ICAN, ONECCA signs MoU to build capacity in Cameroon

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ordre National des Experts Comptables du Cameroun (ONECCA) to help train and certify professional accountants in Cameroon as well as provide technical assistance to the Cameroonian body.

Essentially, by virtue of the signed MoU, ICAN will help ONECCA develop its own professional examination and certification programmes as well as build capacity for an operational secretariat.

ONECCA, which currently does not have a professional examination scheme of its own will be assisted by ICAN to acquire technical expertise which will enable it run its own certification examinations locally in due course.

Under the arrangement, ICAN will initially assist in developing a syllabus for the Cameroonian Institute, set the questions and assist in grading answer scripts. It will also groom ONECCA personnel to eventually manage the process on their own.

During the conduct of its own examinations in Cameroon in the interim, ICAN will send its staff invigilators along with the examination papers and return the answer scripts to Nigeria for marking. ONECCA, on its own part, will help manage ICAN’s professional examinations in Cameroon.

In the same vein, ICAN will provide a seamless on-line registration facility for students in Cameroon and also assist ONECCA develop tuition centres and provide both the study materials to be used and the resource persons that will run revision classes.

In this regard, ONECCA will identify specific areas or topics on which ICAN will train the local trainers as well as actively market for students and create awareness for ICAN professional examinations among the Cameroonian populace and prepare the students.

ICAN will also help the Cameroonian body build technical resources to enable it discharge its mandate of regulating the accounting profession in the Central African country effectively. This will entail sharing its technical resources with ONECCA and helping in developing a technical resource base especially in the areas of research and publication of technical papers.

With regard to helping build an operational secretariat, ICAN will assist ONECCA develop an organisational structure, define functions, develop work manuals and train staff.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) was established by the Act of Parliament Number 15 of 1965 and is a founding member of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), Association of Accountancy Bodies of West Africa (ABWA) and Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA).

ICAN is empowered to set standards of knowledge and skill to be attained by persons wishing to become members of the accountancy profession in Nigeria. The Institute has over 38, 000 members and over 150,000 students on its registers and conducts professional examinations twice in a year.

Its vision is to be a leading global professional body while its mission is to produce world-class Chartered Accountants, regulate and continuously enhance their ethical standards and technical competence in the public interest.

The Institute is engaged in broadening the frontiers of the profession in Africa by mentoring sister bodies for international recognition.