Is Proliferation A Worse Evil? | By: Femi Oladele

There is evident shortage of competent accountants in Nigeria (World Bank, 2011), even world over according to studies such as Jackling and Keneley (2009) in Australia; Nor, Zaini, and Zahid (2013) in Malaysia; Hammond, Danko and Braswell (2015) in the US. Professional bodies and tertiary institutions are addressing this issue vigorously. One approach seen in Nigeria is the proliferation of professional accounting bodies. Furthermore, for the purpose of tenure and promotion, an academic may be required to possess affiliations in the form of membership with professional accountancy organizations, PAOs; as an associate or a fellow. This has placed demand on PAOs to churn out qualified accountants for industry placements and academia.

However, the requirements of established PAOs are turning out to be like the biblical issue when God insisted that He would not lower his standard for any man, for any reason. Commentators and observers have attributed as reasons for the proliferation of professional accounting bodies to inability to pass qualifying examinations of established bodies, high cost of acquiring membership of older associations, regional affinities and other economic factors.

There are still strong indications that only two professional accounting bodies exist in Nigeria that is, ANAN and ICAN (World Bank, 2011), while more than, ten professional accountancy bodies are operating in Nigeria.

Here below are professional bodies that operate in Nigeria without legislative backing:

Non-Statute backed Professional Accounting Bodies in Nigeria

S/N	Professional bodies (in alphabetical order)		Website	YOE	Member’s Designation
1.	Association of Cost and Management Accountants	ACMA	www.acma.org.ng	2000	ACMA, FCMA
2.	Association of Financial and Management Accountants of Nigeria	AFMAN	www.afmng.org	2010	AFMA, FFMA
3.	Chartered Association  of International Accountants of Nigeria	CAIAN	www.caian.org	2000	ACIA, FCIA
4.	Chartered Institute of Cost and Management Accountants	CICMA	www.cicma.org.ng	2000	ACMA, FCMA
5.	Chartered Institute of Finance and Control of Nigeria	CIFCN	www.cifcnnig.org	NI	ACIFC, FCIFC
6.	Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of Nigeria	CIMAN	www.cimanigeria.com	1977	ACMAN, FCMAN
7.	*Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Nigeria	ICPAN	www.icpan.org.ng	1988	CPA, FCPA
8.	Institute of Company and Commercial Accountants of Nigeria	ICCA	www.iccaofnigeria.org	1999	ACCA, FCCA
9.	Institute of Forensic Accountants of Nigeria	IFA	www.ifa.org.ng	NI	CFA, FFA

YOE: Year of establishment NI: No information *ICPAN claim their Bill is awaiting Presidential assent

Statute-backed Professional Accounting Bodies in Nigeria

S/N

Professional bodies (in alphabetical order)

Website

YOE

YOS

Member’s Designation

1.

Association of National Accountants of Nigeria

ANAN

www.anan.org.ng

1979

1993

CNA, FCNA

2.

Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria

CITN

www.citn.org

1982

1992

ACTI, FCTI

3.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria

ICAN

www.icanig.org

1960

1965

ACA, FCA, RA

YOE: Year of establishment; YOS: Year of status

Kindly note that the above list is limited to domiciled professional accountancy bodies. International bodies such as listed below are recognized in Nigeria.

S/N	Name	Acronym	Website	Country
1.	American Institute of Certified Public Accountant	AICPA	www.aicpa.org	United States of America
2.	Association of Chartered Certified Accountants	ACCA	www.accaglobal.com	United Kingdom
3.	Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants	CICA	www.cica.ca	Canada
4.	Chartered Institute of Management Accountant	CIMA	www.cimaglobal.com	United Kingdom
5.	Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy	CIPFA	www.cipfa.org.uk	United Kingdom
6.	Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales	ICAEW	www.icaew.com	United Kingdom

Errors of professional accounting bodies in Nigeria

Apart from the fact that Acts of Parliament do not back some of the existing and operating professional accounting bodies in Nigeria, some indulge in unethical practices identified below:

1.      Use of language claiming to be the only recognized or leading body of professional accountants, though it is a new venture (evidence from date of establishment);

2.      Use of conflicting and irregular addresses;

3.      Strive to ‘collect’ money from desperate academics who cannot secure membership of more established bodies;

4.      Have a “contact us” page that only includes a web form, but never responds to enquiries or request for information through the medium;

5.      Poorly designed and maintained websites;

6.      Excessive grammatical and typographical errors on the websites;

7.      Brandish promises to obtain legislative approval and presidential assent;

8.      Does not belong to or is not recognized by

a.       Association of Accountancy Bodies in West Africa (ABWA);

b.      International Federation of Accountants (IFAC);

c.       Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA) etc;

9.      Use the word “chartered” even without a valid charter; and

10.  Hide information about Council members.

Conclusion

If the interest of upcoming professional accounting bodies is to instill the requisite awareness, knowledge and skill competencies in their members for sustained relevance of the accounting profession, then there must be dedicated interest in understanding the dynamic nature of accounting profession, development of assessment criteria and continuous professional development.   

References

Hammond, T., Danko, K., and Braswell, M. (2015). U.S. accounting professors’ perspectives on
            textbook revisions. Journal of Accounting Education.
            http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccedu.2015.06.004

Jackling, B. and Keneley, M. (2009). “Influences on the supply of accounting graduates in
            Australia: a focus on international students”, Accounting and Finance, 49, 141-
            159 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-629X.2008.00273.x

Nor, A. S., Zaini, R. M. and Zahid, S. M. (2013). Shortage of accountants: does mentoring
            helps to increase the number? Proceeding of the International Conference on Social
            Science Research, Penang, Malaysia. 601-609

World Bank (2011). Report on the observance of standards and codes (accounting and auditing)
             in Nigeria, 1-32 accessed from http://worldbank.org

Accountancy Glossary  http://www.arnoldhill.co.uk/accountancy-glossary/