The accounting department in Pan-Atlantic University’s School of Management and Social Sciences (SMSS) has achieved the Mutual Cooperation Agreement with Tertiary Institutions (MCATI) accreditation by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
Known as ICAN-MCATI, this is the higher of two accreditations awarded by ICAN (the other is known as Basic Accreditation). The key difference is that graduates of departments who have the basic accreditation are exempt from 7 out of the 16 ICAN courses while graduates of departments who have the ICAN-MCATI are exempt from 11 out of the 16 ICAN courses. This means students on graduation only have to write the final set of ICAN exams to earn the prestigious charter. Less than 4% of eligible Nigerian institutions have this accreditation.
Additionally, this accreditation is a license the students can leverage to gain subject exemptions when writing the professional examinations of ACCA (UK), ICAEW (England & Wales) and so many offshore accounting professional bodies who mostly rely on ICAN accreditation before granting subject exemptions to accounting graduates. The difference between ICAN accredited institutions and non-ICAN accredited institutions is quite significant in terms of length of time spent to become a professional accountant, cost associated with non-exempt subjects which students from ICAN accredited institutions will not be examined again in and other psychological factors.
