According to the Financial Reporting Council, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), disclosed its plans through Memorandum of Understanding that will allow its members to obtain audit qualification rights in the UK.

ICAN said the move was based on the fact that accounting and audit practices have become global.

Once MoU between ICAN and FRC is signed by both parties, ICAN members can fully engage in auditing jobs in the UK.

This was revealed during a visit to Dr  Innocent Okwuosa, the UK Financial Reporting Council led by ICAN President, as part of activities for the 11th ICAN UK international conference.

Okwuosa declared the Mutual Recognition Agreement between the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and ICAN, presenting a case for UK FRC to allow ICAN members to leverage the MRA to obtain audit qualification rights in the UK.

Dawn Dickson, the Director of Professional Bodies Supervision, stressed that the UK FRC could grant audit qualification rights to ICAN members after a rigorous evaluation process and hinted that such audit qualification rights have been extended to Australia and New Zealand with South Africa’s being reviewed.

“Nigeria can be given such rights if ICAN can meet all the requirements set by the UK FRC for this,” Dickson said.

He said both parties agreed that ICAN should submit its application so that the evaluation by UK FRC can start.

During the meeting, Okwuosa also said to have demanded to know the modus operandi of UK FRC, its funding mechanism and supervision of the accounting profession.

In response, Dickson said, “UK FRC focuses only on the audit of listed and public interest companies and their auditors. Any audit firm that is not involved in the audit of listed and public interest companies is not supervised by the UK FRC but by its professional body through the delegation agreement that they have signed with the UK FRC.

 “Such a firm is also not required to register with or pay registration fees to UK FRC.”