Stakeholders in the accounting profession have said there is a need for professionals to upskill and align with emerging technologies to bridge the skill deficit gap in Nigeria and Africa, and sustain the accounting profession.
They spoke at a roundtable discussion with the presentation titled ‘The state of the accountancy profession in Africa report’, organised by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in Lagos.
The event was jointly orgainsed by ACCA in collaboration with the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation and Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria to examine, evaluate and proffer solutions on how the accounting profession could thrive towards the adoption of emerging technologies.
Nigeria’s Country Head, ACCA, Mr Tom Isibor, said, “The reason we have put together this paper and research is to present the report to stakeholders, partners, accountants to see where their loved profession is and what they want to do to change the narrative so that this profession is still around for the next 1,000years.”
The 1st Vice-President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, Dr James Neminebor, said, “What we need the most is integration. If we want to remain relevant and promote sustainability in this profession, we expect all affiliates of financial bodies to be present for the sake of integration.”
The Executive Secretary, Financial Reporting Council, Shuaibu Ahmed, explained that the report explained skill shortage, the need for capacity building in information and technology and emerging technologies, skills in new concept areas such as environmental, social, and corporate governance in strategy, development, market intelligence and performance management.
He said, “The report examined the roles in terms of preparing their members for the future and the importance of partnership and strategic alliances among stakeholders in terms of three perspectives within the country, regionally and internationally and with the public sector. This is important especially for us in Nigeria.”
While presenting the report, the Partner, Fiscal Policy and Africa Tax Leader, PwC, Taiwo Oyedele, said, “From the key findings of the report, we discovered that we have about 60 professional accounting organisations in Africa and just about 123,000 professionals. That gives us a 0.012 per cent per capita.”
He added, “Professional bodies should collaborate more and build capacity and as we build this capacity, these accountants are helping us to build the economy.”
Oyedele said that when it comes to areas like environmental, social, and corporate governance, many accountants did not think it was of priority, whereas it was driving the whole world.
“We need to bridge that gap, especially with emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence like ChatGPT,” he said.
