Accountancy Services

Stransact Partners and Stransact Audit (Stransact), an auditing and tax services firms, were recently admitted as members of The International Accounting Group (TIAG), an international alliance of independent accounting firms. Stransact would be the exclusive member of TIAG for Nigeria. According to a statement by Mr. Dele Aberuagba, a financial and management consultant, Stransact’s membership in TIAG, and the broader TAG Alliances would enhance its international capabilities and services by providing the firm with strategic connections to high-quality accounting firms, law firms and other professional services firms in more than 100 countries.       The accreditation came on the heels of, TIAG members having been invited to join TIAG only after undergoing a comprehensive vetting and selection process. “Firms were carefully chosen based on professional competence, commitment to client service, reputation within the business community, and recommendations from existing members, and are ultimately reviewed and approved by the TIAG Advisory Board,” the statement added. Partners of Stransact, Mr. Abayomi Salawu and Mr. Eben Joels, stated that they were delighted about the firm’s membership of the alliance and would continue to work with clients to ensure that they will be the biggest beneficiaries of the association with TIAG and TAG Alliances. According to the duo, “TIAG will provide us with additional international support to help us better serve the cross-border needs of our clients.” According to Mr. Richard Attisha, president and chief executive officer of TIAG & TAG Alliances, “Stransact is an excellent firm, and we are pleased to have them as members of TIAG & TAG Alliances. The breadth and quality of their services, as well as their reputation and prominence in their market, makes them an attractive resource for our members and their clients.” Stransact operates as two integrated firms, Stransact Audit and Stransact Partners providing audit, review, other assurance, and related services such as financial reporting and bookkeeping services.   Source: Thisday

The President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, Prof. Muhammad Mainoma, says the association has started engaging the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and other relevant agencies to strengthen regulatory governance in financial reporting process in the country. He disclosed this in his welcome address at the 24th Annual National Conference of ANAN which opened on Tuesday, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent. He said, “We are engaging relevant regulators with a view to strengthening regulatory governance in the financial reporting process. Our close collaboration with the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and other PAOs is yielding results. “We have engaged the legislature in their bid to improve the national budget process,’’ He added, “ANAN has improved her advocacy in public policy. The Research Committee would soon release her two technical reports on Nigerian public financial management and professional accountancy skills gap. Capacity is being built on contemporary issues in accounting.” The ANAN president noted that in the past 24 years, members of the association had consistently gathered to discuss the affairs of the nation. He noted that the last of such efforts was on the ‘Economic recovery and growth: Issues and options.’ The ANAN president said that the logical follow-up to that was to sustain that economic recovery and growth; hence, the theme of this year’s conference, ‘Nation building and sustainable growth: Challenges and prospects.’ He said that the easiest way to build the nation and sustain it was through learning, entrepreneurship, goal convergence, accountability, collaboration and youth development. Mainoma said, “There seems to be agreement that development that cannot be sustained is not development at all. We must not only be bothered about the present but the future should be of concern to us. Here comes the issue of legacy.   Source: Punch

Chief Akintola Williams, the first African to qualify as a chartered accountant, clocked 100 years yesterday, putting family, friends and well-wishers in celebration mood. Akintola Williams was born on August 9, 1919 into the family of Thomas Ekundayo Williams, a clerk in the colonial service, who later trained as a legal practitioner in London and set up his practice in Lagos. In 2009, he lost his wife of 60 years, Mabel Efuntiloye Williams with whom he had two children, Tokunbo and Seni. The young Williams had his education in the early 1930s at Olowogbowo Methodist Primary School, Bankole street, Apongbon, Lagos Island, Lagos, and CMS Grammar School, also in Lagos. The bright young man then went to Yaba Higher College on scholarship of UAC, and obtained a diploma in commerce. He moved overseas to England in 1944 to studied Banking and Finance at the University of London where he graduated in 1946 with a Bachelor of Commerce. He qualified as a chartered accountant in England in 1949. Akintola Williams returned to Nigeria in 1950, and served with the Inland Revenue as an assessment officer until March 1952, when he left the civil service and founded his firm, Akintola Williams & Co. in Lagos. Records show that the company was the first indigenous chartered accounting firm in Africa. In those days, the accountancy business was said to be dominated by five large foreign firms, with a few small local firms that were certified but not chartered accountants. Regardless, he had good business with indigenous companies like Nnamdi Azikiwe’s West African Pilot, K. O. Mbadiwe’s African Insurance Company, Fawehinmi Furniture and Ojukwu Transport. He also provided services to the new state-owned corporations, including the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, the Western Nigeria Development Corporation, the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation, the Nigerian Railway Corporation and the Nigerian Ports Authority. The growth path of the company became set with its first partner, Charles S. Sankey appointed in 1957, followed by a Cameroonian, Mr. Njoh Litumbe, who contributed to the firm’s expansion. Litumbe opened branch offices in Port Harcourt and Enugu, and later led the firm’s expansion overseas in 1964, opening a branch in the Cameroons, followed by branches in Côte d’Ivoire and Swaziland, and affiliates in Ghana, Egypt and Kenya. By March 1992, the company had 19 partners and 535 staff. Demand grew as a result of the Companies Act of 1968, which required that companies operating in Nigeria formed locally incorporated subsidiaries and published audited annual accounts. The drive in the early 1970s to encourage indigenous ownership of businesses also increased demand. The company acquired a computer service company and a secretarial service, and in 1977, the company entered into an agreement with Touche Ross International based on profit sharing. Williams was also a board member and major shareholder in a number of other companies. He retired in 1983. Between April 1999 and May 2004, Akintola Williams & Co. merged with two other accounting firms to create Akintola Williams Deloitte (now known as Deloitte & Touche), the largest professional services firm in Nigeria with a staff of over 600. Williams has deep roots in the development and growth of financial and other institutions in the country. He participated in founding the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, where he was the first president. This was a projection of a leading role he played in 1960 in establishing the Association of Accountants in Nigeria, which goal was to train accountants. He was also the association’s first president. Regardless of old age, he never lost touch with these organisations. At a stock exchange ceremony in May 2011, he called on operators to protect the market and ensure there was no scandal. He said that, if needed, market operators should not hesitate to seek his advice on resolving any problem. Williams served Nigeria in several positions, including Chairman of the Federal Income Tax Appeal Commissioners (1958–68); member of the Coker Commission of Inquiry into the Statutory Corporations of the former Western Region of Nigeria (1962); member of the board of Trustees of the Commonwealth Foundation (1966–1975); Chairman of the Lagos State Government Revenue Collection Panel (1973) and Chairman of the Public Service Review Panel to correct the anomalies in the Udoji Salary Review Commission (1975). He also served in other spheres of human endeavor, including as President of the Metropolitan Club in Victoria Island, Lagos, Founder and Council member of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation. The Akintola Williams Arboretum at the Nigerian Conservation Foundation headquarters in Lagos is named in his honour. He was Founder and chairman of the board of Trustees of the Musical Society of Nigeria.   Source: This days

Over the last 12 to 18 months, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has emerged one of the fastest growing financial technology (Fintech) hubs in the world in terms of investments, albeit from a low base. Investment in African fintechs nearly quadrupled in 2018 to $357 million, with startups in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa accounting for the largest share, trend that continued into 2019, with a number of high-profile deals. For example, three Nigerian fintech start-ups – Kudi, OneFi and TeamApt, each raised around $5 million in funding during the first half of the year. The Global System for mobile Telecommunications Association (GSMA), which gave the statistics, said huge opportunities await Fintech’s investors, stressing that emerging markets including Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa hold huge potential for fintech innovations. GSMA further added that 395.7 million registered mobile money accounts now exist in the region and that nearly nine in 10 registered mobile money accounts are in East and West Africa. According to the body, which is in charge of over 800 telecoms companies globally, over the past year, several underserved markets in the region have taken steps to accelerate mobile money adoption and, by extension, financial inclusion among citizens. The body noted that in Nigeria, regulatory reforms introduced in October 2018 allow mobile operators to obtain licences to operate payment service banks (PSBs), while in Ethiopia, an ambitious financial inclusion strategy has been attracting investment into mobile money services. Indeed, reforms in Nigeria have seen MTN getting Super Agent license on Tuesday from the Central Bank of Nigeria, with other telecoms to follow suit. GSMA noted that the Angola’s national bank plans to submit new laws governing payment systems, including mobile payments, to parliament for approval in 2019. The telecoms body said these developments notwithstanding, future growth of mobile money services in the region, will be largely driven by interoperability of mobile money services. Account-to-account (A2A) interoperability gives users the ability to transfer between customer accounts held with different mobile money providers and other financial system players. It also disclosed that Tanzania led the way in 2014, but several countries across the region, including Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria and Ghana, have now launched interoperability projects and use cases. According to GSMA, mobile money providers’ integration with banks is one particular use case that has significantly increased volumes moving between mobile money and banking systems. The body, while charging Nigeria and other countries, informed that a next step in the interoperability journey will be implementation of innovative solutions to integrate mobile money platforms with the broader financial ecosystem. “A number of options exist around central switching infrastructure for the industry to enable nascent use cases to scale, including merchant payments and efficient connections to domestic and international financial system players. This is already happening at sub-regional levels. “For example, the eight countries11 of the West African Economic Monetary Union (WAEMU) are building an interoperable system that will connect 110 million people to more than 125 banks, dozens of e-money issuers, and more than 600 microfinance institutions. “However, much of the existing bank-focused infrastructure is not optimal for mobile money. In an effort to solve this, MTN and Orange, with the support of the GSMA, launched a joint venture to enable interoperable payments across Africa. “Known as Mowali (‘mobile wallet interoperability’), the service is open to any mobile money provider in Africa, as well as banks, money transfer operators and other financial services providers. “With its pan- African footprint allowing for economies of scale and a cost-recovery commercial model, Mowali has the potential to drive down the price of services offered to lower-income customers. “Additionally, Mowali could shape the future of the mobile money ecosystem in the region by creating a common mobile money acceptance brand with the potential to connect fintechs, banks, merchants and other ecosystem players to nearly 400 million mobile money accounts across Africa,” GSMA stated.   Source: Guardian