Who may sign a Nigerian statutory audit
The memberships, licences and FRC registrations a person needs to sign a Nigerian statutory audit report, and the extra approval for regulated entities.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in Nigeria
A new partner joins the firm from industry, a senior manager is promoted, a partner from another firm wants to sign a report for a mutual client. In each case someone has to answer a plain question before the signature goes on the page: is this person allowed to sign a Nigerian statutory audit?
The answer is not a single licence. It is a stack of requirements from different bodies, and a report signed by someone missing one layer is a report the client may not be able to use. This article lays the stack out in order and suggests a simple file the firm can keep for each signing partner.
Layer one: ICAN or ANAN membership
IFAC's profile of Nigeria says auditors in Nigeria must be members of either the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria or the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, in addition to being subject to FRC oversight. Membership of a foreign body alone does not meet that test, however senior the person. The IFAC member profile for Nigeria, last updated in April 2026, summarises how the profession is regulated.
Layer two: a practising licence
Membership is not enough to sign. The same profile says Chartered Accountants may practise as auditors once ICAN issues a practising licence and, where applicable, after FRC registration for audits of public interest entities. It also says a practising certificate from ICAN or ANAN is required as part of FRC registration for individuals in public practice.
So the practising licence comes before the FRC step, and the FRC registration depends on it. For an ICAN member, the conditions for a first licence are set out in getting an ICAN practice licence; they take time, so a partner joining from industry should not expect to sign in their first weeks.
Layer three: FRC registration of the firm and the signer
IFAC's profile says the FRC Act requires professional accountants to be registered with the FRC to prepare financial statements and conduct statutory audits of public interest entities.
The FRC's own register now reaches further than PIE work. In its April 2026 announcement, the FRC said that from 1 April 2026 any audit or assurance engagement in Nigeria, whether undertaken, accepted or continued, is legally open only to firms listed on the National Audit and Assurance Firms Register. The same announcement puts a duty on the other side of the table: PIEs, government institutions, regulated entities and private organisations are to check a firm's registration status before appointing it and throughout the engagement, and to make sure the firm and the signing audit professional both appear on the register.
That second duty is why the question of who may sign is no longer only the firm's business. A client's finance team or audit committee may ask to see the evidence, and may ask again mid-engagement.
Read together, the safe position is that the signer needs a personal FRC number and the firm needs to be on the register, whatever the client's size.
Layer four: the sector regulator, for regulated entities
Some clients add another layer. IFAC's profile says the appointment of auditors of regulated entities is subject to approval by the respective sector regulators, to whom audited financial statements must be submitted periodically.
For a bank, an insurer or another regulated client, then, the partner's personal credentials are necessary but not sufficient. The appointment itself needs the regulator's approval. Ask the client, at acceptance, which regulator approves its auditor and whether that approval is in place for this year.
| Layer | Body | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Membership | ICAN or ANAN | Every auditor |
| Practising licence | ICAN or ANAN | Every auditor in public practice |
| Individual FRC registration | FRC | The signer; required for PIE work, and checked by clients |
| Firm on the national register | FRC | Every audit or assurance engagement from 1 April 2026 |
| Approval of the appointment | The sector regulator | Regulated entities |
The signing checks Achekam enforces
Achekam turns the first three layers into a gate. It blocks signing of a Nigerian audit report until the firm's FRC register entry, the signer's FRC number and the signer's ICAN or ANAN good standing have been recorded and verified by a person other than the one who recorded them. The firm must also record audit signing authority for the signer.
The gate is wider than the audit report. For a Nigerian firm, Achekam blocks approving or issuing an audit report, and the partner's signature on financial statements, until a second person has verified those registrations and the signing authority. The block cannot be overridden and applies even while set-up is still a draft.
Achekam does not look up the FRC register: a person checks it by hand and attaches dated evidence, because no register API was found. The fourth layer, a sector regulator's approval, is not part of the gate, so it belongs on the acceptance file. How the gate behaves on an engagement is covered in the FRC firms register and signing a Nigerian audit.
A signing-partner file
Keep one file per signing partner, refreshed each year:
- ICAN or ANAN membership evidence, with the membership number.
- The current practising licence, with its expiry date.
- The individual FRC registration number and a dated capture of the entry.
- The firm's grant of signing authority, with any limits on it.
- For each regulated client, the regulator's approval of the firm's appointment.
- The date each item was last verified, and by whom.
When the question "can this person sign?" comes up on a Friday afternoon, the answer should take a minute to find, not a morning. A file like this, mirrored by verified records in Achekam, makes that possible.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
