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 OUR VISION

To advance the Science of Accountancy in Nigeria - pioneering a multi-disciplinary emphasis in the production of well rounded and well blended professionals - vast in knowledge, skilled and experienced in practice, and committed to the highest ideals of ethical conduct. 

MISSION STATEMENT

To build a Center of Excellence for the teaching of Accountancy, not only in Nigeria, but also in Africa, which will serve as the Cradle of Professionalism and the best in professional practice, and to inculcate standards of integrity, probity, honesty and good conscience in Nigerian professional practice.To raise a new generation of accounting professionals that will serve as the arrow-head of a new dispensational and millennial move in the development of accounting in Nigeria. 

This We Believe

Association of National Accountants of Nigeria is the only chartered professional accountancy body in Nigeria empowered by law to teach as well as examine all its students. Besides, it is the only body having the absolute power to advance the science of accountancy.The Association was formed on 1st January, 1979, incorporated on 28th September, 1983 and was finally chartered by Decree 76 of 1993 on 25th August, 1993. It has a total membership of 10,260 as at December 2007.
 
The Association is a truly national accountancy body with education and training programme reflecting the national environment which would meet internationally accepted accountancy standards. It was born out of a burden shared by a number of well meaning Nigerians for a home grown and home spun professional body. It sought a thoroughly Nigerian and community based approach to the definition of accountancy standards and practices.
 
All accountancy graduates with B.Sc. and HND from Nigerian Universities and Polytechnics, are eligible to commence a three-year training programme to qualify with the Association and earn the designation Certified National Accountant (CNA). This is similar to the system adopted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS). The Association also accepts specific overseas professional qualifications which are recognized under ANAN Act 76 (formally Decree No. 76) of 1993 Schedule 4.  All students aspiring to become members of the Association must attend the Nigerian College of Accountancy, Jos in preparation for the Association's examination programme, consisting of FIVE PAPERS at Professional Examinations 'A1 (PEA) and SIX PAPERS at Professional Examination 'B1 (PEB) details of which are contained in the later Section Of this brochure.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

The Council of the Association believes that the economic future of Nigeria depends largely on the commercial and industrial efficiency of its productive capacity. Therefore, the education and training of professional accountants should reflect the economic, structural and ideological environment of Nigeria. The Council, in an attempt to maintain internationally acceptable education and training standards has decided to follow the system of education and training similar to those of legal and medical professions. Accordingly, holders of B.Sc. and HND in accountancy from approved Nigerian Universities, Polytechnics, are required to attend the Nigerian College of Accountancy for nine months and pass the prescribed professional examinations.In the light of the foregoing, the Council has been able to distinguish between education and training. 

 EDUCATION

Education is regarded as a generic and organic process involving a series of activities aimed at enabling an individual to assimilate and develop knowledge, skills, competencies and values that are not simply related to a narrow field of activity. Thus education allows broad range of problems to be defined, analysed and solved. 

TRAINING

Training on the other hand, is the planned and systematic effort to modify or develop knowledge, skill and attitude through a learning experience in order to achieve effective performance in an activity or narrow range of activity. It is mechanistic, very precise and job oriented and produces observable effects in the short term. Operatives are trained. Executives are educated. Ideally, therefore, professional accountants of the 21st Century should be both educated and trained.
Pursuant to the foregoing definitions of education and training, ANAN adopted from inception a straight forward approach which incorporates three basic ingredients, namely:

• a four-year period of study of accountancy in an institution accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC) or National Board for Technical Education (NBTE); this is the basic entry requirement into the NIGERIAN COLLEGE OF ACCOUNTANCY (NCA)

• a one year of intensive professional education, training and examination at the Nigerian College of Accountancy.

• a two-year period of supervised practical experience as Accountant-in-Training (AIT) in any sector of the economy. Items (b) and (c) above satisfy the three year professional training for membership of the Association.

The Association insists that its members must pass through the University or Polytechnic because these institutions are places of light, freedom and learning. On graduation from the University or Polytechnic, the accounting graduate qualifies to attend the NIGERIAN COLLEGE CF ACCOUNTANCY (NCA) where he is given a proper professional education and training by experience professional experts with sound educational background. The Nigerian College of Accountancy is headed by a Director General who is a Certified National Accountant. He is the Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of the College. The Governing Board of the Nigerian College of Accountancy consists of twelve (12) Certified National Accountants with the Director General as Member/Secretary to the Board. At the College the system of lecturing is largely workshop oriented, garnished with tutorials. Visiting lecturers with wide practical experience are invited on periodic basis to provide tutorial to complement formal lectures.

The objective of this system of pedagogy is to develop the student's ability to practicalise theoretical concepts of given situation. Students of the College are presumed to have mastered the principles and theories of accounting at degree or higher diploma levels at the University or Polytechnic. 

It goes without saying that the emphasis at Nigerian College of Accountancy is on practice and integrity, because the training procedure imparts knowledge, aptitude, skill, competence and, of course, beyond that, judgment in the application of these factors to problems in real life situation. Personality Presentation and Professional Ethics such as mode of dressing, development of personal confidence, sufficiency of self discipline, self analysis, self criticism and caution which reduces the possibilities of mistakes and help acceptable ethical standards in serving the public and colleagues, are part of the judgment of fitness at the Nigerian College of Accountancy. At the end of the year full time (nine months) course, students sit for the professional examination - PEA in January and PEB in May. 

On passing the professional examinations, the student then qualifies to undertake a two-year supervised practical training in any sector of the economy. Thereafter he becomes eligible to apply for membership of the Association, and if admitted as a member, he will be entitled to describe himself as a Certified National Accountant and to write after his name the designation "CNA", At this stage, he is a fully qualified professional accountant. The Nigerian College of Accountancy is the first of its kind to be established by a body of accountants anywhere in Africa.
 

PUBLIC PRACTICE

By our professional definition, an accountant is a professional, who by virtue of his training, education and overall development, is equipped to provide a variety of specialized services - financial, accounting, auditing and taxation to the public and private sectors of the economy. A Certified National Accountant (formerly Public National Accountant) is defined by Act No. 76 (formerly Decree 76) of 1993 section 20 as "a member of the Association licensed to practice accountancy". Therefore, no member of the Association can practice accountancy unless he is in possession of a practicing certificate. The conditions for the issues of a practising certificate are governed by the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria Rule 1995 published in the Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette No.22, vol. 82, dated 15th September. 1995.

The condition for issue of a practicing certificate shall be that, the member shows to the satisfaction of the Council that he has acquired experience in public practice as an accountant in the capacity as a Practitioner Assistant in the office of a member of the Association who is in public practice or any other approved practitioner's office for

•  24 months if the two-year (AIT) practical training was obtained outside a practitioner's office.

• 12 months if the two-year (AIT) practical training was obtained in a practitioner's office Public Practice MUST be a full-Time engagement. See page 26

MEMBERSHIP
Membership of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) is restricted to:

• Holders of University Degree or HND in Accountancy;
• Attendance at the Nigerian College of Accountancy, Jos for one year intensive full time professional education, training and examination
• A two-year Accountant-in-Training (AIT) Programme in any sector of the economy, i.e. either with a practicing member or under supervision of a member or any other approved professional in government, industry, commerce or academic, and
• A yearly attendance of the Mandatory Continuing Professional Development (MCPD) Programme.

The Council regards the MCPD programme as an effective way in which members can ensure that they are maintaining, deepening and extending their professional and technical expertise to justify themselves to clients and employers.

On January 1, 1979, a number of concerned Nigerian accountants gathered at the Lagos home of one of their members, with the burden of turning around the fortunes of the accountancy profession in Nigeria. This move led to the formation of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria. The ANAN Bill incorporate the law to establish the professional body, was sent to the National Assembly. On Septembers, 1981 at precisely 11.50am, the ANAN Bill was passed with an overwhelming majority by the Federal House of Representatives. The Bill then went to the Senate of the Federal Republic, where it passed through its First and Second Readings. It was at the Committee Stage when the military intervened in the business of political governance in December 1983. On 28th September, 1983, the Association was registered under the Land Perpetual Succession Act. Finally, on August 25, 1993, in a move that was both fortunate and fortuitous, the Federal Military Government promulgated the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria Decree No. 76 of 1993, which gave legal muscles to the existence of ANAN. The Decree later became Act 76 of 1993 with effect from May 29, 1999, at the inception of democratic civilian government. By the promulgation of Act No 76 (formerly Decree No. 76) of 1993, ANAN was then empowered and authorized to perform the following functions: 

• advancing the science of accountancy (in this Decree referred to as “the profession”)
• determining the standards of knowledge and skill to be attained by persons seeking to become registered members of the profession and reviewing those standards from time to time as the circumstances may require;
• promoting the highest standard of competence, practice and conduct among the members of the profession;
• securing in accordance with the provision of this Decree, the establishment and maintenance of register of members of the profession and the publication, from time to time of list of those persons:
• doing such things as may advance and promote the advancement of the profession of accountancy in both the public and private sectors of the economy; and
• performing through the Council established under section 3 of the Decree, the functions conferred on it by this Decree.

The implication of the following provision of section1of Act No. 76 of 1993 is that members of ANAN have full powers and authority to exercise their professional functions in all sectors of the economy including public practice in the field of accounting, taxation, auditing and financial management matters, etc.  

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