Obazee leads speakers to e-Accounting confab

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board, Mr. Jim Obazee, will next month deliver a paper as keynote speaker on the theme of the first annual Accounting & Audit Technology Conference and exhibition slated to hold at the Lagos Sheraton.

The theme of the conference is ‘Technology in Accounting & Auditing’, according to the host and Chief Executive Officer, EDP Audit and Security Associates, Mr. Chris Ekeigwe was chosen to highlight the importance of technology in the accounting and auditing professions.

He also said his firm has advanced plans to hold e-Accounting Technowledge conference 2011 in the month of July between 25 and 27.

Apart from Obazee, Mr. Ekeigwe said there are 12 other speakers to made presentations at the three-day event, including himself, chief executive officer of SystemSpecs Limited, Mr. John Obaro, Head, Risk and Compliance Services at KPMG Nigeria, Mr. Olumide Olayinka, Group Head, Information Technology, First City Monument Bank plc, Mr. Emeka Eboegbune, Presales Manager for Applications at Oracle Africa operations, Mr. Olumide Biyi and Senior Consultant cum Head, Data Quality-Integrity Assurance Group at EDP, Ms Amarachi Lois Ukaegbu among others.

Briefing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) reporters at the weekend in Lagos, Mr. Ekeigwe said that the e-Accounting conference, seeks to bridge a gap in accounting and audit technology vision in the profession.

He noted that as the digital economy was developing, the finance, accounting and audit professions in Africa were skittish to confront the challenges of technology.

“Consequently, the professions are largely blindsided by technology developments in business,” he said, stressing that looking at the industry today, one could see that these professions are at the margin of information technology issues in organisations.

He described this as a shame because these professions were prepared by history to lead in business management and the information systems used in running the business.

Ekeigwe added that because the irresolute and cavalier attitude towards technology, finance, accounting and audit professionals have been relegated to the background in technology matters in the organisaton.

He attributed the observed levity to both individual and institutional, which is worsened by the absence of leadership initiatives aimed at reversing the on-going decline to obscurity of the profession in the information age.

“The absence of vision and strategy to capture a greater future for the profession in the digital economy will result in blinkered economic and technology decisions by members and institutions in the profession. This is a dangerous position to be in,” he lamented.

Therefore, he said, that this industry conference has compelling motivation and message for finance, accounting and audit professionals.

“The professions must reverse their technology incompetence, take their rightful position in information systems ecology and lead technology in organisations or risk being relegated to tawdry professions or to obscurity at the margin of society,” he said.

Ekeigwe said this is a serious concern to be addressed with a sense of urgency, elucidating that Biology teaches that ‘adaptation’ is necessary for competition and survival in nature.

He stressed that if the world has changed technologically, then nature dictates that finance, accounting and audit professionals must adapt in order to survive and prosper.

“We need behavioral adaptation to survive technology epochs of our time,” he submitted, stressing that the aforementioned professions must adopt new skills developments behaviours that will help them catch up with the curve of technology change.

Remmy Nweke:
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