Uche Usim, Abuja

The Auditor-General for the Federation (AuGF). Mr Anthony Ayine and the President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Alhaji Ismaila Mohammadu Zakari, have pledged to collaborate to train auditors and accountants working in various establishments in federal, states and local government areas in the country in their efforts to deepen professionalism and ensure national development.

The duo made the pledge in Abuja when Zakari led his ICAN governing council on a courtesy visit to the AuGF.

In his remarks at the reception, the AuGF described the visit as a moral booster with loaded benefits.

He said: “We’ve few reforms going on and there are areas Mr President pointed out and said we could collaborate with ICAN. We now audit World Bank assisted projects.

We’ve launched our five-year strategic plan from 2017-2022. We’re a Supreme Audit Institution (SAI).  SAI Nigeria is on level 2. It means we’re not well established but developing because it’s a scale of 1-5. We need to work hard to improve. This office will be glad to work with ICAN to train our staff and up their skills.

We will pursue to upgrade to level 3 or 4. We need ICAN support to achieve this. “We launched our new audit manual on September 28 last year. We are modernizing our audit processes. We should adopt and change the whole processes. We should look at the manuals and look at areas we can amend for us to upgrade skills of staff and also move to the next level.

Related News

“We’ve commenced large scale capacity building last year to upgrade 1,700 plus staff. We’ve retrained 400 but we are striving to train all. We will look at forensic audit. We need to even get audit software’s that will be good for us. “So this visit signifies good omen. ICAN has contributed immensely to Nigeria and African countries. It has helped in training of professional accountants. ICAN is known for its integrity and high standards. Let’s continue to uphold the high standards. It’s a well established and grounded institute”Ayine explained.

In remarks at the meeting, the ICAN President said the visit was to consolidate and strengthen the partnership with office of the AuGF that had existed for  over 50 years.

“Our members have always occupied the seat of AuGF right from time. They have also served as ICAN Governing Council.

We came to see auditors that audit Nigeria. We are here to congratulate you on your professional conducts since you were appointed AuGF.

“You played a key role in the ICAN Accountability Index. Office of AuGF is key as you’re gatekeeper. How it is handled and run is key to economic growth. “We will support you to succeed as your work hard to improve the economy. We have faculties and current modules like ICT,  fraud detection, public sector accounting standards.

We’ve yearly award nights to recognize staff and others stakeholders”, he noted