ABSTRACT
This work is on the professional accountancy bodies and their impact on the development of accounting profession in Africa with more concentration in Nigeria. In order to find out the impact of these professional bodies on the development of accountancy in Nigeria, the activities of these professional bodies were examined. These activities includes the professional examinations of each of the professional bodies. The stages it will take someone to be a professional accountant. The mandatory continuing professional education of these bodies. These are organs of some of these professional bodies which contribute immensely in the development of accountancy in Nigeria. some of these bodies include society of women accountants of Nigeria [SWAN], chartered accountants in business [CAB],etc. the activities and contribution of these bodies were also looked into. This work also looked into the problems, prospects and what authors are saying about the impact of these professional accounting bodies in the development of accountancy in Nigeria. In carrying out this research and making the analysis, it was concluded that the professional accounting profession in Nigeria.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Accountancy as a profession has undergone various stage in its development. Various accounting bodies of the world have contributed in the development of the profession in their various countries and beyond.
In order to lay more emphases on the impacts of the professional bodies mostly as it concerns Nigeria lets look at the three major professional accountancy bodies in Nigeria. The institute of chartered accountants of Nigeria [ICAN], the association of national accountants of Nigeria [ANAN] and the chartered institute of cost and management of accountants [CMA]. ICAN as the firs and foremost professional accountancy body in Nigeria was seen to have contributed greatly to the development of the accountancy profession in Nigeria. It was discovered that ICAN has made contribution for the development of the profession in the following ways;
– Formation of Nigeria accounting standard board [NASB] in 1982.this body is responsible for the issuance of Statement of Accounting Standards [SAS] in Nigeria.
– Training of professional accountants through professional examinations which takes various stages.
– Establishment of accounting technicians scheme [ATS] in 1989 to train middle level accountants.
– Partaking in the drafting of companies and allied matters decree, 1990.
– Establishment of society of women accountants [SWAN] in 1978 to consolidate the impact of women in the development of the profession.
– ICAN prepares the standards and guidelines for auditing in Nigeria through Auditing Standard Committee [ASC].
ICAN also organizes seminars, mandatory continuing professional education programmed etc. ICAN work with and represents Nigeria in other international professional accountancy bodies in the world such as IFAC. All these have helped greatly in the development of the professional in Nigeria. It was also discovered that ANAN is making a good impact in the development of the accountancy profession in Nigeria; especially, the establishment of Nigeria college of accountancy [NCA] in Jos which is a breeding ground for professional accountants. ANAN also organizes professional examinations, continuing professional education, seminars etc. the chartered institute of cost and management accountants is a new body, it was discovered to be making a good impact in the development of the profession. For the maintenances of the standard of the professional accountant, it was found out that the professional accountancy bodies have severe punishment for their erring members and students. Student can be banned from taking the institute’s examination or suspended for some years if caught in examination misconducts or malpractices. Member’s certificate can be withdrawn for gross misconduct or suspended for some years. Many professional accountancy bodies have been formed in various countries. Some of these bodies include the institute of chartered accountants in England and Wales, the American institute of certified public accountants, the institute of chartered accountants of Scotland etc.
Apart from these bodies which are country-based, there are other professional accountancy bodies which cut-across various countries. These bodies include international federation of accountants [IFAC], Accountancy Bodies of West Africa [ABWA], African Accounting Organization [AAO], etc. These bodies have strongly contributed to the development of Accountancy in their various countries and in the world in general.
In this research work, each of these bodies was examined their establishment, activities, and most importantly their impact on the development of Accounting profession in Nigeria.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Accountant in any institution or organization is at the heart of the institution or organization. But there are some problems which the professional body is having that affects it contributions viz :-
Many Accountancy students and graduates are still unconcerned about being a professional accountancy. This is a problem, and ti hinders the development of Accountancy in Nigeria.
A lost of people [even non-accountants] who want to get the certification of a professional Accountancy Body still do not know how, where and when to start the journey. They continue to nurse the idea of being a professional Accountant without making headway.
Establishment of other Professional Accountancy Bodies without critical and consistent monitoring. Meanwhile, their processes need to be critically and consistently monitored. Their curriculum and their training schools or methods should be closely examined to avoid producing “unqualified professional accountants”, which may impair the standard and the development of Accountancy in Nigeria.
Another problem of Accounting profession in Nigeria is the issue of non-accountants handling accounting positions in the organizations and government parastatals. For instance, Engineer handling accounting work in an organization or a marketer, journalist, microbiologist being the accountant of an organization is threatening the standard and the development of Accountancy in Nigeria.
All these problems and more face the development of Accountancy in Nigeria and need to be tackled.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purposes for which this research is carried out include:
a. To examine the activities of the professional accounting bodies towards the development of Accountancy in Nigeria.
b. To identify the contributions and constraints of accountants towards accounting profession mostly as it concerns Nigeria.
c. To stress the standards requirements of a professional accountant in Nigeria.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
When the development of Accountancy profession is being considered, it means looking at the improvement of the profession. The issue in this research is the development of accountancy as impacted by professional accounting bodies in Nigeria. This will give rise to the following questions.
a. What activities do these professional bodies engage in for the purpose of developing accounting profession in Nigeria?
b. What standards are required of a professional accountant in Nigeria ethical conduct?
c. What stages should one pass through before one becomes a professional accountant?
d. What are the requirements of enrolling in these professional bodies in order to start the processes of becoming a professional accountant?
This work looks at these questions and examines what the professional accounting bodies engage in, which give solution to these questions.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
A work of this nature is of utmost importance to people who want to know about the professional Accountancy bodies in Nigeria and what they do for the development of Accountancy in Nigeria.
For undergraduates and graduates and many others who wish to become a professional accountant, this work is of good help to them. This work will also make the public and the private sector to appreciate the roles of professional Accountants in the economy. By this accountant should be unreservedly given the accounting positions in the economy for the development of the economy and accountancy profession.
Moreover, other researchers who want to know about the professional accountancy bodies will need this work as a guide and reference material. This work is for accountants, intending accountants and all other people who are interested in accounting information and profession.
1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
A lot of professional accountancy bodies exist all over the world. Some are international bodies while some are country-based. These international bodies have impact on the development of accountancy in various countries of the world including Nigeria. In this work, the impact of these international professional accountancy bodies was not studied. This work concentrates only on the professional accountancy bodies in Nigeria and their impact on the development of accountancy in Nigeria.
There are other professional bodies that have relationship with accountancy profession, and contributes to its development. Some of these bodies include Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria [CITN], Chartered Institute of Stock brokers of Nigeria [CISN], etc. The impact of these bodies on the development of accountancy in Nigeria was not studied.
Once more, there are accountants who are not professionally qualified and who do not belong to professional accountancy body in Nigeria. These categories of accountants may have made an impact on the development of accountancy in Nigeria. In this work, the impact of these classes of accountants was not studied.
Not-with-standing, the high degree of research done in this work, it cannot claim to be devoid of limitations. During the course of this work, the researcher could not get all the information about the professional accountancy bodies and what they have done for the development of accountancy in Nigeria.
In the conduct of interviews and the distribution of questionnaires, all the delineated interviewees could not be reached and all the questionnaires could not get to all the selected population. Again, not all the people that received the questionnaire returned them. Hence, the views of all the selected population could not be got.
Not-with-standing these limitations, the researcher tried to study closely these professional bodies and their impact on the development of accountancy in Nigeria with the available information.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Accountancy: This is a process of gathering, classifying, analyzing, communicating, and interpretation of financial information.
An Accountant: This is a person trained to carry out Accountancy functions. Accountancy is the profession of an Accountant.
Professional Accountant: He is a person who is certified by the professional accountancy body after passing the stages of examination for getting the certification.
Development: This refers to gradual growth of something until it becomes advanced. It is the act of making a thing improved and advanced.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
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