MY MOST IMPORTANT PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT - ICAN by @ rutthy.

I CAN WITH ICAN
(My ICAN success story)

Introduction:

rutthy at work

Good evening everyone and happy Sunday to everyone.

10% of this post will go to @steem.skillshare as a part of improving the community.

I will like to specially appreciate @alena-vladi for this inspiring contest.

My name is Ebubechukwu, Ruth Adaeze, a 27 year old graduate of Agricultural Economics and Extension, from University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria and I currently work as an Accountant with Tony Glitz Investment Ltd. A privately owned company which is into oil and gas.

I came in contact with this company through a friend of mine who was also working there at the time, so it was easy for me to be accepted even without certificate although i was a graduate by then.

Before I go further,I'll like to give details of my life as an accountant without professional certificate or qualification and the process of acquiring the certificate.

My journey as an accountant without ICAN:

I graduated from university in the year, 2017 and started working that year with the above mentioned company as an accountant. Here in Nigeria, we have an accountant professional body known as Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). I have so longed to become a chattered accountant right from my undergraduate days, but due to my heavy course content while in school, I could not sit for the exam, although I took the foundation stage of the exam in my final year, with hope to complete the remaining two stages (Skills level and Professional level) once I graduate.

So, when I got this job, I was always looked down on and degraded and i even lost so many opportunities in other companies because firstly, I didn't study accounting and I didn't have an ICAN certificate, although I was way smarter than the other 4 accountants we have in the organisation where i worked and this because I already knew how to use the basic accounting softwares while in school like excel, SPSS etc.of which some of them don't know.

So, nothing I ever did in the company was appreciated and that led to the firm determination to complete my ICAN exams which I know would be a very difficult task for me as at the time because my salary couldn't carry it.

Brief introduction about ICAN and it's objectives:

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) is a professional accountancy body in Nigeria. It is a professional accountancy associations with regulatory authority in Nigeria.

ICAN has the mission statement: "To Produce World-Class Chartered Accountants, Regulate and Continuously Enhance Their Ethical Standards and Technical Competence in the Public Interest". It has headquarters in Lagos State, Nigeria. As at 2020, ICAN had over 50,000 members. In August 2004 the ICAN began providing training on Information Technology for its members.

ICAN has based its practices on those of British chartered accountancy institutes. Nigeria adopted International Accounting Standards with little modification.

The ICAN exam is always written three times in a year (march, July and November) and it has three stages namely; the foundation level, skills level and the professional level which was the last level. I was to write the march diet.

i and my ICAN friends

The process and journey to my ICAN world:

Just as the saying goes" no good thing comes easy", I was already prepared to face the challenges from this big task ahead of me. I started my ICAN tutorials for skills level in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, thanks to the Governor for making ICAN tutorials free to its students, so I took the advantage and attended and at least, I wouldn't be paying for tutorials.

So exams date was fast approaching and I haven't saved up enough money to register for the courses I'll be writing, I called my friends and some of my uncles and some of them promised to help, but a miracle happened along the line. Few weeks to the exam day, a mock exam was organised for all the ICAN students with a cash price that covers the full payment for all the courses in any level the student is writing, provided he or she passes the mock exams. I keyed into it and studied my past questions very well because they normally lift questions from the past questions.

Lo and behold!, One week later, the mock results was released and my name was among the people to be sponsored. God!The excitement was out of this World.

So I began reading for the main exams because the 5 courses I was to write has been fully paid for. I wrote the exams, and came out successful, I was so happy.

By this time, it was just remaining the last level which was the professional level ( which consists of 5 courses) for me on my was to becoming a chartered accountant. I still took part in the same mock exams too and passed, so the expenses was also taken care of at this last stage of the exams.

Why it was a major professional achievement for me and the changes it brought my way:

After the success of the ICAN exams, I was inducted and this day was one of the happiest days of my life. By this time, I was about going for my mandatory National Youth Service Corp (NYSC)which is a major one year service to your nation (for Nigerians).

I intentionally shifted mine because of the ICAN examination. So I had to start the processes of the NYSC. But before I started it, my boss called me into his office to congratulate me on my success as a Chattered Accountant and he also said something that surprised me. He said, "Ruth, I know you are one of the most talented and dedicated workers in thus firm, I would like you to stat with us and do your NYSC here in this company and I'll work it out for you, provided toy agreed to stay with us".

_I was so dumbfounded and happy at the same time, but I didn't show it tho._He said I should think about it. Mind you that when you are in the NYSC program, you will be paid a certain amount every month by the federal government, but most times, the money is not enough to cater for corp members expenses, it normally gets exhausted before the month end.

So, one of the advantages of working with my boss was that, I'll still be in his payroll and also be in NYSC payroll which means a double payment for me. Wow!
I just made a quick calculation in my head and concluded, I'll stay with my boss. Laughs.

Meanwhile, I did my NYSC in my place of work and after NYSC, I was also retained and promoted in my place of work. Wow! Great!

my NYSC pictures

This was a very big professional achievement for because prior to this ICAN journey, I never believed it would work out as I got so many discouragements along the line, particularly because accounting was not my first degree course. As I mentioned earlier, I studied Agriculture in school..
Wow!
from agriculture to accounting? Interesting!

Studying agriculture was not really a major disadvantage because as a science student, it helped me to use my critical thinking ability to my advantage during the whole ICAN process.

With my ICANand the major promotions which I got at my work place, and which of course normally comes with tips(additional salary), I was able to register for my Msc. program which I am almost at the verge of rounding up.

I wouldn't have been able to achieve all these without starting off with ICAN.

This is my professional story and a major professional achievement for me in my filed.

Professional achievement can be relative tho, but this is my ICAN story.

I CAN WITH ICAN.

Ican source