Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) says it is committed to use every necessary mechanics to assist the Federal Government in its effort to stamp out all financial malpractices in the country.
Razak Jaiyeola, president of ICAN, observes that growth and development will continue to elude any nation where corruption is institutionalised and the willpower to confront it frontally is low.
Speaking on Wednesday in Lagos at the induction ceremony of 1,706 newly qualified chartered accountants and 10 registered accountants, Jaiyeola said the body through ICAN Accountability Index (AI), a recently launched report, would improve the process for assessing public finance management and public governance practices across the three tiers of the Nigerian public sector.
Nigerians cannot shy away from the fact that accountants have strategic roles to play in the current fight against the hydra-headed monster of corruption in our polity, he said.
The ICAN president charged the new inductees, and other accountants, to continue to bring their competence and culture of integrity to bear in the fight against this social malady.
He further reiterated that as a responsible Institute, ICAN was committed to promoting the interests of all her members by engaging the government and other stakeholders on discussions that would safeguard an enabling business environment. Exceptional professional conduct would also be acknowledged and projected for emulation by other members.
Stating the need for the new inductees to continue to be relevant in the profession, he urged them to imbibe the culture of lifelong learning.
According to Jaiyeola, “In addition to your Information Technology skills, you should remain top-notch. The ability to leverage the disruptive impact of technology would continue to differentiate the successful accountants from the unsuccessful.
“The demand on professional accounts to remain at the frontiers of professional knowledge has never been so pervasive and exacting.”
The Institute continues to pride itself in the fact that the standards of ICAN’s examinations comply strictly with that specified by IFAC, and this has positioned the body as a leading global professional body, he said.
“To ensure that ICAN students are in tune with developments in the global accounting space, we regularly update and upgrade our examinations’ syllabi in line with current realities,” he said.
He observed that by going through the induction programme, the new chartered accountants would be enrolled and added not only to the current 45,103 members of ICAN but also as part of the over 3 million chartered accountants worldwide, under the umbrella of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).
