ICAN urges president to sign financial reporting council bill

PROF. Francis Ojaide, president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to assent to the Financial Reporting Council Bill recently passed by the National Assembly.

Ojaide made the plea at the inauguration of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) Certification Programme recently in Lagos.

According to ICAN president, the assent was necessary to achieve the nation’s laudable goals as embedded in Vision 20:2020.

Ojaide, who was represented by Mr. Doyin Owolabi, director of Faculty of Corporate Finance Management of ICAN, said that the bill, if assented to, would proffer solutions to problems associated with the nation’s general accounting principles.

He said that the certification programme was meant to strategically address the dearth of technical skills in the sector.

According to him, the programme would cover all aspects of IFRS, including ways of handling transition management and governance, among others.

He also said that the goal of credible financial reporting should be pursued conscientiously such that the quality of the financial statements produced by companies would be faultless.

Ojaide said that the institute commenced the programme not only as a part of its public interest mandate but also as a proactive strategy to bridge skills gap.

He urged other stakeholders to partner with ICAN to raise the quality of financial reporting in the country.

“With such co-operation, the cost of this crucial but expensive capacity building initiative can be significantly reduced such that all chartered accountants and others will participate in this value-laden programme,” he said.