Newly elected President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Onome Joy Adewuyi says plans are on the way to unveil the Institute’s formal proposal to establish a university and explore the possibility of establishing the first full online university in Nigeria.
She stated that council of the institute would intensely engage stakeholders in the higher education value chain in the country to bring this dream to a reality in not too distant future.
Adewuyi who spoke in Lagos, Tuesday during her virtual investiture as the 56th president of the accounting body, said the lesson of the COVID-19 pandemic is not lost on Nigerians, adding that the incident has challenged the ICAN to redefine the values share, the way we work, relate and account for our actions and inactions.
According to her, “This emerging paradigm has implications for how we relate and bond as professionals who share a common vision of working together to build a great nation with a sustainable economy driven by strong institutions”
“Council has taken the bold step to invest hugely in the right human capital and technology to support these changes. The Institute’s budgetary allocation for new Information technology infrastructures needed to achieve these changes will have to go up and we are ready to make these investments. We will no longer see expenditure on Information Technology as a cost centre but as critical Investment that would yield good returns for our Institute,” She said.
Adewuyi, the 7th female president of ICAN says that under her presidential with the Theme: “Repositioning ICAN for Greater Visibility says with increasing pervasiveness of artificial intelligence and machine learning, Council will review its examination syllabi to ensure that the Institute continues to produce Future Ready Chartered Accountants with skills and competences desired by the market.
She further opines that with the drastic changing dynamics in the market, under her leadership, ICAN would expand collaborative horizons to bring on board non-traditional partners, especially the Tech companies. “Specifically, we would identify firms that can work with our IT team and Research & Technical Department on the gradual incorporation of emerging technologies such as Machine Learning, Data Analytics, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence into our activities,” she said.
She stated that Council would leverage the facilities available to the Institute and initiate an alternative model for writing the Institute’s examinations fully online – Computer-Based Testing (CBT). Indeed, the aftermath of Covid-19 could increase the demand for CBT and we have to be prepared for this possible change in demand and delivery format.
The new ICAN boss says efforts will be made to bring SMEs to a round table to educate them on how to proactively embed succession planning into their businesses. We will draw from the experiences of our Big 4 firms and other SMPs who have done extensive research work in this area.
Adewuyi disclosed that to achieve her objective under this presidential year, the institute would among other measures partner with the government to redefine national values, economic priorities and resource utilization strategies such that the mass of the citizenry can be lifted out of avoidable poverty.
To her, “We will leverage our professional expertise to support players in the informal sector, whose unsung value-creating activities will define the position of the nation on the ladder of sustainable development”.
“As the first beneficiary of this virtual election process, I consider it a rare honour and privilege to have been elected by my peers to provide leadership to the Institute and the Accountancy Profession for the next 365 days”, Adewuyi said.
Onome Joy Adewuyi succeeded Nnamdi Okwadigbo who served as the 55th president of ICAN.
