Abuja — President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Chief Richard U. Uche, said yesterday that one of the main challenges, the Small and Medium Practices (SMPs)/Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria faced was lack of basic infrastructure.

Uche, who spoke at the 2008 International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), Small and Medium Practices forum yesterday in Abuja said that in order to ameliorate the problems of SMPs/SMEs, ICAN has engaged in several measures.

They include "subsidised training sessions, enlightenment seminars on auditing standards, organisation of day-out with stakeholders, workshop on mergers, adaptation of international standards on auditing, issuance of scale of professional fees, role in the issuance of accounting standards for SMEs,cooperation with other regulatory bodies and computer acquisition initiative and advertising of competences of chartered accountants."

The ICAN president said the Institute had recently re-launched its six faculties with a view to reinforcing technical competences of members and at the same time to encourage post-qualification within the profession.

These centers he said, were expected to cater for the specialised needs of members as indicated by the evolving market fundamentals. This specialist initiative he said, has implications for SMPs and their ability to service and add value to their clients".

As part of its strategic effort to enhance the quality of audit and assurance services in the country, he said, ICAN has concluded plans to commence the monitoring of practices of accounting firms from the first quarter of next year.

He therefore tasked the forum to come out with ideas on areas that will enable IFAC to assist the fledgling practices which success or failure has implications for SMEs and the economy at large.