July 09, (THEWILL) – To tackle socio-political challenges facing Nigeria today, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to populate his cabinet with chartered accountants.
ICAN also commended the President for some economic reforms within a short period of time in office, particularly in the areas of fuel subsidy removal, foreign exchange rate unification and clean energy transition.
The professional body, which strongly believes that, as an accountant, the President will understand clearly what they are saying, made the submission in an official statement issued weekend.
The statement signed by the ICAN President, Innocent Okwuosa, stated that ICAN identifies with some bold economic policy reforms, which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has initiated within the short time of assumption of office, such as the removal of fuel subsidy and exchange rate unification, as outlined in previous position papers
It further added that “We also identify with his support for a clean energy transition that factors in the vast gas resources of the country, which in our view, is energy justice and will reduce debt exposure of the country.
Commending the President, the body stated that “We commend him for these quick and bold actions, drawing attention to consideration of the plight of those within the low-income bracket.
“However, another quick and bold action, which the President must take as he considers his ministers, is the appointment of more chartered accountants in his cabinet,” they added.
According to the body, the socio-political challenges facing Nigeria today call for the intervention of chartered accountants in public governance.
Chartered accountants, ICAN maintained, should man key sensitive positions requiring proper accountability as there cannot be effective public governance without accountants.
It also pointed out that the study ICAN conducted provides evidence, which shows that there is a positive correlation between having more chartered accountants within a workforce and better organisational performance.
Explaining further, it stated, “In other words, organisations that employ more chartered accountants perform better than those employing less chartered accountants in terms of service delivery and financial performance.
“This has been proven empirically by drawing experiences from Zenith Bank, Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) and Lagos State Government. These three organisations span the private sector, a government agency and State Government respectively.”
ICAN emphasised that the body believes that President Tinubu’s administration will experience same performance success if more chartered accountants are engaged by his administration.
“Today, we are looking for a Minister of Finance that will clean up government monetary policy. What we need is a chartered accountant economist i.e. an economist that is a chartered accountant and not just an economist alone.
“We want to state that within the ICAN chartered accountants, we have economists, engineers, doctors, pharmacists, architects, political scientists, pastors, imams, you name it. So, inherent in ICAN chartered accountants are other disciplines while accounting and finance predominate,” it said.
According to ICAN, when accountability permeates every cabinet member and his or her ministry, corruption will be minimised, better governance elevated and Nigerians will instantly begin to feel the dividend of democracy.
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About the Author
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
