ACI Tasks Account, Audit Professionals on Competence to Boost Investors Confidence

Esther Oluku 

The Audit Committee Institute of Nigeria has called on accounting and audit professionals to strengthen individual competence as they carry out their core function to boost investors’ confidence in Nigeria’s financial market.

This is even as the institute called for stronger professionals oversight and data governance as professional adopt artificial intelligence tools to safeguard shareholders’ trust.

These were submissions made at the 2026 Audit Committee Conference which held in Lagos yesterday themed “Guardian of Truth: Informed. Vigilant. Attending.”

In his keynote address titled ‘The Guardians of Financial Truth in the Age of AI: The Challenge of Meeting Society’s Expectations’, Chairman, Audit Committee Institute, Christian Ekeigwe, stated that as artificial intelligence continues to enhance speed in data analysis, AI hallucination opens error margins which professionals must deploy independent competence to address.

“AI does extraordinarily well, and the profession that fails to deploy
them is failing its clients and the public alike. But these tools introduce a risk that is subtler, and in some respects more dangerous, than the risk of inadequate technology adoption.

“They introduce what cognitive scientists call automation bias: the quiet, psychologically invisible tendency to defer to an AI output without exercising the critical scrutiny that professional standards mandate. The most acute risk is not that AI will replace auditors. It is that auditors will stop thinking and defer to the machine in their place,” he said.

Ekeigwe therefore argued that providing independent assurance, grounded in evidence and professional judgment, ensures that investors’ trust is upheld.

In his remarks, Partner, and Head of Audit, KPMG West Africa, Goodluck Obi, explained that because audit statements play a key role in how firms are perceived by the public, auditor and accountants must ensure strong oversight and control, insist on statutory compliance with regulatory authorities and avoid intentional or unintentional misstatements.

He added that management can strengthen audit function by providing accurate financial statements, maintaining proper books of account, strengthen internal control of financial reports, ensure compliance with extant regulations and ensure transparency in its information sharing with auditors.