Experts, ICAN Urge Accountants To Embrace Technology

Economic and financial experts have called on accountants to equip themselves with modern technological skills in order to remain relevant and cope with changes in the accounting profession.

They made the call at a one-day programme tagged, ‘The Professional Practice Firms’ Retreat,’ organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Lagos Mainland and District Society, according to a statement on Friday.

A partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Erhie Edafe, said that with the growing impact of technology on business, it had become important for accountants to upgrade themselves.

“If you are working with banks these days, and you are not in trend with technology, you cannot cope with the current systems because you must automate everything,” Edafe added.

A partner with Aziengbe Osimhen and Co., Innocent Osimhen, who spoke on ‘Audit Evidence: Documentation of Working Papers,’ listed the characteristics of a good audit evidence to include reliability, relevance and sufficiency, adding that any audit evidence that was not documented “is as good as no evidence.”

Osimhen said, “The nature and purpose of audit documentation depends on the sizes and complexity procedures to be performed, the identified risk of material misstatement, the significance of audit determinable from the documentation of audit evidence or work performed.”

Earlier, the Chairman, ICAN Lagos Mainland and District Society, Rev. Olatunde Ayadi, had said that the programme was aimed at enabling accountants to be abreast of modern happenings in the industry and serving as peer-review groups where like-minds met and deliberated on issues purely bordering on professional talks.

In his admonition, the Chairman, Trade Promotion Board of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Gabriel Idahosa, who chaired the occasion, said, “Most of us who are (the) older generation of auditors are very much available to pass on our experience, because we do not want to die with it.