Andrew Harding, Managing Director of CIMA, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants has described Nigeria as a vibrant country, and Nigerians as intelligent, dynamic and truly inspiring entrepreneurial people that must have cutting edge management accounting expertise to enhance its position as Africa’s leading economy.
Mr Harding who said this at the inaugural members’ dinner for CIMA members resident in Nigeria at the weekend in Lagos noted that the dinner is a milestone in the history of the world’s largest professional body of management accountants. He said the dinner is in line with CIMA’s tradition of celebrating the great skills and dedication of CIMA members in the 177 countries where the global management accounting body has an active presence.
“Tonight is another milestone in CIMA’s history.We are not only celebrating the great skills and dedication of CIMA members in this country for the first time but also the recent launch of CIMA Nigeria’s new office in this vibrant city. Now that CIMA has a base in Nigeria, the institute is looking forward to developing the country’s talent base and further enhancing its position as a leading African economy,” he said.
Harding said the institute will establish a CIMA Centre of Excellence in Nigeria to develop the field of management accountancy in Nigeria, with the expectation that the centre will make it easier for academics in Nigeria to conduct research into management accounting and help CIMA membersstay at the cutting edge of business evolution. “Such expertise is essential if Nigeria is to achieve its goal of becoming one of the top 20 economic nations by 2020.”
The CIMA MD explained that being a CIMA member means being a good corporate citizen and thinking about the long term as well as putting professionalism at the heart of every activity. “I am very proud of the institute’s emphasis on ethics and sustainability,” he said.
This emphasis, he said, is the value offered by Chartered Global Management Accountants (CGMAs) and a growing number of organisations are beginning to understand that employing CIMA members to build ethics and sustainability into their strategy makes good business sense. “With Nigeria’s economy in the ascendance and a wealth of young talent eager to be developed, management accounting has a key role to play in ensuring that this dynamic nation not only survives future economic turbulence but thrives from public and private sector organisations that are both successful and sustainable.”
According to him, the world gives Nigeria a lot of bad press which is at variance with his experience. He disclosed that his trip to Nigeria has been an unexpectedly wonderful experience of meeting with dynamic, intelligent and truly inspiring entrepreneurial people.
On their part, CIMA fellows at the dinner led by Chief Kola Jamodu, Chairman, Nigeria Breweries Plc; Folusho Phillips, Executive Chairman, Phillips Consulting Group; and Peter Crabb, Senior Consultant, Associated Consultants and Investment Limited, urged CIMA to make its sought-after professional development programmes readily accessible across Nigeria to empower young professionals and Nigerian businesses to build great opportunities in management.
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