The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to consider the appointment of more chartered accountants as ministers in his cabinet.
ICAN President, Dr. Innocent Okwuosa, in a statement yesterday, noted that the socio-political challenges facing Nigeria today called for the intervention of chartered accountants in public governance.
Specifically, ICAN advised the President, who is himself an accountant, to appoint “an economist that is a chartered accountant and not just an economist alone,” to clean up the government’s monetary policy.
The professional body argued that “When accountability permeates every cabinet member and his or her ministry, corruption will be minimised, better governance elevated, and Nigerians will instantly begin to feel the dividend of democracy. “
Okwuosa continued: “Chartered accountants should man key sensitive positions requiring proper accountability as there cannot be effective public governance without accountants.
“The study we conducted provides evidence which shows that there is positive correlation between having more chartered accountants within a work force and better organisational performance.
“In other words, organisations that employ more chartered accountants perform better than those employing less chartered accountants in terms of service delivery and financial performance.
“This has been proven empirically drawing experiences from Zenith Bank, Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) and Lagos State Government. These three organisations span the private sector, a government agency and state government respectively.”
ICAN also identified with some bold economic policy reforms initiated by the President, including the removal of fuel subsidy and exchange rate unification as outlined in our previous position papers.
“We also identify with his support for the clean energy transition that factors in the vast gas resources of the country which in our view is energy justice and will reduce debt exposure of the country.
“We commend him for these quick and bold actions, drawing attention to consideration of the plight of those within the low-income bracket.”
When accountability permeates every cabinet member and his or her ministry, corruption will be minimised, better governance elevated, and Nigerians will instantly begin to feel the dividend of democracy.
