Olajide and associates is 10

MANAGING PARTNER’S SPEECH ON THE OCCASION
We give thanks to almighty Allah for keeping us up till today.
Our firm is TEN years old and we are very glad that we are hail and healthy to be able to witness today the 26th of August 2008.

Today we can boast of haven worked for close to 100 clients in different categories such as Auditing, Taxation, business registration,  immigration, recruitment, financial advisory services, debt recovery, … etc.
Our firm is however happy that we are been able to sustain a staff movement level of 25 in all. As small as we are, we have been able to have about 6 chartered accountants in the firm at different occasions.
Although our office location addresses has not function as we expected, we are proud to say that we are able to show our presence in Abuja, Jos, kano, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, Cross River, Ilorin, Ibadan, Ile-Ife and other notable towns in Nigeria. We served some of our clients in these towns at one time or the other in the course of our ten years of existence.

We are happy that we are able to service international clients in UK, US, Brazil, Norway, South Africa, Russia in these 10 years of existence.
Although we are thriving to be recognized throughout the world by the time we will be 20 years, we believe that our international affiliation with reputable international auditing firms will propel us faster in this ambition.
Our firm is well known in Nigeria for its Taxation, Bookkeeping and auditing services with the personal touch and we intend to improve on this quality with which we are known for.
We hope to remain in the mainland at 583, Agege Motor Road, Shogunle, Lagos, Nigeria, out present address, but in other to service our client who are principally based in Lagos Island and /Victoria Island we are poised to change our location as soon as there is the dare need to do so.
But how did it all started? You will ask me!!!!

The ideas of becoming an Accountant have been on my mind when I was in Primary six in 1975. It was by a stroke of luck that one of our teachers came over to our class and said “let me show you what you will learn in secondary school”. He them prepared a cash Book on the black board and we all copied it.
By luck I was admitted as a secondary student in Victory College of Commerce, Edidi, Kwara State in the 1975/76 admission year.

I passed out in June 1979 as a final year student in the school and could not secure admission into University. So I had to settle for Polytechnic. As an indigene, my admission into Kwara College of Technology was straight forward as I had very good secondary school results.
Haven completed my school of basic Sturdy course I passed out with two A-level subjects in mathematics and Economics with a certificate of Cambridge University of London in association wit KWARATECH in around April 1981.
On June 15 1981 secured employment as an account clerk in Swenig furniture Company Limited group made up of a furniture company, a foundry, iron and steel and aluminum fabricating companies due to my good result in mathematics.

My professional accountancy career started in 1982 when I attempted to register first with The Institute of Chartered accountant of Nigeria but because there were fewer qualified accountants then around I could not get my form signed. I had to settle with registration with The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants of London (ACCA).

I started the examination of ACCA in 1982 and passed all the papers in level 1 and some papers in level 2.
In 1998 due to lack of lecturer teach us in ACCA course and poor naira value and some other increasing difficulties in passing the examination of ACCA my self and my friends decided to change to ICAN exams.  As a result of the passes I had in ACCA I got exemptions in the foundation stages of ICAN and proceeded to write my first exam in PE 1 (professional one) examination of ICAN in November 1988 diet.

I completed my ICAN professional examination in May 1990 diet and was admitted into membership in December 1990 therefore becoming a Chartered accountant. My ultimate dream comes true.
In 1992 I decided to go full professional by changing my employment from Swenig Furniture/ Asiatic Industries co Ltd  to train with Aremu akindele & co (Chartered Accountants) briefly and Also with Funsho ogidiolu & Co (chartered Accountants). I then came back to work with AVIS (Sheraton Hotels) in 1993/1994. 
Although I had a good pay package in AVIS but destiny forced me out of the establishment in April 1994.
Although I have set up my first consultancy company in 1993 by the name of Korporate Consultants & Nominees Limited, I did not use it till 1994 when I first got a tax consultancy appointment in the company’s name with Lagos State Board of Internal revenue for Tax Audit now known as TAMA.
With Mr. Lanre Olabamikiya, Mr. lanre Afolabi and Mr. Ade Ojo, as my first employees, we were running the company under the name of Korporate Consultants. Although I was still in employment then I was using my salary to run the company.

After an articleship in the firm of a friend, I got my licence to practice as a chartered Accountant on September 10th 1998. In anticipation of the approval of my application for practicing licence, I got the firm of Olajide and Associates Registered with Corporate Affairs commission, Abuja (CAC) on the June 26th 1998.
Mail to:benspecialist@yahoo.com, benspecialist@hotmail.com
On 31 August 1998, I got approval form our great Institute, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) to use the name OLAJIDE AND ASSOCIATES NIGERIA CO. as a firm of Chartered Accountant.
From 1998 up till early 2003 we were operating from my rented apartment in Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos Nigeria. But we were able to move to our present office No. 583 Agege motor Road, Shogunle, Lagos Nigeria on 23rd April 2003 where we are up till today.
                                                                                      PREPARED BY
Y.O.OLAJIDE (FCA, FCTI)
MANAGING PARTNER
Olajide and associates Nig.
www.olajideassociates.com