‘Nigeria’s growth quest must start with fiscal discipline, infrastructure development’

Deacon Titus Alao Soetan, is the 52nd President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). He is a Fellow of the Institute and the Senior Partner, Baker Tilly-Nigeria (Chartered Accountants). A former accountant of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) from 1978 to 1979, who also became Partner and co-founder of Oyelami Soetan Adeleke & Co (1998 to 2005) and Senior Partner in the same firm (2005 to 2008) before moving to Baker Tilly, attended the City of Birmingham Polytechnic, United Kingdom (1976 to1977) where he bagged ACCA qualification. Soetan has been a council member of ICAN since 2004 and has served on various committees and sub-committees. He was member, Governing Council of Nigerian Accounting Standards Board (NASB); member, Budget Committee, Nigerian Baptist Convention (2000 to 2009); and chairman, Nigerian Baptist Bookstore Limited (2001 to 2009). In this interview with Bukky Olajide Soetan talks about ethics of the accountancy profession, empowerment of members and the need for government to inject more money into the productive sectors of the economy. Excerpts

What are your immediate tasks as you assume ICAN presidency?
My immediate task is to continue where my predecessors left. We have a continuing organization and that means that we work on rolling plans. So, when somebody leaves, another person takes over. Besides, my immediate plan is to take over effectively, improve on things that have been done in the past and where we need to initiate new things, we do it.

But as much as possible, there is continuity in our institute and in the profession and the consciousness to sustain the brand, make it more vibrant and institute of note, as well as the first choice among students and the public.

How would you assess accountancy practice in the country today with regards to ethics and professionalism?
We have come of age, but when we are talking of accountancy practice, I want to restrict myself to chartered accountants who are our members, as we don’t have control over any other persons’ practice. Before you could practice accountancy, you have a practicing certificate apart from being a member of our institute. Those are the ones that are licensed to sign audit opinion of companies.

So, for them, after they have qualified, they have to go through the rigours of acquiring practical experience, which is 36 months and then we are having a plan that the certificates of practice or licence of practice is going to be a renewable one. It’s not going to be one that you have for life, and you go and keep it in your bedroom whether you are practicing or not. You must show us evidence that you are continuously engaged in practice, before we can renew it and give you authority to continue.

As far as ethics is concerned, we are an institute, which I would say acts more on ethics. Our institute thrives on integrity. Like they say: “If you lose money, you have not lost anything. If you lose your health, you have lost something. But if you lose your integrity, you have lost everything”. So, our integrity matters.

In this respect, we have various levels of operations that strengthen our ethics. For example, all we need is for somebody to complain against our member that he has done something that is wrong or he has misappropriated money or he is engaged in vice. Once we get that kind of report, we take it up and such member will face our investigative panel and then necessary things are sent to our disciplinary tribunal. Some of our members have had their certificates withdrawn as a result of these trials.

Of note too, is that our disciplinary tribunals in the eyes of the law is an equivalent of High Court. So, that if anybody has any reason to disagree with the ruling of the tribunal, he goes to the court of appeal. There may not be fresh lines on the pages of newspaper and that’s why people don’t know, but we publish our findings and judgments in our relevant provisions and journals. So, that keeps our members on their toes, that they cannot just do anything.

How would you describe the level of transition to International Financial Reporting Standard?
The companies in Nigeria have transited and they have done it perfectly because they are under the purview of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria. So, it is moving in the right direction. For the International Public Sector Accounting Standard, it concerns government at all tiers – Federal, State and Local Governments. Are we doing well? I won’t say yes or no. It’s a new programme that the government has embraced and for a new programme to really take solid footing, it will take some time.

We are going to partner with government to ensure that necessary trainings are offered. We want to advise and ensure that such trainings are organized at the state level and at the local government level also. With this, we can be sure to a reasonable extent that all the happenings in our economy- corruption, especially in the public service, would be reduced to the barest minimum.

What is the role of accountants in the face of looming recession?
The recession is something that should frighten anybody. Even the government itself should be frightened. It’s not a state that a country will desire because there will be stagnation, unemployment and all sorts of things. First, the government has a role to play before the accountants. The government has a role of re-inflating the economy, because the government is the biggest spender. When government does not spend, economy does not move.

I would implore the government to spend especially on the productive sectors of the economy –infrastructure, good roads and make sure that things are working at all levels. So, when these are there, recession is going to be fought effectively. If government decides not to spend money, recession will be hard experience for all.

For the accountants, we implore our members not to see themselves as employees, but they should be employers of labour too. That was why we organised entrepreneurship programmes for them. We also partner with funding organizations such that if our members need money for projects and programmes that are well researched, they should be able to walk to relevant funding organisations to get assistance. This is because beside infrastructure as problem of businesses, the second is funding, and some people would need funding at one time or the other.

Even the conglomerates of this world still borrow money to fund their businesses. The loan portfolio of the richest man in Africa is amazing, and that is why if you start a company, you cannot just provide everything the company needs over your lifetime.

Nigerian is classified among the poor despite its huge resources governments. What do you think the present government can do to make a difference?
It’s a pity that we are being classified as one of the poorest countries. I am of the opinion that Nigeria has no reason to be poor as a result of the earnings at our disposal. But the issue is that no matter the level of wealth, if it is not managed, poverty will always knock at the door and that is exactly what happened to us.

The money we were getting from oil was never channeled well. We have seen from recent trials as to how the money went into private hands. Money that should have gone into development and building infrastructure and improving schools and health facilities never went there. That is the problem of successive past administrations.

For the present government, the first thing I believe that it is doing that I think is right is to repose corruption and block the loopholes wherever they are. Because without getting rid of corruption, even if our revenue increases again four or five times over, we are not going anywhere. So, without necessarily being witch-hunting, everything must go through the normal process. I believe corruption is something that everyone of us should join hands with government to expose and fight against.

The second thing the government should do is in the area of diversification. They should diversify the economy such that we have other areas other than oil that will bring us money and foreign exchange. Agriculture was doing fine before we discovered oil and a nation that can feed itself for example is a wealthy nation by any standard, but we import all forms of things to feed ourselves. If we can feed ourselves, poverty is fought. Third is the infrastructure. What I mean by this is the state of our public utilities – the roads, electricity and all sorts of things that make life better for people.

A former governor once said that the difference between a developed nation and an undeveloped nation is infrastructure. Basically, it is infrastructure. You get to a place that electricity is working 24 hours a day, water is running, roads are good – you classify that as a developed nation. So, the government must consciously spend more money in developing infrastructure.

Well, the country is what everybody makes of it. The assessed mismanagement was not done by people from other countries. It is done by our own people. So, I think there is a reason to say that everyone of us have should rethink our values. What are the values? What are the things that drive us? If our values are right and we operate rightly in the country, everybody will be happy. But when we continue to celebrate fraud as well as people of low value, then we are picking a choice that may not be beneficial to us.

How do you see the present government’s fight against corruption?
It is a fight that the government must fight tenaciously and relentlessly, but must not be arbitrary. Everybody must be given benefit of the doubt, and nobody should be taken to be guilty until the processes have made him to be guilty. Having said that, I think the government also needs to live by example such that all the excesses of the past must be shunned by the present. This is because the cost of governance is too heavy on the populace. The President and his men should as much as possible think of how they will reduce the cost of governance, so that the money reduced can be used for developmental purposes. If we do that, we will find ourselves in the right direction.

What is your view of the new foreign exchange policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria?
I believe many people have hailed the system that it is a right system in the right direction and I think I would want to align myself with them, although many others have said that it’s coming rather too late. Too late in the sense that the President has always said he is averse to devaluation of the naira for good reasons.

Though, they have not called it devaluation, but we know what really happened. I think for me, this present system is going to reduce rent seeking in the sense that some people don’t do anything other than take arbitrage money, that is, getting money at government rate and then sell it at higher rate. That to me is going to stop somehow.

Secondly, the government, including the Federal, states and councils are going to have more money in their accounts because the exchange rate is going to move up, so instead of crediting them at N200 per dollar, they can be getting it at N280. That might have effect on their ability to pay salaries again. They will be able to pay salaries and not seek bailouts endlessly from the Federal Government.

But the corollary of that is that those of them that have external loans will need more naira to pay those loans, so it’s a two-way sword – you benefit from one, and you miss on the other. I think we have an exchange rate policy that is not discriminatory, so investors will be much happier. But my advice to the government is to make it sustainable and not let the policy suffer summersault, because most of our policies have at one time or the other moved back and forth.