An academic in the Department of Accountancy and Business Administration at the Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Ebonyi State, Dr. Isaac M. Ikpor is one of the winners of the 2017 best research paper award at the African Congress of Accountants (ACOA) conference held recently in Kampala, Uganda.

The Conference which was organized by the Pan Africa Federation of Accountants (PAFA) and funded by the World Bank drew research papers from all over the African continent, with the works of Ikpor and his group made up of Kenneth Amaeshi, Osamuyimen Egbon and Innocent Okwuosa – “Public Sector Accounting Reforms and Sustainable Development Goals’ Achievement in Nigeria: Transparency and Accountability Critique” adjudged one of the best five papers in the competition.

The coveted award was presented to Ikpor who is the lead author of the paper on 5^th May, 2017 by the PAFA Chief Executive Officer, Vickson Ncube and the organization’s President, Prof. Jane Ande.

Dedicating the award to the University Management, Ikpor noted: “I dedicate the award to the effort of FUNAI Management for inspiring in us the spirit of hard work and for attracting one of the co-authors of the paper, Prof. Ameshi from Edinburgh University as guest speaker in one of the FUNAI Conferences from where I got to know him…”

Other winners of the award include: David Mutua Mathuva of Strathmore University Business School, Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya; Vincent Tawaiah of University of Cape Coast, Ghana; Babajide Oyewo of Department of Accounting, University of Lagos, Nigeria and Joseph Phiri of the Copperbelt University, Jambo Drive, Kitwe, Zambia.

The award is worth 8,000 US dollars with the first three winners going home with 2,000 US dollars each while others went home with 1,000 US dollars each.

Commending the effort of Ikpor in making FUNAI proud among other leading Universities in Africa, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba advised him not to rest on his oars while also challenging other academics of the University to embark on life-changing research works that could give positive global attention to the institution.