ICAN/ACCA certification how do I go about? Help with A-Z of it.

I recently made up my mind to get ICAN, ACCA but am a complete novice in the area, pls house I need to know all it takes to achieve this. Kindly advise me on what to do and what not to do, cost, requirement(s), everything that is involved in the process. I trust this forum for the best of advice. Thank you, waiting...

Visit www.accaglobal.com and www.ican-ngr.com.

Sorry...ican is www.icanig.org

It depends on your area of specialization, if you are an accounting graduate,you will have 2 levels of exams (pe1 and pe2)to write. You will apply 4 exemption which is around N45K. The pe1 exams fee is approx. N45K while the pe1 lectures in any ican approved centre is approx. N40k. You will need 4 ican study packs costing N3k or N2k(photocopy) each. You will need 4 pathfinders(past questions) costing N800 each. Assuming you make the pe1 exams at once, this will be your cost (approx. N145k).

AT pe2, you will pay only the pe2 exams fee (approx. N45K) and for pe2 lectures (approx. N40K) in any centre.

if your area of specialization is not accounting or any business admin. courses, you will have 4 levels(foundation, intermediate, pe1 and pe2) to write. The foundation and intermediate levels have slightly lower prices in terms of exams fee and lecture fees. You will also not be required to apply for exemption if you are starting at this level.

In terms of your choice of exams, it will depend on your focus in life, acca is slightly more expensive than ican and you will be given areas of concentration, in ican, there is no areas of concentration, you read everything. Also internationally, with ican certificate, you can work as a chartered accountant in all other countries excluding U.S and Britain while acca certificate will be accepted. The exams which has no form of discrimination round the globe is CFA,(Chartered Financial Analyst). The exams is written in 3 levels, the 1st level can be written in Ghana, the 2nd and the 3rd level can be written in South africa. There's no centre for the exams in Nigeria yet. I hope this will help you.

Pls advise me u seem to hv enuogh info. I want to do a course on financial analysis pls hw do i go abt it like d chrtd financial analyst u mentioned

Which area of financial analysis do you mean? Taxation, Auditing or you want to be a chartered Accountant or a Chartered Stock broker? or you want to take the CFA exams? all these are different forms of financial analyst we have. So please let me know the area you really want to specify on.

@spartan009. Stop giving wrong information.U can only give advice on what you really know.it is not a crime if you only say what you know about. Who told you that you have area of concentration in ACCA and that you dont need to read everything?Why are you deceiving yourself that ICAN is regocnised beyond the chores of Nigeria? Stop misleading people.

@majesty101. I will strongly advice you write ACCA if u are thinking of making a decision between ACCA and ICAN.Believe it or not, most multinational companies are particular about int'l certification or int'l experience.They may not specifically state that as a recruitment criteria but you get to know at the interview stage.Besides, ACCA is more value adding
and challenging. Be prepared to read like there is no tommorrow. There is nothing like multiple choice questions(except for the first 3 papers),nothing like feel in the gap, nothing like optional questions(u have to answer all questions), and most questions required critical thinking unlike ICAN.But i can assure you its worth the stress cos there are more opportunities with ACCA beyond the chores of Nigeria.

@ak. Plz, cn u estimate d total fee 4 me n d total numba of courses 4 an accounting graduate. Plz.

@ AKmonopoly, I stand to be corrected, ACCA is not as tasking as ICAN though it is more recognized than ICAN. I'm an Associate member of ICAN and I have that couldn't pass ATS1 then but are now Associate member of ACCA. U can write 2papers in a diet u like it dat way but in ican, no of papers in not optional. You write the 4 @ ago.

Lol...i feel a lot of sentiments here. I'll just chip in my bit... I am ICAN chartered and have also written an ACCA-organized exam.

First off, ICAN is not simpler than ACCA. Or vice versa. It depends on your preparation. People fail objective and subjective exams as much as they fail essay-type questions. Some prefer essay-type actually. And nobody gives you areas of concentration anywhere. That's the exclusive reserve of university exams! Both exams however, do have a syllabus to help you organize your preparations.

Per international recognitions, yes, ICAN is recognized well beyond Nigeria since ICAN is a member of IFAC (International Federation of Accountants). It is recognized as the accounting qualification per Nigerian national standards. I have colleagues who are working in Nigeria with their Chartered Accounting qualifications from South Africa, India, Czech republic and other countries. That notwithstanding, ACCA obviously has wider global acceptance.

In addition, to practice as a professional accountant in Nigeria, you must be ICAN chartered. Of course, companies accept ACCA qualifications as indication of accounting proficiency for various roles but if you r aiming to practice as an accounting professional, e.g. own an audit firm, you must hv ICAN. Converting to ICAN from ACCA is easy...you just pay cash. Converting ICAN to ACCA tho' will require you to still write some papers.

That notwithstanding, I would recommend ACCA for anyone who wants to begin. Their syllabus is more up to date with current events on the global scene, of which Nigeria is gradually becoming a part. What I am saying is that while ICAN is based on Nigerian SAS, ACCA is based on IFRS, which Nigeria is adopting, effective this year. But ICAN is still more convenient in terms of expenses and venues.

All the best...

@seun foster.U stand to be corrected and now i am correcting you.Ask from those who have taken the 2 before.Dont be deceived.ACCA is more expensive,recognized,organized and more tasking.I have a number of ICAN graduate who have taken exemption to write ACCA as we speak.They are finding it relatively tasking because they are not familiar with the style of setting the questions.As for number of papers,An ACCA paper is not thesame with that of ICAN.No multiple choice questions in ACCA from skill level unlike ICAN( you will agree with me that the preparation for both is different).No fill in the gap,no optional questions.Besides ACCA will not ask you what is.....? The questions are purely application to real life situations in most cases.You have a dedicated examiner whose job is to review and set questions every diet so you dont expect to see past questions.At times you look at questions in the exam for minutes to decode what the examiner is really testing. ICAN was very valuable years back when you have to pass all the papers at once.Now people are passing ICAN very well.Check this out for the comments from students on the last ACCA exams world wide:http://opentuition.com/.But it is achievable if you prepare well and it is worth investing into.For oxford brooks University to have decided to award a B.Sc for passing just F1 -F9 with a project, u think the courses are like ICAN courses?

@franc.Your cost depends on the tuition centre and how many papers you are writing each diet.Please visit www.accaglobal.com for a detailed info.

I am glad other people have aired there views, please AK, we are not struggling for professional recognition here,someone asked for help and i rendered my assistance,i'm subject to correction if i'm wrong or if you think my view is incorrect, in a professional way and not in a harsh tone. On my view that ICAN is very tough,was on the basis of passing all the 4 papers at a seating and not passing one,two or three papers and then having to resit for the other paper. On your view that ACCA might become more relevant than ICAN is 100% right due to the adoption of IFRS this year. But it depends on your focus in life which i earlier mentioned, some people prefer writing ICAN and then go for CFA which supersedes both ICAN and ACCA or any professional financial exams in any other country,while others prefer writing ACCA and then stop there. Please i respect other people's opinion, let's be professional in our utterances, thank you.

Pls my fellow house.i studied econs,whch stage am i suppose 2 start if i want 2 enrol 4 ican .tnx ur respnse wil b highly aprc8d

at yemgaf, you will start at the foundation level, but you will be exempted from Economic and Business Environment, so you will be writing 2 papers at the foundation level instead of 3 papers, 4 papers at the Intermediate level, 4 papers at pe1 and 4 papers at pe2 level. ICAN will require you to pay an exemption fee of N15300 for the exemption certificate, that is after your registration fee of N7300. I hope this will be of help.

@spartan, would a business admin graduate be exempted from economics and business environ @ foundation level?

@spartan,you are really doing a good job and professionally too.Please,i studied economics and intend to do a professional course in Financial analysis.However i do not know how to go about this.To become a chartered financial analyst,must i first obtain an ICAN or ACCA cert,as i do not have either.
Secondly.apart from the CFA cert,are there other recognized financial analysts body that can equally give me a cert. in this regard.I saw one Institute of financial analyst,Nigeria (IFIAN),i wouldn't know if their cert. is recognized for employment purposes. Kindly give me your professional advise.....one love.

Tnx spartan i really aprc8

At huzzle, yes, you will be exempted from economics and business environment just like yemgaf. Just ensure your school had ICAN accreditation as at when you graduated. Register, pay for the exemption fee and then prepare for the exams. Hopefully, the result of this year May diet would likely be out this week, based on that, all ICAN professional centers would begin lectures for the November diet next month. Just plan for it. Good luck.

At Majesty101, to write the CFA exams you don't need to be a Chartered accountant, with your Bs.c certificate you can do that. The IFIAN is the Institute of Financial and Investment analysts of Nigeria. Within the shores of Nigeria, the professional financial examination bodies include, Institute of forensic analysts (IFA), Institute of credit and risk management, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Chartered Institute of stockbrokers, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN),Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), ICAN which you know and the IFIAN (pls pardon me if i have missed out on any of them). For employment purposes, sincerely,i think the most recognized among the above listed bodies is the ICAN certificate first, then others might follow. From personal experience,one of the document which Zenith bank gave priority to during our interview stage for accepting youth corp members was an ICAN certificate (or be at the process of getting it) and Oracle certificate. Little wonder what concerns ICAN with youth service but that was it. The professional financial examination bodies outside the shores of Nigeria(globally recognized) include the CFA, Chartered Institute of management accountants,UK (CIMA), Certified Information System auditor (CISA), (pls pardon me if i have missed out on any of them),etc. For employment purposes,if you need to be a financial analyst and you require a professional course within the shores of Nigeria,I'll sincerely advise you start with ICAN.With the ACA, you can become a forensic analyst, which is one of the faculties of ICAN. Also, with their certificate,you can gain exemption from the professional examination of the other professional bodies(it may not be all) if you still wish to become a member of the body. But if you'll wish to go outside the shores of Nigeria to obtain a financial analyst certificate, the best option will be to go for the CFA exams.In addition, IFIAN is yet to be a Chartered Institute, there is a difference between just an Institute and a Chartered Institute. This is a factor to consider in your decision making. I hope this will be of help to you.

@Spartan009,AKmonopoly & leolion, Please What of I who holds HND certificate in Business administration and I love to register for ACCA because I want to get Bsc in Accounting from Oxford brooke university, where will I start from? Is it true that ACCA is done online or do they have centres? Just give me all necessary info that will help me as a starter. Thanks

Pls @Spartan,What are the differences between professional bodies with chartered institute and institute as their prefix... Which of their certificate is more recognised and relevant in 2day's job search?. Thank you

Thanks spartan, i really appreciate the time and clear explanation. I believe my sch (ABU, zaria) should be an accredited institution. What do u think?

At huzzle, as i'm speaking, i'm not with the list but i'm 100% sure ABU is an ICAN accredited university. At biggyflame, if you have the choice of choosing between a chartered institute certificate and the certificate of just an institute, go for the chartered institute certificate, not just for employment purposes, for everything else.

At titulai, with your HND, you will be exempted from paper F1 and will be writing 2 papers at the fundamental module(stage 1) instead of 3 papers. You will write 6 papers at the skill module(stage 2) and 5 papers at the professional level (final stage). Also it can be written online or manually (paper format) and you will be charged varying level of fees depending on the format you adopt. I hope this will help.

Oga spartan, I greet you sir. I need your counsel abeg. I read Mass Comm and want to enter the financial sector, can I go for CFA direct or what? And what are processes? Or is ICAN a better starting point?

AT yuzor, if you want to enter the financial sector, ICAN or ACCA will be the best starting point considering your background, before going for CFA. ICAN or ACCA will adequately prepare you academically and stressful wise for CFA. If you are going for ICAN, you will start from the foundation level. If going for ACCA, you will start from the fundamental level.

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