By Abdullahi Alhassan, Kaduna
A Professor of Accounting at the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA, Kaduna, Professor. Terzungwe Nyor, has urged Nigerians, especially micro and small business owners, to embrace record-keeping, saying accounting is critical to personal, business and national growth.
Prof. Nyor stated this while delivering his Professional Inaugural Lecture at the Academy. The lecture was themed “Accounting is Everybody’s Business.”
The Professor of Accounting, who specializes in financial accounting and reporting, said operating without financial information leaves individuals and businesses “in the dark” and makes it impossible to measure progress or profit.
“You can’t measure the progress of your business. You don’t know how your business is moving, whether it is moving forward or not,”
“The major objective of commerce, which is to make profit, you cannot measure it. And that is hindering business growth.” he added
He noted that the lecture was targeted at small businesses, individuals and government institutions because accountability is central to development.
Speaking on the challenges in the profession, the Don lamented what he described as a growing emphasis on certificates over knowledge among students.
“My most challenging aspect in lecturing is students who are not interested in knowledge, but are just interested in certificates. That’s why students see me as a difficult lecturer. Because I want you to know. I want you to know,” he said.
He added: “Getting a certificate is important, but a certificate without knowing is useless. It cannot bring progress, it cannot even help you yourself. We have come to an age where everybody is just after certificate, certificate, and knowledge is becoming scarce. But I hope that we’re making headway.”
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