MR Sunmola Olalekan David is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Inner Konsult Limited., an accounting, auditing, taxation and financial reporting firm with a speciality in accounting, advisory, tax consultancy services, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) services as well as other related professional services.
He spoke with ABDULAZEEZ ABDULWAB on the cutting-edge services rendered by his firm as well as its primus inter pares status in the industry.
Q: How long has Inner Konsult Limited been in business?
We have been in existence for over 16 years now, and have been known for professional advice, auditing accounting services, tax consultancy, etc, and we have quite a number of customers in Lagos, Abuja Port Harcourt and Ogun State.
Q: Can you provide us with the names of some of your key customers?
I may not be able to do that because one of our guiding rules is absolute confidentiality in our dealing with clients. As a result of this, I may not be able to disclose their identity.
Q: You’ve been around for sixteen years as you said. How has the journey been?
Yes, we really have to thank God for our modest accomplishments. In this service sector, client satisfaction is key. Once you carry out your job professionally, you are in a pole position to benefit from referrals from your existing customers.
So far, so good. We have been getting a lot of referrals from our existing customers and the good Lord has been kind to us. Let me also say that we have absolute confidence in our services vis a vis customer satisfaction and timely delivery, and we also ensure that accounting standards and regulatory standards are met.
So we have always been on top of our game, and based on that we have been getting…we have been doing fine.
Q: What would you say has been your greatest challenge in the last 16 years doing this business?
It has to do with the orientation of business owners in keeping appropriate financial records or documents, especially in accounting services and auditing. You will need such documents in a way that things will not be ambiguous, everything is evidence-based. One may notice that some of these business owners do not really understand or appreciate the importance of keeping every information or keeping details of source documents. By this, I mean invoices, purchase orders, and all forms of third-party evidence.
So this has been the issue, but of course, we have to find a way of navigating, explaining things … and ensuring that we get whatever we need to move on with our job.
That has been the greatest challenge we face in performing our duty. 
Q: What is your take on government policy with regard to taxation and how it impacts your business?
In the area of taxation, and depending on the way one looks at it. But suffice it to say the government, to some extent, has been more concerned about small companies by way of giving them tax reliefs, technically.
Take for example, if you are a small business in Nigeria, you are not expected to pay tax, be it company income tax, or education tax as much as your turnover is below Twenty-Five (25) Million Naira. So this has been some sort of relief for SMEs. All they are required to do is to ensure that they file their financial reports. That’s the only way the government would know if a business owner has turnover above or below the stipulated figure. That’s one leg of the matter.
The other leg is the issue of withholding tax policy. This is an area business owners are not so comfortable with. Although there are a number of circulars to explain and ensure that tax officers are not taking withholding tax in absolute format, it is still an issue. There are a number of conflicts in the area in this regard.
These are some of the issues the government should look into because a lot of companies are subjected to paying withholding tax which shouldn’t be.
By and large, the need for SMEs and the concept of tax in Nigeria has been relatively fair to SMEs. But because of the high exchange rate between the Naira and the Dollar, the twenty-five million benchmark I earlier talked about now amounts to nothing due to the high running cost for businesses. So that twenty-five million Naira benchmark should now be reviewed, jerking up considerably, because the intention of the government when the turnover was pegged at Twenty-Five Million Naira was no doubt noble. But twenty-five million Naira now is uncomfortably too little for SMEs to work with.
By so doing, the high cost of running a business and the value of Naira now, there is a desperate need for SMEs to have more relief in the area of taxation. And that could be done by way of more protection, and more policy clarification for business owners. This is my honest view on that issue.
Q: Having been around for the past 16 years, what can you say is Inner Konsult Limited’s competitive edge above your competition?
Thank you for that question. Indeed we have a comparative advantage in the deployment of technology in doing what we do. We have highly sophisticated accounting software that we normally use to deliver our services.
So, no matter the number of jobs we have…I mean we have a lot of data analysts, and we also have a lot of financial reporting software in place that assists us in delivering to our clients on time
Our software base is more compliant with international reporting standards. Both local and international standards are complied with using our team’s internally developed accounting software to deliver our services.
By so doing we never fail our customers by way of meeting deadlines and also ensuring that all relevant standards are complied with. That’s a tip of what we do that stands us out. I am sure you are not expecting me to divulge our business model here.
Editor’s Note: Inner Konsult is on the World Wide Web: Inner Konsult
Email: summola@innerkonsult.com
Phone: +2348038460036, +2348057694444
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