Mohammed Shosanya
Innocent Iweka Okwuosa,President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria,ICAN,will not volunteer silence in the face of threats to national existence and cohesion.
ICAN,he said,is apolitical, but its strategic management and technical skills can help rebuild the socio-economic fortune of the nation.
Okwuosa spoke on Tuesday while giving his acceptance speech during his investiture as the 59th President of the Institute, at the ICAN secretariat in Lagos.
He said:“Our voice as an Institute will be more audible and clear, in its intensity, depth and breadth. We will pursue our public interest mandate with greater vigour and determination.”
According to him, after a painstaking analysis of the state of the nation and the profession, the Council has chosen ‘ICAN on a new trajectory’, as the working theme of this presidential year.
He said:“Surely ICAN will be on a new trajectory this presidential year. This presidential year, we will explore the mechanisms of its workings to see how it can be further strengthened so that ICAN can continue to maintain this enviable time tested transition.
Okwuosa also said that the ICAN Accountability Index (ICAN-AI) has been the Institute’s clear demonstration of advocacy for accountability and effective public finance management in the country.
He added:“During this year, we will work on the sustainability and institutionalisation of the AI, example of such effort could be the adoption of ICAN-AI Framework for its States Fiscal Transparency Accountability & Sustainability Programmes (SFTAS) initiative or the replacement of SFTAS with ICAN AI.
He further said that ICAN’s previous accountability and transparency has focused on the public sector through the ICAN AI; that this year, the Institute will expand on this to the private sector.
“We will partner with the NGX Regulation Ltd to introduce corporate reporting awards among listed companies in Nigeria. This will further promote the adoption of integrated thinking in corporate reporting whereby corporations imbibe best practices in volunteering sustainability and financial information for investors which will help unlock capital in the Nigerian capital market.
He added that ICAN has made its mark in the country in terms of its intelligent and professional contributions to national discourse, budgeting, financial planning, and policy formulation.
“We will raise the bar, this Presidential Year, by making more significant contributions on relevant accounting, finance, and economic issues. A Think Tank of the Institute will promote thought leadership and take charge of the production of the Institute’s position papers on national issues,” he said.
