How to Register for ICAN

Institute Of Chartered Accountant Of Nigeria,
ICAN, is the most recognized Accounting
professional body in Nigeria. It is widely
recognized with his resourceful qualified
professional members and students that are stillon the process of becoming chartered.
In practice, you are not yet an accountant until
you sit for ICAN or other accounting professional
examinations and passed, then been inducted by
of the authority the Institute of Chartered
Accountant of Nigeria before you get a
professional license to practice.
Why Do I Need To Be A Chartered Accountants?
Overtime, the profession of Accounting has been
known as one of the most reputable professions
in the world. Due to so many reasons. Apart
from it been a recognized profession, it is also a
profession in which you can be a self employed
individual. That is the beauty of an accountant.
1. Global Recognition: Now with your accounting
professional qualification, you can now work
anywhere as an accountant. You don't need to
be tied down particularly in a country because
you felt you B.Sc or HND would not be accepted
in another countries.
With accounting professional certification, you
practice anywhere and be recognized. No other
career offers the mobility that a Chartered
Accountancy qualification does. Is that not good
enough?
1. Self Employ-ability : This is self explanatory.
Chartered Accountants generally have a solid
foundation in economics, marketing and
management information systems.
In recent, Accountants take on the role of a
business advisor, aimed at driving business,
improving profit margins and increasing market
share for their clients/employers. Many
Chartered Accountants also use their expertise
to form their own businesses, becoming highly
successful entrepreneurs.
The above points are just few among the
reasons why you must be a Chartered
Accountant. I will like to stop here, because
that's actually not the reason for this post.
Who Can Be A Chartered Accountant In Nigeria?
I want to be a chartered accountant but I studied
Economics, Yoruba, IRS, Chemistry or some other
courses entirely different from accountancy. Can
I be a chartered accountant while am not an
accounting student? Where will I start? Most of
these questions will not stop coming from people
who want to be a chartered but don't know how.
Let me first of all answer the question of who
can be a chartered accountant. The answer is
EVERYBODY.
Yes everybody can be a chartered accountant
including you. Even a medical doctor, lawyer,
engineer, Islamist, Scientist, Technologist, I mean
anybody who is interested. Even if you only have
WAEC, NECO, NAPTEB or any other O level
certificate.
Is that not good enough?
So Now that You've Decided To Join And
become A Chartered accountant, all you need to
do is to read on and let me tell you what to do.
How To Become A Chartered Accountant In
Nigeria?
This is simple. To become a chartered
accountant in Nigeria, it is not a must that you
study accounting in the university or
polytechnics. To become a chartered accountant,
you just need to write ICAN, ANAN, ACCA or
other recognized Accounting Professions in
Nigeria.
Though, this post is about ICAN and ICAN alone.
So I won't bother you with other professional
bodies with this post. Is that cool?
Also am not to talk about people with less that
first degree or HND, Am not talking of
registration procedures for ATS here. Only for
those who has graduated and want to be a
chartered accountant.
How To Registered For ICAN Profession
Examination
I will make this very simple enough for you to
understand. To avoid mixed up, I will separate
this session into two. ICAN registration
procedures for non accounting graduate/
students, and Ican registration for accounting
students.
Bus for the both groups, the registration
requirements are the same. So either you are an
accounting students or not. ICAN Registration
requirements is as below:
The Council has accepted the following
qualifications for the purpose of entry
requirements:
A. The degree of any University or Higher
National Diploma of any Polytechnic accredited
by ICAN.
B. O level result with five credits passes.
If you meet up with all of the above
requirements, then you can quickly start your
ICAN Registration following the below steps:
Steps To Register Yourself For ICAN
1. Obtain PIN voucher from Zenith/Fidelity Bank with
N7,000
2. Use the information on the PIN voucher to log-on
ICAN website that would be written on the
voucher you bought from the bank.
3. Click on to Students' Professional Registration
and fill your data on the form.
4. Obtain a coloured passport photograph of yourself,
scan the passport photograph on the form.
5. Click twice on submits to submit the application
on-line.
6. Print out a copy of the application form.
7. Append your signature
8. Get a chartered accountant as your referee/
sponsor.
9. Provide his/her membership number, name and
phone number.
10.Take the printed copy of the completed
application form and the photocopy of your
credentials to your Referee/Sponsor for
certification.
11. Attach the following:
i. Original copy of the pin voucher
ii. Two copies of signed/certified passport
iii. Original copy of the bank teller
Package everything and send it down to ICAN
head office in Lagos for consideration. The
council will seat and consider your application. If
your application is been granted, then you will be
granted a student registration number. Which will
always serve as your log in details and you will
print out your registration certificate online. The
ICAN Council reserves the right to grant or
refuse any application or to terminate the
registration of a student. Applicants must comply
with the conditions set forth and must pay the
registration fee in force at the date of
application. If the application to register is
unsuccessful, the registration fee is not
refundable.
After the registration, ICAN may not contact you
to inform you that you have been registered. You
need to keep checking their website or call their
customer care to confirm. I made the mistake of
waiting for too long during my registration. I
thought, ICAN will contact me but they don't.
Until I called their customer care who told me to
check their website that I have been successfully
registered.
Let assumed Your Registration has been
successful.
If You Are A Non Accounting Students Who want
To Write ICAN, you will start from Foundation.
This means that you must pass through three
stages to complete your professional career. The
stages are:
1. Foundation: You will write Five(5) papers at this
stage
1. Skills: You will write 6 papers here
1. Professional: You will be required to write five
papers here too.
After this, you are done.
If You Are An Accounting Students Who want To
Write ICAN
Your own is just two stages and you are not
going to write more than 9 papers to become a
chartered accountants. The two stages are:
1. Skills: Four papers
1. Professional: Five papers. That's all.
For you to write only nine papers, you will have
to apply for exemption. The application for ICAN
exemption is as simple as:
1. Go to ICAN Website under students and click on
'pay for exemption'
1. Fill the necessary form online and click on 'Pay
button'
1. Make payment with your ATM card
1. Print Out Your receipt and exemption form.
1. Get a chartered accountant to sign your
exemption form with all your documents
1. Attach all with your passport and send it to ICAN
Head office in Lagos.
1. If your exemption is approved, they will remove
all courses and leave you with only nine. Four at
skills level, five at a professional level.
How Much Will It Cost You To Write ICAN And
Complete It (rough estimate)
It all depends on the level you started and how
expensive the tutorial center you attended is.
The tutorial I used to attend was N30000 per
diet. So for two diets, it means 60k.
Then exemption fee was N54, 500 or so.
Registration and the stress up and down was
N7400 paid in zenith bank to buy ICAN Voucher
at the start of the registration.
I bought so many materials despite the fact that
I was an accounting students in school with
many textbooks, I still bought all The ICAN Parks
and pathfinders. Let say all cost N25,000.
Then you will pay for the examination fee. Which
can roughly be estimated to N100,000 for both
skills and professional. Also foundation will cost
you additional 40k for non accounting students.
You will also pay yearly subscription of N4000.
Depends on the numbers of year it takes you to
complete it. Plus another N2000 fee which is
payable only once not yearly.
What all these rough estimate means is that it
will cost you more as a non accounting student
to write ICAN than accounting students.
How Long Will It Take You To Write ICAN?
You may want to know how many years will it
take you to complete ICAN EXAM and become a
chartered accountant.
It depends on how serious you are about it and
how fast you are able to pass your exams. But
the minimum time you can use to complete your
ICAN Exam is one year for an accounting
student. Non Accounting students is one years
and half.
Exam is every May and November in a year. The
arrangement is that, you will write one stage in
one diet. If you are able to pass all.
The maximum period to write your exam is
10years. If not, Ican will withdraw the
studentship of such student.
What else do you need to know about ICAN?
Ask me by using the comment box. Or you can click Here