ICAN eyes software robotics, AI to boost efficiency of members 

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), has disclosed plans to employ software robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and blockchain technologies to enhance efficiency of its members.

Chairman, ICAN Lagos Mainland and District Society, Reverend Olatunde Ayadi, said this during the presidential visit of the National President, Razak Jaiyeola, to the district, which was hosted by Courteville Business Solutions (CBS) Plc. at the weekend in Lagos.

According to him, ICAN is keen on collaborating with CBS in the deployment of robotics to the benefit of its members.

The professional body would also use the means to drive its entrepreneurship programme through people with practical experiences.

He stated that the institute is concerned about the business activities of its members, who operate in small and medium sector, and seeks ways through which emerging technology services targeted towards SMEs can benefit them.

His words: “I am indeed very happy to learn about the activities at CBS, and I am particularly happy because one of ICAN’s areas of focus has to do with entrepreneurship.

“The barriers of distance in business transactions are not only being broken down but are now initiated and consummated in the cloud, and any business or professional that cannot meet its customers in the cloud is no doubt at the verge of extinction and this is the current business reality.

“As chartered accountants, there is a compelling need to equip ourselves with diverse skills and competencies required in this digital age.

“The emerging fourth industrial revolution is set to cause further disruptions in the business space with developments in blockchain technology, robotics, AI, and machine learning among several others.”

He commended the Group Managing Director, CBS, Adebola Akindele, for steering the company to become the first firm in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector to be listed in the Nigeria stock Exchange (NSE) with shareholders funds in excess of $20 million.

Meanwhile, Jaiyeola in his remarks reiterated the institute’s efforts to ensure that its members are up-to-date as regards technology structures, which includes robotics, AI and blockchain technology.

He stated ICAN’s plan to host the maiden edition of her Technology Conference on the 29th and 30th April 2019, noting that the conference would specifically be for software robotics.

Jaiyeola hinted that the conference would host extensive discussions on the different emerging technologies and how they would impact the accounting profession with particular attention to the peculiarities of the Nigerian business landscape.

He added: “When you are doing things of repetitive nature like bank reconciliation, it becomes seriously heavy for an organization that has over 1,000 branches with hundreds of bank accounts. 

“AI can be deployed for auditing. This demonstrates its importance and it is very cheap because it has been supported by the various organisations that we have approached.

“Also one of the importance of this is to battle issue of transparency, accountability and even corruption and THE International Federation of Bank Associations (IFBA) is supporting it. Our institute has been admitted to Chartered Accountants Worldwide (CAW) and is equally involved in mentoring other professional accounting organizations in West Africa.”