The Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Muda Yusuf, and the General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Past. Enoch Adeboye, said accounting professionals can do more to rescue the country’s economy.
  
The duo who spoke at the ongoing 15th Western Zonal Accountants’ Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) at the Redemption Camp, Ogun state, charged the professionals to take special in broad macroeconomic issues as well as disruptive technology and align their professional practice according.
     
Speaking the conference theme, ‘Disruptive Economy: Implications for the Accounting Profession,’ Adeboye, accountants have a calling that is of benefit to the entire society. The cleric, who was represented by the Assistant General Overseer (Personnel and Admin), Past. Funso Odesola said urged the organisers to communicate the communiqué of the conference to relevant authorities.
  
Yusuf acknowledged the role of accountants in turning the socioeconomic conditions of the country around. He, however, said they would be more relevant to the national economy if they take interest in macroeconomic issues and contextualize their practice. 
   
“The pandemic crashed the global financial market including crude oil prices, foreign exchange and the small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs),” Yusuf said, adding that countries with preexisting condition were mostly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  
 
He listed rising inflation, external imbalances, low investors’ confidence, insecurity and FX crisis as some of the challenges facing the country before the pandemic. He concluded that COVID-19 only made “a bad situation worst” for the country.
   
According to him, the highest impact of the pandemic is on commodities, which make countries that rely on crude, like Nigeria, severely affected.
   
Yusuf said the rising oil demand is good news as it would have positive impacts on the country’s fiscal position. He, however, said there is a downside of the rally of prices has reactivated the concern about subsidy.   
    
In her keynote address, ICAN President, Dame Onome Joy Adewuyi, said accountants have defied all odds and continue to build capacity in key areas of practice.
   
“The theme of this conference is an evidence that as the global economy is being disrupted, we are proactively responding to the emerging new world,” she said.