The Institute was established by the Act of parliament No 15 of 1965 to regulate the practice of Accountancy in Nigeria, to determine the skills to be attained by persons seeking to be members of the profession and to update the skills from time to time.
Since inception, ICAN has supported various governments in the country towards entrenching transparency and accountability in the polity. Members of the Institute have contributed to national growth and development in the various sectors they operate, both public and private.
Over these years, the members of the Institute had engaged in accountancy practices within the limits of its enabling Act.
Specifically, it was members of the Institute that engaged in tax practice right from 1965. The dynamics in the operating environment necessitate that the Act establishing the Institute evolves with current realities.
ICAN is therefore seeking an amendment of the Act establishing the Institute to enable our members function more effectively as we continue to act in the public interest.
It is also pertinent to state that the curriculum of the Institute had evolved over the years to accommodate developments in the accounting profession; hence one of the need for the amendment.
These amendments would further bring current practices to be in harmony with global standards and international best practices where tax practice as part of accounting practice does not require professional accountants to register with a separate body in order to practice taxation as is the case in United Kingdom, United States, Australia and New Zealand, India, South Africa, Kenya etc just to mention a few countries in international best practice.
ICAN has debunked the report making round in some quarters that it wants to regulate Tax Practice in Nigeria,it rather seeks that it’s members continue to practice tax as they have been doing right from it’s inception in 1965.
The Registrar of ICAN in a statement said: “For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to assure other allied Professional Bodies that ICAN is not planning to take over their responsibility, we are only interested in regulating our members practicing the different arms of the Accounting profession as it obtains.
“We leave it to the wisdom of lawmakers to decide whether tax regulation and practice in Nigeria should be left to the exclusivity of one professional body or subject this to more than one body as is the case with accountancy profession where both ANAN and ICAN are two professional bodies recognized to regulate accountancy practice in Nigeria.”
He further said that, a “Chartered Accountant is trained to practice or hold himself out to practice as an Auditor, a Reporting Accountant, Financial Accounting and Corporate Reporting Services Practitioner, Financial Management Practitioner, Corporate Services Practitioner, Governance Risk and Compliance Services Practitioner, Tax Practitioner, an Investigations and Forensic Accounting Practitioner, an Accounting Information Systems.
“To put the records straight, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria is only seeking to enhance the professional competence of its members in the view of the dynamic nature of the profession, to keep them abreast of new developments , to enable them function better in the public interest and compete favorably with other professionals globally, as they believe, will enhance the economic growth and outlook of Nigeria in attracting the best investors to the country, help provide employment for Nigerians, increase the country’s international rating on transparency and as well as curb corrupt practices in the country among several other benefits.”
