The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), yesterday, charged the Federal Government to put an end to the registration of accounting bodies with overlapping functions.
 
Its 61st President, Haruna Nma Yahaya, made the call while addressing journalists on the institute’s 60th anniversary in Lagos. Yahaya argued that the proliferation of such bodies remains one of the significant challenges facing the profession, adding that it would amount to a disservice if the institute refused to speak against it.
 
To uplift standards, he called on the government, the National Assembly to stop duplication and registration of professional bodies under any name that jeopardise ICAN’s constitutional mandate.
 
He said in view of evolving trends impacting professions, the institute is embarking on continuous training of members in emerging areas to become relevant in the market place, by upscaling knowledge and preventing professionals from becoming old-fashioned.

Yahaya expressed worry that persistent threats of corruption, mismanagement of resources, unemployment, and economic instability endanger the collective future for Nigerians.  
 
According to him, the 2024 Corruption Perception Index from Transparency International places Nigeria at a disheartening 140th out of 180 countries, with a score of merely 26 out of 100.  
 
This stark reality, the ICAN boss said, calls for immediate action and a commitment to implement stronger accountability measures. He stressed that the institute’s accountability index, now endorsed by the World Bank and Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA), has brought clarity to public finance and empowered citizens to understand how their resources are being deployed.

Yahaya further disclosed that the institute is deepening collaboration with government, lending expert voices to policy and strengthening public financial management, particularly strengthening partnership with NGX regulation to spotlight transparency, through the ICAN–NGX corporate reporting awards and reward for the country’s most publicly accountable companies, and by extension, setting the gold standard for financial reporting.