Bello Hassan urges accountants to embrace digital skills for career opportunities

To stay relevant in a fast-evolving global economy, Bello Hassan, the former managing director at NDIC, has advised Nigerian accountants to develop digital competencies and adapt to technological changes shaping the profession.

Hassan made the call on Wednesday, at the 77th induction ceremony of held in Lagos, while delivery a keynote address titled, “Nigerian Accountants and Digitalisation”, noting that Nigeria’s progress in the digital technology over the decades has driven significant challenges in the global domestic economies as well as how the accountants  carry out their daily activities.

“With the rapid advancement in digital technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and data analytics, the profession is undergoing a major transformation to the delight of all members of our great institute.

“It changes how accountants work, interact with clients, and provide value,” he said.

Hassan emphasised that digitalisation has brought about continuation of routine processes such as invoicing, payroll, bank reconciliation, task computation, expense calculation, etc., and tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning are being used to reduce manual data entry.

In the area of data analytics, he said that modern accountants increasingly analyse business data instead of fully relying on reporting transactions.

“This covers financial forecasting, trend analysis, budget monitoring, risk assessment, business intelligence dashboard, etc., and common tools that are used in this space include the Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, and similar applications.

“There’s also the electronic payment and digital banking, where we have seen digitalisation connect accounting systems directly with banks and payment systems; besides, online banking integration, mobile payments, automated transaction input, and faster reconciliation are achieved through this automation,” he said.

The finance experts, reiterated that artificial intelligence helps accountants to detect fraud, predict cash flows, classify transactions, generate reports, provide advancing services, among others.

Moreover, he noted that protecting financial data becomes critical, hence, accountants must understand data privacy, multifactor authentication, password security, backup systems, salaries, among others.

“Accountants need to digitalise because modern business and finance increasingly depend on speed, accuracy, compliance, and real-time information.  Digital tools help accountants move from manual record-keeping to higher-value financial analysis and advising services.

“We can all appropriately relate to the positive impact that digitalisation has made on the accounting practice in Nigeria.  Some of which include reduced errors, and time saving,” he noted.

He emphasised the need for Nigerian accountants to continue to see opportunities amidst the current and uncertain digital world and its uncertain challenges.

“It is only our positive outlook that will lead to positive outcomes. The economic opportunities associated with digitalisation are enormous.

“The Nigerian accountant, especially young accountants, can only ignore it at their own peril,” he warned.

Buttressing more on the critical benefits of adapting digitalization, Hassan said that when routine tasks such as payroll, bookkeeping, reporting, bank reconciliation are automated, accountants can now focus on more strategic issues, and advise their clients in order to create value. “Digital accounting systems have helped businesses, especially the small and medium-scale enterprises, to reduce operational costs while filling the less-powerful, less-storage space that has required printing and similar issues.

“Besides, better audit processes have been achieved with digitalisation through improved audit planning, evidence-gathering, and reporting.  Digitalised systems rate audit trends and transaction history,” he emphasised.

However, he disclosed that there are a number of challenges that are slowing down the full implementation of IT, including poor infrastructure, electricity, and internet connectivity, among others.

“Many accountants lack adequate training in modern technologies. Digital systems are vulnerable to breaches by current actors, and there is a high implementation cost, which has been a major hindrance towards implementation, especially by small firms,” he said.

To mitigate these challenges, he said the government must provide an effective ICT environment while accounting firms must also invest heavily in accounting technologies.

In the face of these challenges, he emphasised that there is an increased demand for tech-savvy accountants within both the public and private sectors.

“Global job opportunities through remote work is also gaining momentum. Improved sales delivery and client satisfaction, as well as leveraging on technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence to deliver quality services to clients.

“Consequently, accountants must continuously undergo digital training in order to remain relevant. It is on this note that I urge our great institute to continue to upgrade its curriculum to accommodate enhanced digital skills,” he said.