Jibrin Audu Zaria.
The Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Professor Adamu Ahmed, has called on stakeholders in the education sector to prioritise knowledge generation and innovation as critical tools for preparing the next generation to address national and global challenges.
Professor Ahmed made the call while declaring open the fifth Inaugural Lecture of the University, delivered by Professor Salisu Abubakar of the Department of Accounting, Finance and Financial Reporting.
The Vice-Chancellor noted that in today’s knowledge economy, value creation is increasingly driven by knowledge, creativity, innovation, experience and, most importantly, people.
He said the Fourth Industrial Revolution, driven by Artificial Intelligence, automation and robotics, is rapidly transforming industries and redefining the skills required for the future.
Professor Ahmed therefore urged the academic community to embrace Artificial Intelligence and adapt teaching methods to equip students with relevant knowledge and skills for the changing world.
He also stressed the importance of human-resource development and continuous sensitisation, urging individuals and institutions to create value and develop solutions capable of addressing emerging global challenges.
In his paper presentation the professor of Accounting and Financing Reporting, Salisu Abubakar said, the world has transformed from an information era to a knowledge-based era, which led to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
He made this known at the Inaugural lecture titled “From Financial Reporting Gobbledygook To Inevitability: Human Resource Assetization In The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Era And Beyond”. he delivered at Yusufu Bala Usman Hall, ABU, Zaria .
According to him, this transformation is fast evolving to another era, to the Fifth era as more companies of service nature are now geometrically increasingly compared with arithmetically increasing manufacturing business.
Prof. Abubakar further stated that, this reason has forwarded great challenges to accountants in responding adequately to the new transformation.
He said, in responding to the challenges, accountants were able to expand the area of coverage of the discipline and became more innovative and inventive
Also the issues of human resource accounting is one of the innovations in the accounting discipline
The Inaugural lecturer said, the formal adoption of Human Resource Accounting in Financial Reporting is no longer a question as the boundary between technology and indistinctive traditional accounting metrics will continue to lose relevance if they remain anchored solely to the material world.
While recommending that to successfully transition Human Resource Accounting from a theoretical concept into a core operational reality during the Fourth Industrial Revolution and beyond action must be taken across multiple levels .
Professor Salisu Abubakar advised for academic and professional development that, the Professional of tomorrow must be equipped with the multidisciplinary tools required to audit and manage human asset data.
