ICAN introduces new syllabus

Alhaji Kabir Mohammed
ICAN President

The Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria has moved to boost accountancy practice in the country by introducing a new professional examination syllabus.

The President, ICAN, Alhaji Kabir Mohammed, who unveiled the new syllabus in Lagos on Tuesday, said the development was a major milestone in the accountancy practice.

The new syllabus, he said, consisted of 16 subjects structured into three levels, namely: foundation level, skills level and professional level.

Mohammed said the initiative to review the outgoing syllabus, which was launched in 2010, started when ICAN received a World Bank grant of $499,030 in 2012 to finance capacity building initiatives and reposition the institute as the leading professional accountancy body in the African region.

The grant, he said, was implemented through a twin-arrangement with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and was aimed at enhancing the capacity of ICAN in three core areas – governance and capacity, professional qualification, and audit quality and regulation.

The ICAN president said the rapid advancement in information technology had profound impact on the practice of accountancy globally.

This, he said, had been made more complex by the trend towards convergence of the profession, the harmonisation of standards internationally, globalisation, the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards by Nigeria in 2012 and the increasing sophistication of businesses.

According to Mohammed, the strategic importance of the development is that the average chartered accountant must be further equipped with skills and competences that will enable him sift useful information from a maze of complex business data and strategically but effortlessly transform them into business intelligence.

He added, “Consequently, the chartered accountant of today and tomorrow must hone his ability to multi-task, be a global player, communicate expertly like a diplomat to diverse stakeholders and provide leadership in resource generation and allocation decisions. Such proficiency can only come through a combination of proper theoretical and practical training based on well structured, robust and appropriate training curricula.”

The ICAN leader noted that in the new syllabus, the foundation level consisted of five subjects; skills level with six subjects, while the professional level had five subjects.
Source: Punch ng