Mrs. Blessing Ngozi Osakwe-Ogo is the Chairman, Lagos and Mainland District Society (LMDS), Chartered Institute of Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). In this exclusive interview with MMS plus, she briefly speaks on her experience as the District’s Chairman for the past eleven months and the idea behind the ICAN’s youth empowerment concept via the “Catch Them Young Programme” and others even as she x-rays the problems and prospects in the accountancy profession. This interview was done during the recent Catch Them Young Event held in Lagos.
Excerpts:
This programme looks unique among other events you have been organizing, what is the motive behind it?
The ‘Catch Them Young Progamme’, like I told the students, is very dear to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, (ICAN). The idea behind it is to catch the students very young. We have observed that after their Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSCE), they sit for Joint Admission and Matriculation Board ( JAMB) Examination, and when they don’t pass, they relax at home and continue wasting away. ICAN is now saying, come! You shouldn’t waste away. With your five credits in West African Examination Council (WAEC) or National Examination Council (NECO), in at most two sittings, you can sit for the Accounting Technicians Scheme West Africa (ATSWA) programme, which would give you a certificate equivalent to the National Diploma, and with this certificate, you can work, get a Direct Entry admission into the higher institution and you can register for the ICAN professional examination with nine courses exception. So, that is what the event is all about. We have been doing it for schools. My chairmanship year would come to an end in few weeks time and I want to cap it up with this programme.
How have you been able to go about the numerous projects your regime has executed?
It is being God. You see, what is what doing at all is what doing well, there are some programmes that are sacrosanct, and the district is known for. We have been able to take them from different angles and added values to them and also introduced new ones. We promised that our tenure was going to be a trailblazer and that exactly is what we have done.
You promised a lot of things including a secretariat during your investiture; can you reappraise your achievements in tandem with that?
The first thing we did when we came on board was to review our source of income. Our income was basically premised on proceeds from consultancy aside the income from members’s subscription fees. We have consultants who run workshops and training programmes for us. We observed that they were not doing well as expected, so, we wanted to know what the problems were and we promised that we were going to have a consultants forum so that we could identify the problems and that was the first thing we did. We brought all the consultants together and asked to know what the problems were. We noted the problems, resolved the ones we could and referred others to the institute for necessary amelioration and we started doing well.
Apart from that, we took the courtesy visits from another dimension. You know whatever we do in the district must be in tandem with the objectives of ICAN at the national body. We also noted that another programme that is dear to ICAN aside the catch them young programme is enterpreneurship: looking beyond the accountancy profession and that is exactly what we did when we paid courtesy visits to so many places including Pa Emmanuel Ijewere’s Farm. The visits was aimed at exposing our members to other sources of income and there is nowhere better than Pa Ijewere, a past President and role model for the institute. He is someone we so much admire and hold in high esteem. So, we visited his farm to gain more knowledge because he has practised the accountancy profession to the fullest before going into agriculture.
Would you now say you are satisfied with your achievements, so far?
I think I am. We have been able to achieve everything we promised with God’s support and guidance except one that is of so much importance to me and that is my promise of getting a property for the Lagos Mainland District but the miracle working God can still do it. We are almost at it and if I don’t conclude it in the next two to three weeks, my successor would do that.
Aside the property, what do you think is a major challenge for the district?
The major challenge has been funds. I don’t know how I survived it but God is awesome because I asked him that I don’t want to lack money during my tenure and I never lacked.
One of the complaints given by the students, which seems to be a general perception is that ICAN examinations are extremely difficult, how would you react to this?
It is not hard. It is just that the students don’t read. I am an assessor too and I mark papers and by the time you are marking you will see how they perform. You will realize that the students are not just reading. So the examination is not difficult. You will find out that that is the only examination in Nigeria with credibility. There is no form of leakage because none can ever say they have seen ICAN questions leaked somewhere. Maybe that is why the students feel it is difficult, but that is on the contrary. Nonetheless, it is not a walk-over, you have to know your onions. You have to be able to defend your certificate at the end of the day and confidently tell people that you are a chartered accountant.
Considering the economic condition in the country, how would you appraise the accounting profession?
Like we told the students, and that is why we are trying to catch them young. With the accountancy profession you don’t need to starve unless you are the lazy one or you don’t know what you are doing. If not for anything, go to the market, get the traders or market women and keep their financial records for them and you will be able to get an income. You can also do something around the estates you live. Some people don’t know how to manage their businesses, so you can help them to set up and you will be able to make money. Although, it may not be as rosy as you ordinarily would expect it but at least you would not starve.
Would you like to mention some of the challenges confronting the profession?
That is what I am saying. If you have that integrity, what they call challenges wouldn’t be because you are being looked upon in the whole of the organization to do a lot of things. The security book which is the funds record of the organization is being entrusted into your care, it then behooves on you to take a decision.
How do you then handle the challenge of managing loyalty to organizations or clients with when corruption or infraction is discovered?
Incidentally, the ICAN president launched in Nigeria the same day I was inaugurated as the district’s chairman, the new non-compliance with laws. You know in the profession, we talk about confidentiality, we are not supposed to devoid. Initially when an auditor discovers some foul plays, he isnt expected to talk, that is what the confidentiality entails but the law is now saying No! you need to say it if it is going to cause ripples.
Do you think that will go well considering the nature of our country?
Well, ICAN did not just say you should go and do that without backing you up. They are going to set up a fund that you come out, inform your client of the discrepancies or whatever fraudulent activities that is being carried out and if they disengage you, come ICAN will not leave you alone.
What is your advice to young people who would want to choose a career in the accountancy profession?
I know that accountancy is an interesting and profitable profession. It is a profession that made me abandon my engineer degree and skills and I can assure you that it is a very lucrative and prestigious discipline. When you are into the profession, people look up to you in an organization and once you prove that you are honest and competent, you are respected. You can address anyone, go to any length and none would talk you down because you are of proven integrity. So, it is a very noble course.
