Deloitte, Nigeria’s oldest indigenous accounting firm has engaged the Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN) on capacity building with the objective of updating them on issues relating to corporate governance as well as the new standards of reporting policy.
The forum, which is part of Deloitte’s corporate social responsibility, addresses issues relating to analysis of International Finance Reporting standards (IFRS) among others.
“We thought we should partner with them, interact with them so that both the shareholders, the professionals and everybody will put hand together to run with all the codes that are coming out, all the regulations and all that, to make sure we have a very sound business environment”, Augustine Nkwume, audit leader for Deloitte West Africa told BusinessDay after the forum.
Nkwume said the aim of the forum was to empower the shareholders, for people to recognize the enormous power, and the values shareholders, audit committee have.
He said the intention of Deloitte is to penetrate all the shareholders. But we are taking it bit by bit. We want to make sure it is not a one off thing. It is something that we will be doing often until we cover the whole shareholders”.
Also speaking with BusinessDay after the forum, Adebayo Adeleke, general secretary, ISAN, was pleased to have such interaction with Deloitte which he believes will promote more understanding of the sector.
“We have been able to narrow down certain issues confronting the audit committee as well enlighten the shareholders who serve on audit committee of companies. We are better informed and equipped to be able to render our functions as members of the audit committee of publicly quoted companies”, he said.
Making a presentation on ‘Analysis of IFRS financial statement’, Oduware Uwadiae, partner, ABPS, said the Accounting Policy of the firm should constantly be re-examined to ensure it reflects the way the business is run and its’ economic environment.
He advised the shareholders to always compare dividend payout with other companies in the industry before clapping their hands.
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