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The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has vowed to use every necessary mechanism to deal with the growing rate of mediocrity in the nation’s professional sphere and also fight the proliferation of accountancy bodies in Nigeria.
Ismaila Muhammadu Zakari, president of ICAN, said the ICAN had been under threat by some mediocre that want to set up accountancy bodies.
Zakari stated this in his opening address at the induction ceremony of the 99 candidates that qualified for certification in three faculties – Audit, Investigations and Forensic Accounting; Financial Reporting Standards, as well as Insolvency and Corporate Re-engineering.
According to Zakari, ICAN was invited by the National Assembly last month to make a presentation on bill seeking to establish Act for the creation of Chartered Institute of Forensic Accountant of Nigeria and Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Auditors in Nigeria.
“I led a delegation to the National Assembly, particularly to the Senate, to condemn the bills in strong terms. But just last week, our liaison person from the National Assembly notified us that the same bill was read in the House of Representatives,” he said.
The ICAN president, who assured members that the management was working to ensure that mediocre do not succeed with their plans, urged members to ensure that all hands were on deck to kill mediocrity in the accountancy profession.
“The motive behind setting up these proposed institutes was basically for money making. From the investigation carried out by ICAN, the people behind these bodies were Nigerians, who failed to pass ICAN certification examination,” he said.
He further disclosed that the people behind the new bodies also argued that Forensic Accounting, which is an arm of accountancy, was a different profession. “We already have two searches from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) confirming the existence and membership composition of the new bodies,” he said.
Stating that Forensic Accounting is one of the seven faculties created by ICAN Council as part of the strategy to address the post qualification specialisation needs of members, he said these faculties have been in the forefront of building capacities in their different areas of specialities. “With the certification, we hold forth that members are competent and qualified to deal with any matters arising from their respective areas of specialties.
“Today, 99 candidates passed the rigorous qualifying courses characterising our faculty examination; 47 of them would be admitted as Certified Forensic Accountancy of Nigeria (CFA) to bring the total number of specialists in this field to 478; another 41 will be given certificates in IFRS bringing the total certified number to 264. Another 11 candidates would be awarded with the certificate of Insolvency to increase the number to 26,” he said.
The ICAN president assured that the Institute regulates ethical standards for the profession and has strong mechanics for enforcing its compliance by members. He however charged the successful candidates in all certifications to continue to fly the profession’s flag of honesty, integrity and excellence.
