ICAN and the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) have always enjoyed close working relations which have allowed a reciprocity agreement between the two Institutes to be in place since 1992. This reciprocity agreement allows members of either Institute to apply for membership of the other without any additional educational requirements such as a conversion examination.
This reciprocity is based on a common act of training and examination requirements which include the final qualifying professional examinations. Hence persons with foreign accounting qualifications who wish to apply for membership of ICAN are measured against, and have to comply with, the same requirements as persons wishing to apply for membership of SAICA. It must be noted that in Namibia the examining body in the Public Accountants' and Auditors' Board of Namibia which uses the SAICA professional examinations as its own qualifying examinations.
Persons wishing to apply for membership of ICAN can be categorized into one of three categories.
| Persons who are exempt from the PAAB (NAM) conversion examination: |
| Persons required to write the full conversion examination paper in Mercantile & Company Law and the paper in Income Tax Law; and, |
| Persons required to write both parts of the PAAB (Namibia) qualifying examinations and the Mercantile and Company Law paper of the conversion examination. |
For a comprehensive description of these categories, the examinations and the rules and regulations governing the examinations please refer to www.saica.co.za