Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has passed a vote of confidence on the University’s Accounting Programme describing it as “very strong” and the students “not found wanting at all”.
ICAN for the umpteenth time endorsed FUNAAB Accounting Programme when its Accreditation team visited the University for the re-accreditation of her B.Sc. Accounting Programme.
According to the leader of the Accreditation Team, Prof. Ishola Akintoye “I want to put it on record that your University for the past few years is already on the record of ICAN. Your students are not found wanting at all and this shows your programme is very strong”.
Speaking on areas in which ICAN can be of assistance to the University, Professor Akintoye said, “We have a grant, about N50 million grant, we call it research grant for staff who want to pursue PhD. Currently we give each researcher the sum of five thousand naira to assist them. As for the students, if they have Student Week, we also have a little bit of grant that they can access.
He pointed out that there are also grants that can be accessed to set up laboratories with the donation of equipment and student scholarship which can be accessed by students with CGPA of 3.5 and above, adding that the Scholarship is not restricted to Accounting students alone.
The Accreditation team also expressed solidarity with the University for the retention of its College of Management Science, expressing its willingness to be of assistance in any way possible.
Shedding light on the importance of the exercise, the Accreditation team leader, Professor Akintoye disclosed that reaccreditation is essential to ascertain that the curriculum of the Accounting Department has not fallen below the standard set for it during the professional accreditation of the Department.
According to him, ICAN by Act of Parliament, Section 15 of 1965 was granted power to look at courses in Accounting in Nigeria, which in turn will help the Institute to determine the number of examinations students in an accredited Institution are to write, in order to qualify as Chartered Accountants.
Professor Akintoye said that while students in accredited institutions are granted some levels of exemption in the number of professional examination to be written, those that are not accredited are expected to write the entire examination.
Professor Akintoye stressed that the professional accreditation does not negate the accreditation done by the National University Commission (NUC) but rather strengthens it, adding that ICAN does not associate with Institutions that do not have accreditation from NUC.
Speaking on the subject of having a College of Management Science in a specialised University, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kolawole Salako said, “The issue of specialized Universities is that every course you are teaching should be tailored to the main area of focus, but people don’t understand that if you are teaching engineering, it should also be tailored to how to boost agriculture. Engineering should be different from the basic engineering, as there are many things to do in agriculture, like dams, electrification of rural areas, that require engineering fundamentals, this has kept us hammering on the need for related courses”.
He also emphasized the importance of Management Science to agriculture, disclosing that he is still working and keeping faith alive that the College of Management Sciences will be restored in the University with the support of the other stakeholders.
