Governor seeks ANAN, IFAC’s support to attract investors  

The Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, has urged accountants in the country to join in the fight against corruption through transparent activities to attract investments.

Lalong, who made the call while receiving a delegation of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) led by the Chief Operating Officer, Ms Alta Prinsloo and its Accountability Now Leader, Vincent Tophoff, expressed optimism that their visit would open up investment interests in the state and country at large.

The Governor told the visitors, who were accompanied by the President of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Anthony Nzom, that investors are free to come to the state, which offers conducive weather, foods and the hospitality.

As an incentive, Lalong said his administration would award the contract of construction of the roads leading to the Nigerian College of Accountancy, the training arm of ANAN, now that foreign visitors were coming into the college.
The Governor explained that he had to reschedule all his engagements to personally welcome the visitors, urging them to tell good stories about the state and Nigeria by the time they return to their base.

But ANAN president said the development process of an accountant to the height of member of IFAC is so important that “any accountant who does not belong to IFAC can only be called a finance officer.”

According to him, during the last depression, world leaders placed blames on the doorsteps of IFAC, urging it to do more work for accountants to produce good financial reports.
“We invited IFAC to come and see what we have done and what we are doing, to uplift us to the next level. Prinsloo has commissioned our new clinic that would serve more than 1,000 students,” Nzom said.

He said that the college was located in Jos because of the weather and the friendly people of Plateau, adding that the state government had done well for the association, particularly by giving the land to the association.

Nzom said ANAN presently have over 80 per cent of auditor-generals in the country as its members, adding that 85 per cent accountant-generals of states were also ANAN members.

Prinsloo, who said it was really amiable to be in Nigeria and in Jos to see the ANAN college noted that Public Financial Management would be the largest issue for the accountants in the next few years.
“ANAN is a great member of IFAC. I can vouch for your quality. Not only the quality of the school, but the fact that ANAN look after the welfare of their students with the clinic I saw, the library being well equipped and other facilities in the college,” she said.
She said she had never seen a thing like that in the course of her going round other professional accounting bodies in several countries.