Dr. Innocent Iweka Okwuosa, FCA holds a BSc in Accounting, an MSc in Banking & Finance and another MSc in International Accounting and Finance from University of Stirling, Scotland; a PhD in Accounting from the prestigious Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK. He is also an SAP FICO Certified and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy, United Kingdom.

He commenced his career at the then Nigerian Industrial Development Bank, now Bank of Industry and rose to become a Senior Accountant and Head of Accounts and Management Information Unit within the Finance Division. He later trained with Horwarth Dafinone & Co (Chartered Accountants) where he acquired practical accountancy and audit experience .

He co-founded Safe Associates Ltd, which later became the foremost tuition house in Nigeria as at that time where he distinguished himself lecturing Financial Accounting and Reporting.It was while lecturing at Safe Associates that he authored the popular Group Accounts and Advanced Financial Accounting Manual which became a household name and was widely used by professional accountancy and tertiary Institution students.

While in United Kingdom, Dr Okwuosa worked with Australian Trade Commission, London, Waltham Forrest NHS, and consulted as an SAP FICO Consultant. Throughout this period he was an honorary lecturer in Accounting & Finance with University of Liverpool. Dr Okwuosa subsequently worked as a Lecturer in Accounting at Henley Business School after completing his PhD in that university in 2016 and as a Senior Lecturer in Accounting & Finance at Hertfordshire Business School, United Kingdom. On returning to Nigeria, he was appointed Visiting Associate Professor of Accounting at Caleb University and an Adjunct Faculty at Pan Atlantic University, Lekki.

As an expert in International Financial Reporting with Entop Consulting Ltd, Dr Okwuosa carried out IFRS implementation for many listed and private companies and delivered corporate training on IFRS. He is currently the Managing Consultant of Entop Consulting and Managing Partner of I.I.Okwuosa & Co. (Chartered Accountants).

In 2017, he was appointed a pioneer member of the African Integrated Reporting Committee (AIRC), given that his PhD thesis was on Integrated Reporting. He pioneered the establishment of the Nigerian Integrated Reporting Committee (NIRC) in 2019 and became the pioneer Chairman.

In September 2019, he was meritoriously appointed as a member of the Board of the International Panel on Accounting Education (IPAE) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) to represent Africa and the Middle East for a first term of three years which was renewed for another 3 years in 2022 and his voice continues to resonate on that Board where he co-leads IPAE’s Subgroup on Sustainability.

Dr Okwuosa is a Board member of both the Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA) and the Association of Accountancy Bodies of West Africa (ABWA).

Dr Okwuosa has made many outstanding contributions to the development of our great Institute. He brought serious innovations that were far ahead of their times. He articulated and pioneered the current Mutual Cooperation Agreement with Tertiary Instittutions (MCATI) under which they are granted expanded exemptions in ICAN Professional examinations.

As Chairman of the Institute’s Professional Examinations Committee, Dr Okwuosa pioneered and successfully implemented the on-screen marking of ICAN exams using the globally recognised RM Assessor software, a feat often associated with massive technological disruption of examination processes. That feat immediately placed ICAN ahead of many of its contemporaries globally. It was this technological innovation introduced by Dr Okwuosa that led to aggregate cost savings of over N1 Billion annually in perpetuity for the Institute. It made it possible for ICAN to conduct its exams during the Covid-19 era.

Dr Okwuosa continues to expand and push on his vision for the internationalisation of the ICAN brand. Leveraging on his UK experience and contact within ICAEW, Dr Okwuosa led effort in instituting the ICAN-ICAEW Pathway agreement under which ICAN members can become members of ICAEW without having to write any exams. Recently he reached out to the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) and changed mindsets such that today, there is a mutual understanding between ICAN and ACCA. Apart from the ACCA, the Dr Okwuosa has continued to push for reciprocity between ICAN and CPA Canada and CPA Australia to promote members’ interests globally.