The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) has linked improved financial management to the growth and profitability of many organisations.
In a communique issued at the end of its 25th Annual National Conference in, Abuja President and Chairman of Council, ANAN Prof. Muhammad Mainoma, Director of Audit, and Acting Auditor General, Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation, Aghughu Adolphus, Representative of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Abdullahi Ya’u, among others said that financial management boosts company profitability.
They said that a primary concern for every business seeking to achieve sustainable growth and development is developing effective financial management capabilities for their workforce.
However, this they agreed will not happen if an organisation does not set up the right measures to improve its operations in terms of governance and leadership.
Financial managers and accountants were advised to deploy recommendable effort and skills to minimize costs while seeking to attain higher revenue levels for the benefit of their organizations.
“The gold standard in financial management is more revenue, less costs and more investments leading to sustainable growth. Under these prevailing global economic conditions, the accountant has no choice than to be innovative and technology is a Siamese twin with innovation”.
“The accountant must not be reactive or taken unawares – he or she must foresee the future, upgrade his competencies and techniques and move with the times to be able to respond to the changing environment. The place of the Accountant must be at the forefront and should even be the one initiating the disruptive technologies,” they said.
According to the communique, the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in financial reporting can never be undermined. It is a tool that the business community can never fathom to exempt in financial reporting. AI which is simulated intelligence in machines programmed to think, act and or mimic human intellectual ability is ‘applied’ and this application goes far and wide beyond better or faster processes. It inspires new ways of operating and building businesses globally.
The stakeholders argued that AI is complimenting human intelligence and has not yet reached the level of replacing human intelligence completely, it could be a possibility in the future as its capabilities are being improved upon.
“Acaccountants in the 21st century and indeed future accountants would need to develop ways to improve their efficiencies in completing assignments and transforming their duties beyond achieving the normal minimum of analysis and interpretation of financial statements.”
“Accounting and finance professionals would need to go further to understand chain analysis, and just so, future accountants may not be regular day-to-day humans who get to office and opens some database to run some operations but rather those who are able to interpret financial transactions and events beyond what normal humans can imagine, think or see. AI in this sense is improving the way modern-day accounting and finance professionals think and view the world of business,” they said.
According to the participants, aside having hard skills such as information system and technology proficiencies, big data analytics, and forensic accounting; professional accountants must have soft skills to support their academic and professional knowledge.
“Soft skills that must be possessed by millennial accountants include teamwork, leadership skills, presentation skills, communication skills, and decision-making skills. Soft skills are generally sharpened by continuous leaning and personal professional development. And the ANAN is setting the pace with its flagship program: The Mandatory Continuous Professional Development Programme (MCPD). The objective is to produce not just multi-faceted but ‘well-rounded, well-blended and well-honed professionals,” they said.
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