By Stanley Opara
Tuesday, 23 Nov 2010
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria has urged government to expeditiously amend relevant legislation to create an enabling environment for the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards.
The accounting body also identified corruption and sharp practice as the bane of Nigeria‘s development efforts.
The institute in the recommendations from its 40th Annual Accountants‘ Conference made available to our correspondent on Monday, urged all professionals and Nigerians in general to revisit the nation‘s value system. According to it, there will be a framework for addressing developmental challenges and the crisis in the financial sector.
The recommendations which were signed by the President, ICAN, Maj.-Gen. Sebastine Owuama (retd), commended the government for unveiling its road map for the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards from 2012.
The institute and regulators were also urged to build technical capacity to ensure a seamless transition from the subsisting Nigerian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles to IFRS.
The initiative, the institute said, should be complemented by a regular skill renewal programme, which would mean creating the required awareness among members and amending the accounting curriculum of tertiary institutions to incorporate IFRS and ethics.
ICAN pointed out that an effective internal control system could play in corporate entities particularly in terms of compliance to financial policies, asset security and waste elimination.
In order to check revenue loss, accountants were advised to be involved in internal control to embrace and adopt the novel Control-Based and Transaction-Based Audits as a way of further adding value to their organisations.
To raise the quality of financial reporting in the country, ICAN recommended the mentoring of small and medium-sized firms by big firms.
It also acknowledged the important roles that small and medium-sized enterprises could play in terms of employment generation, skills development, wealth creation and by extension, in the nation‘s economic development process.
Chartered accountants were, however, told to get involved in the affairs of SMEs by providing them with value-added solutions and technical expertise, as well as striving to mentor at least 10 SMEs beginning with entrepreneurs in their respective families.
Source: Punch
