Nahimah Ajikanle Nurudeen
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) to improve ethical business practices and corporate governance in Nigeria.
The MoU which was signed before an interactive session at Four Points by Sheraton, Oniru, Lagos according to the duo was informed by the need to boost capacity among ACCA members.
The Chief Executive ACCA, Helen Brand OBE said accounting profession is the delivery of public values, which implies acting in the public interest, developing ethical business practices and supporting sustainable economic developments.
She said observance of these the above three core values by professionals has generated good for the economy, societies and organisations where ACCA members work.
Brand said, “It is important to emphasis that our members are held to that professional ethical codes through their working lives. I know that the values of FITC are very much in line with that. We know that a lot of the crisis in governance and corruption has to do with behaviours, therefore we have to consider the issue of education, training, and remodelling can be developed through these collaborations.”
On her part the Country Head of ACCA Nigeria, Mrs. Toyin Ademola hinted that both organisations are interested not only in the development of financial skills, but also in ethnics and corporate governance.
She explained that “the vision and mission of FITC aligns with us as well. The main focus of the MOU is mainly to partner and deliver value to our members.
“FITC on its parts adheres strictly to governance and ethics. It is also an avenue to upgrading capability and skills. Therefore, this would help our members and stakeholders that to understand that these core values are requirement to deliver value to the institute and the employers. We are hoping to work with the federal Government very soon. Recently, we were with the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo with our developed insight and research on anti-corruption.
On tackling corruption in the financial sector, Ademola said, “We believe that there is a need to educate the Nigeria public rather just trying to prevent it. It is about sorting it out from the root cause to find out what the problems are instead just proffering a solution. We are working on that in conjunction with FITC. We have always had professional ethics and governance at the heart of our qualification.”
Also, FITC Associate Director, Mr. Tunji Ajiboye said the firm has been training top people in various organisations on doing the right thing saying that the partnership was a further step into eliminating corrupt practices.
He said “Therefore our focus is to train the directors so that it will cascade down all through the system. This is a way of tackling corruption. You cannot entirely eliminate corruption. It is a vice that is found everywhere both in developed and developing societies. When people are enlightened, they will know what to do, this is why we are partnering with ACCA to add value to the works that we do.”
