MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH FOR ANAN

                   

                            By Anayo Ezugwu           sunday,22 july 2012

        

      

       Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, ANAN, is now set to become member of the International Federation of Accountants, IFAC

     The Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, ANAN, is in the threshold of getting recognition by the International Federation of Accountants, IFAC. Maryam Ladi Ibrahim, president of the association, said during a courtesy visit of the association to Newswatch last Wednesday, that ANAN recorded a major breakthrough in connection with its quest for membership of IFAC recently   when the application form it submitted  for registration was endorsed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN.

Ibrahim recalled that in 2010 when ANAN initially submitted its application together with sponsorship report from the Institute of Public Accountants, IPA, of Austria, the application was not processed because it was not accompanied by sponsorship report from ICAN.  That hurdle is over.  ICAN has now submitted a sponsorship report and given ANAN a clean bill of health for IFAC membership. She explained that based on the progress so far recorded in the processing of the application, IFAC verification telephone conference was held with ANAN on February, 20, 2012. “We now await the report of the processing of our membership application,” she said.

Apart from its efforts to secure IFAC membership registration, ANAN under her leadership has become popular. It has also achieved a lot in fostering a good relationship with key institutional heads in both the private and public sectors of the economy and the legislative arms of government at the federal and state levels. She said ANAN has done a lot in helping national development through its contributions to policy making, and building a better future for the accounting profession in the country.

The association under her leadership, commissioned a “Think Tank” committee to assist the government realise its transformation agenda and to produce a position paper on the economic thrust of the country.  “The association under my leadership has continued to contribute meaningfully to national debate by adding its voice to the topical issues that affect the profession and the country at large,” she said.

She also has plans to reposition ANAN. She wants ANAN to become a virile home-grown accountancy body, which would provide a path to a recognised professional qualification of the highest international standard. The National College of Accounting where ANAN trains graduates take a two-year intensive professional course before they can join ANAN as members will soon move to its permanent site in Jos, Plateau State.  She said the goal was to turn it into a centre of excellence for teaching accountancy in Nigeria and Africa. According to the ANAN president, the temporary site would be turned into an entrepreneurship training centre, where the members could go for skills development. Presently, the association has about 19,000 membership fully registered and trained by the college, with over 3,000 students undergoing training in the college. The association also retains all it members and evaluates them every three years, for them to be more relevant to the profession. ANAN has also equipped accounting departments of many universities and polytechnics and organised series of interactive sessions with accounting students across the country.

The association is also currently battling to correct the disparity between the products of ICAN and ANAN in the point of entry into the civil service. “The law of the land stipulates that any professional should be placed on grade level 10, but ANAN members are all placed on level nine. She is hopeful that this would be corrected soon.

She said the association abhors corruption in all its ramifications among its members. Against this background, she said that ANAN   was ready to punish any member of the body involved in corruption if the organisation where such person works reports the case.  In such cases, the body would set up a panel to probe such persons.  

Ibrahim was accompanied to Newswatch by Terkaa Iyoryer Gemade, registrar of the association. Gemade told Newswatch that the association was moving to the next level in the drive to achieve its mission. “The association has recorded landmarks under the new president even though there were few challenges occasioned by the state of the nation’s security. This administration has been in top gear in organising programmes that are of benefit to members of the association,” he said. He commended Newswatch for blazing the trail in journalism in the country.

Femi Ige, chief operating officer of Newswatch who welcomed the management team of ANAN to the corporate headquarters of the company in Oregun, Lagos, promised the association full support in realising its objective of promoting professionalism in accountancy in Nigeria.

The formation of ANAN in 1979 met stiff opposition as ICAN claimed that by virtue of ICAN Act 15 of 1965, the institute has the sole regulatory power over accountancy profession in Nigeria. Its leaders had argued that as long as the Act remained in force, no other professional body could come into existence, unless authorised by the institute.    However, in recent times both ICAN and ANAN have put the bitter rivalry behind them and have been working together in the interest of the accountancy profession in particular and the nation at large.