The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria has urged the Federal Government to implement effective and efficient economic policies to combat the numerous of economic challenges currently bedevilling the country.
ICAN President, Innocent Okwuosa, made the appeal in Lagos while delivering his acceptance speech during his investiture as the 59th president of the institute.
He said, “Your Excellences, professional colleagues, ladies, and gentlemen, I, therefore, stand before you today to declare that I, Dr Innocent Iweka Okwuosa, FCA, humbly accept my election as the 59th President of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. I do this with a sense of responsibility and full appreciation of the demands of the office.
“As we are aware, social, political, and economic indices in the country are worrisome, with the high rate of unemployment, inflation rate, insecurity, rising poverty, debt burden, brain drain, scarcity of foreign currency, oil theft, infrastructural deficit, high cost of governance and so on.
“Above all, clean energy transition has become a burning issue impacting locally. The challenges are myriads, but we believe they can be solved with appropriate policies, programmes, and effective and efficient deployment of human and material resources. As professionals, we will not volunteer silence in the face of these seeming threats to our national existence and cohesion.
Okwuosa pledged to put the institute on a new trajectory, noting that ICAN will pursue its public interest mandate with greater vigour and determination.
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“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. We will advocate for and promote accountability, transparency and good governance within public and private institutions given our belief in the building of strong institutions,” Okwuosa added.
According to him, his presidential year will be focused on promoting transparency and accountability within the institute, a campaign he hopes to extend to the private sector through a partnership with the Nigeria Exchange Limited.
“Whereas our previous accountability and transparency have focused on the public sector through the ICAN-AI, this year, we 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 stated.
