expert will cost the organisation even more,” he added.
Vincent pointed out that younger professionals seek flexible, self-driving careers, leading to high labour turnover in traditional accounting firms.
However, continuous professional development is often lacking, especially in non-professional practice companies. This, he said, is a major issue confronting practice.
“If you go to any firm that is very active, you will be told that the major crisis currently is lack of manpower. People will weep that we operate a medium firm when data skills are in the hands of people. As we are claiming, after two years the guy is leaving.
For either CWC, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, or KPMG. Because they want them to take them abroad and start running. And we have wasted, we have spent resources on these firms.
“And this is to attest to the fact that currently there is a competence gap in this profession. The Spanish agribusiness talent. As we do for exactly several million firms that have trained themselves,” he said.
Nonetheless, the university don believes that the accounting profession is still a very lucrative profession, provided one has the experience, capabilities, and skills.
Sanmi Akintunde, an accountant, speaking on the effects of talents exit from organisations, said, “When experienced staff exit, firms lose institutional knowledge, leading to weaker audit quality and higher risks of errors.”
Akintunde emphasised that skills fall behind because of obsolete curriculum, lack of investment on technology and over focus on compliance, among others.
“Accounting education in many tertiary institutions and even some professional training programmes are slow to update their content to cover critical modern fields like data analytics, cybersecurity assurance, and environmental, social, and governance reporting.
“Training often prioritises rote memorisation and compliance with existing standards over developing higher-order skills such as critical thinking, risk assessment, strategic communication, and complex problem-solving,” he noted.
In addition, he said, “Many firms and businesses, particularly SMEs, do not invest in advanced accounting software, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, or data visualisation tools, leaving their staff technically underdeveloped.”
Akrasi reiterated that the possible reasons for talents retention and competence gaps include poor reward and compensation system, poor succession plan, and advancement opportunities.
Others are toxic work environment, unbearable workload, and poor technological advancement.
The way forward
Akrasi urges organisations to make the reward and compensation system competitive, encourages flexible work arrangement, and introduction of a remote system.
Besides, he advocates for a well explained and implemented promotion procedures and structure.
“Training should be encouraged at all levels, and on the job assessment should also be encouraged,” he noted.
For Akintunde, organisations should create workplaces where young professionals can thrive, equipping practitioners with digital-age skills, and promoting a culture of innovation and ethics.
“We can reposition the accounting profession as a cornerstone of Nigeria’s economic future,” he said.
