iEphraim

Many times in our journey through life we shift grounds on possibilities. Many times we have this great dream with "high belief", optimism and are so certain that nothing could stop us from achieving them but after a few circumstances ( or passage of time), we soon give up on those dreams. All the optimism soon die down. All the beliefs and high hopes are thrown away and most times we settle for mediocrity. The man that succeeds is the man who holds on till the end. The one who hopes against hope!   The one despite his circumstances or little success, maintains his confessions and positive attitude towards his dreams and aspirations. This one is not worried about failing (or should I say he doesn't care). He is determined in his mind that even if his dreams do not come through, he will keep believing! For some of us there's no going back to our resolve for the good life, the dreams we hold in our heart day in day out. Even if we've got several "NOs", we ...

There was a time that I thought that one day the "book-life" will end. That the everyday reading will stop and I'll finally rest! I thought it was just a phase of life that would end, but then I realized that the older I get the more books I read! I soon realized that reading was not an event but rather a self improvement tactics. It was the only way to remain relevant in this competitive world. When one stopped reading, one deteriorated gradually. Even after getting the job, you find out that with time it becomes monotonous and uninteresting if you don't find a way to improve on yourself and move on to the next level. What gives you the innovation to improve on the job is not in the job but outside. It's those things you pick up while reading or associating with the already initiated. Continuous improvement is the deliberate and conscious effort you put into what you do to add value to yourself. The value you add to yourself, adds to your family, your community a...

The next logical step after schooling (or NYSC for Nigerian graduates) is to get a job. This is usually not the case for most job-seekers. Many of them have to wait from between one to ten years before landing a "good" job. Personally for me I don't believe there are no jobs. The challenge most time is how to get the available jobs. The truth is that people get new jobs everyday. People are promoted everyday and the posts they leave behind are still vacant. Businesses are being registered on a daily basis (na spirits dem employ?). After establishing the fact that there are jobs, the next thing is to have a plan and a definite strategy. You must understand that the conventional way of getting a job will not work for everybody. Your chances in the conventional ways are limited because of the population of people looking for the same thing you're looking for. Some even have better qualifications than you. That's why you need to strategize! How to plan and strategize ...

I've always thought I was different. I've always wanted a different life for myself. I've always believed I didn't have to go through the conventional path. I never wanted to experience what others experienced. I wanted to have my experiences and my path and my destiny and my purpose. I got to the higher institution after 5years of writing JAMB: 4 UME's & 3 PCE's. Finally graduated exactly 10 years after leaving secondary school. I graduated with honours and as a prize winner and also with the highest professional qualification in my field. I didn't let my background push me to the background. I pushed through many obstacles, inconveniences, discouragement, heartbreaks etc. During my service, I had mapped out the kind of firm I wanted to work in. The first was to work in one of the "big four" and the second the "biggest indigenous" firm. I wrote two (2) tests with the "big four" and got the regret mail. Exactly 10 days after...

...continuing from Part 1... Tackling Financial Accounting These days Financial Accounting (FA) has proven to be a bit difficult. This is not unconnected with the recent adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) by the Nigerian Government in 2012. Most ICAN candidates were drawn aback as there were limited materials to prepare for the exams. The only new thing that happened to FA is the approach the examiners have adopted. The focus is now on the standards. You must familiarize yourself with the standards that relates to published accounts and group accounts. The FA syllabus is divided into major topics; Group Accounts, Published Account, Bankruptcy, Interpretation of accounts, Miscellaneous Accounts and Specialized Accounts. Note that I didn't mention standards. The reason is that from IAS 1- 41 to IFRS 1 - 13, they all talk about the major topics I listed above. Your major concern should be to understand, Group, Published, interpretation and Bankruptcy Acc...

INTRODUCTION For the average Nigerian Accounting Graduate, the next part to career advancement is the ICAN exam. This is particularly useful especially with the rate of unemployment in the country. They (the graduate) believe getting the ICAN qualification will enhance their employability. This is also TRUE because most job vacancies today require the qualification. The road to getting this qualification is not an easy one I must tell you but following some secrets that I'll be sharing here is going to make the process less tedious and the qualification quicker to obtain. Before I go on with the secrets, you must have at the back of your mind that the purpose of the exam is not just to land you your dream job but also to make you a thoroughly breed professional. The ICAN PE1 exam is the first stage to write as an accounting graduate from an ICAN accredited institution and this stage comprises of four subjects, including Financial Accounting (FA), Management Accounting (MA), Advance...

I've got several requests on how to prepare payroll from gross earnings to net pay. I will be addressing this issue here today. If you need more clarifications, don't hesitate to ask. The opinion shared here is in compliance with the law (Personal Income Tax Act 2010, as amended) and what is obtainable in the private sector. TOTAL GROSS PAY When an individual employment is confirmed, (s)he is given his letter of appointment which contains also his/her total emoluments. The gross earning is further broken down (according to company policy) into different pay elements of Basic, Housing, Transportation, meal, security, clothing etc. For example, if an individual receives a gross amount of say N1,200,000.00 ( one million two hundred thousand naira) annually. That's 100k monthly. The company might decide to break it down into basic 500k, housing 200k, transportation 150k, meal 100k and security 50k. Like I said earlier, this is at the discretion of the company. STATUTORY DEDUCTI...