ICAN trains 150 members on entrepreneurship, technology savvy

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) Ilorin and District Society has trained 150 professional members on entrepreneurship and technology inclination.

The Chairman ICAN Ilorin and District Society, Prof. Khadijat Yahaya, said the training was meant to build the capacity of their professional members, as well as open their minds to have multiple source of income.

”The essence of the seminar was to train our professional members in order to perform optimally well in their workplaces.

”The first topic on entrepreneurship is to train them on how to look inward and convert their talents into a business venture apart from their monthly income.

”While the second topic is on how they can use excel application effectively in the course of their jobs.

”It will give them foundation of what they need to know and they will be able to build on it.

”So, I believe the training will go a long way in improving the productivity of our professional members in their workplace,” she said.

The Resource Person, Dr Phillips Adebayo, from the Department of Business and Entrepreneurship, Kwara State University (KWASU) urged the accountants to be the value intermediary in their profession.

Dr Adebayo who spoke on the topic ”Building an entrepreneural mindset for professional accountants” said it was important for accountants to have an entrepreneural mindset because it is business that drives the economy.

”We have to intimate you participants on the current state of jobs in the 21st century and that any job that is not technology driven now cannot last long.

”Therefore, as professional accountants, we ought to have an entrepreneural mindset, that is searching for opportunities around us and providing solutions, through that, you create an enterprise and also make wealth.

”Just as we know that it is business that drives an economy, what the government does is to provide an enabling environment, so, the more we invest into entrepreneurship, the more we create opportunities for ourselves and others,” Dr Adebayo said.

On his part, Dr Abdulhakeem Shuaib, from KWASU’s Department of Accounting and Finance said there was the need for accountants to innovate, use emerging innovations like Artifical Intelligence to the best of their ability.

Dr Shuaib who spoke on ”Basic and advanced excel application for accountants” said it was important for accountants to move with the global trend, but most of the accounting packages were not easily affordable, hence, the reason for training in excel that is free.

”This lecture is about exposing accountants to the basics of excel and how it can assit them in doing their work.

”Most of our jobs has to do with analysis, presenting reports and keeping financial records, so we need to learn how to use excel to do all these.

”This is because some accounting packakges are so expensive that our members may not be able to afford them, but we can use excel which is relatively free, it comes with Microsoft office.

”So, as accountants, we can use and adopt excel, depending on how inquisitive you are or how much you can explore it to use effectively,” Dr Shuaib said.