…Announces date for SWAIAP International Conference, Induction, Fellowship and Merit Awards
From Cyriacus Nnaji, Lagos
Noble Amb. Patrick Nzechukwu, President of Society for West African Internal Auditing Practitioners (SWAIAP) has announced the date for the 2024 edition of the International Conference, Induction, Fellowship and Merit Awards of the society.
Nzeckhukwu who made the disclosure at a Press Conference at the international headquarters of the group in Maryland, Lagos State on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, stated that the event would take place on the 27th November, 2024 in Abuja.
Nzechukwu during the press briefing titled “Preventive Mechanisms to Good Governance” called for the protection of the internal auditing profession through appropriate laws so that internal auditing practitioners could do their work without fear or favour.
According to Noble Nzechukwu, September, 2024 would be Commencement of membership enrollment into 2024/2025 certification syllabus training, while September to November 2024, is the commencement of certification syllabus training and professional exams for returning student members. November 26, 4th Annual Induction and Fellowship awards for members who have completed their 2023/2024 certification programme, while November 27, would be the 3rd International Conference taking place in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. November 27, Achievers Dinner Award Night to citizens who have excelled in their chosen careers and have significantly impacted the society positively and December 6 to 7, last corporate public workshop titled: “Auditing the Governance, Risk Mgt and Compliance (GRC) Functions”
Speaking on how preventive mechanisms can lead West African countries in particular to good governance and what the society is doing to institutionalize the preventive mechanisms, Noble Nzechukwu stated that the society has the vision to institutionalize internal auditing in West Africa and its environs as a foremost tool to prevent and detect corruption, fraud, irregularities, wastes and to enhance business processes and performance and mitigate to the barest minimum all forms of financial and nonfinancial risks in both private and public sectors.
The Internal auditing guru said “Our mission is to review the current internal auditing practices in West Africa in comparison with global best practices; practically sharing experiences on how we do internal auditing in our respective organizations and educating internal auditors on global best practices with emphasis on effective corporate governance, risk management and internal control and compliance and virile reporting systems (GRC reporting), as well as environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting. We do this by informing relevant stakeholders on the imperativeness of effective internal auditing through GRC and ESG reporting.
“Our motivation at SWAIAP was drawn from the dearth of effective internal auditing in the sub-region, instituted by overemphasis on statutory / external auditing and enforcement of anti-corruption and anti-fraud laws which is geared towards discovery and recovery of financial improprieties and malfeasances at the expense of preventive measures which involves effective internal auditing. Accordingly, emphasis is laid on cure rather than prevention of financial and non-financial risks which has given rise to a soaring high level of corruption, wastes, inefficiencies and ineffectiveness.
“This practice created a knowledge gap in preventive mechanisms which gave foreign professional bodies in the field of assurance services, the impetus to further rape our economy of the limited foreign reserves through training, certification and subscription fees payment by our citizens,” Nzechukwu stated.
Nzechukwu, the Pioneer President of SWAIAP said that to arrest the observed anomalies, in 2011, he commenced the project of writing the first comprehensive internal auditing textbook in the sub-region, titled Internal Audit Practice from A to Z which was launched in Florida, USA in 2016. Later in 2018, the West Africa version titled, A to Z of Internal Audit Practice was launched in Lagos, Nigeria. It was at this stage that the Pioneer President, gave birth to the vision of a West African Internal Audit Knowledge group which he named, West African Internal Auditors Forum (WAIAF) and later metamorphosed into Society for West African Internal Audit Practitioners (SWAIAP) at incorporation.
Again, the President who was a victim of workplace injustice for standing on the path of truth and good governance as Head of Internal Audit, decided to draft a Bill on internal auditing for the protection of Internal Auditors, since evil will always oppose good. The Bill titled “Nigerian Internal Audit Practice, Regulatory and Administration and Other Related Matters Bill (2013) was designed to protect the independence and objectivity of internal auditors.
Noble Nzechukwu said that since 2021, SWAIAP has been training and producing professional internal auditors with vast knowledge in assurance service courses.
Some of the activities of SWAIAP include Training and Certification of members, Public Corporate Training and Consulting Services. He said, “We train and certify members in the following categories: Student Technician of West African Internal Audit (STWAIA) for undergraduates and fresh graduates; Associate West African Internal Auditor (AWAIA) for graduates with less than six (6) years working experience in assurance services; Certified West African Internal Auditor (CWAIA) for graduates and professionals, including those with 2nd and 3rd degrees (MSc. MBA, PhD) with about six (6) years working experience in related industry; and Fellow West African Internal Auditor (FWAIA) for graduates and professionals, including 2nd and 3rd degrees (MSc. MBA, PhD) who have achieved at least 10 years post professional working experience in related industry.
“In Corporate Training, we also organize monthly corporate training on various assurance topics, including, emerging issues in the assurance service domain. We equally organize in-house corporate training for any of the topics in our corporate training calendar or customized in-house training according to desire of our client.
“Our consulting arm, SWAIAP Consulting is available to offer consulting services, including but not limited to External quality assurance review or Peer review of your internal audit function; Design and implementation of internal Control Framework; Review of Internal Control function; Design and implementation of Risk Management framework; Review of risk management framework; and Design of corporate codes, including corporate manuals for assurance functions, etc,” noble Nzechukwu stated.
