President Muhammadu Buhari has called on the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN) at its 48th annual conference in Abuja to contribute to the Federal Government’s fight against corruption with professionalism while adding value through their book keeping and accounting profession.
Speaking on the theme of the conference on Tuesday, ‘Securing our shared future – a collective responsibility’ the President, who was represented by minister of budget and national planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, said the pillar of the current administration, hinged on: Fighting corruption, repairing the broken economy, and restoring the security, the ICAN body had a strong role to play in it.
“With regard to fighting corruption, your members could bring to bear, their special skills in reassuring that books are well recorded and professionalism entrenched in government business. ICAN and ICAN members are always in a better position to assist government,” he said.
Speaking further on the government’s efforts in addressing other concerns of the economy, he said, “When we came in 2015, we discovered that the economy is down, that is the reason why we developed the economic Recovery and Growth Plan. We are currently putting in place the right infrastructure that would help us diversify the economy away from oil.”
Further, the ERGP is already laying the foundation for the private sector as the economic engine for development, with the government working together to improve the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive, he said.
In his earlier remarks, Razak Jaiyeola, ICAN president, said the theme of this year’s annual conference was chosen to enable the professional body proffer key solutions to Nigeria’s programme.
“Nigeria is richly blessed but poor leadership has not helped it to optimised the opportunities in its resources,” he said.
Expressing concern on the recent United Nation’s Development Programme report, which ranked Nigeria lowly on human development index, he said professional body is determined to work with the government to deliver effective governance.
“Nigeria does not deserve to be struggling to attract foreign investment if we position ourselves well as the Africa’s largest economy. The poor, the weak, and the strong must have a strong sense of belonging to the Nigerian project. We must work hard to ensure that posterity reckons with us on our effort to make Nigeria a better place,” he said further.
