ICAN Syllabus Summary for Nov 2025 Curled out by: Kabiru Yusuf Aremu, ACA (08169069670) From:
From: Apex Professional Associates
ICAN New Syllabus Summary – Nov 2025
Financial Management (FM)
Content and % Weight
A. Financial Management Function and Environment 10%
B. Working Capital Management 15%
C. Investment Appraisal 25%
D. Business Finance 20%
E. Business Valuations 15%
F. Risk Management 15%
A. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT FUNCTION AND ENVIRONMENT - 10%
1. The nature and purpose of financial management
(a) Explain the nature and purpose of financial management.
(b) Explain the relationship between financial management, and each of financial accounting and
management accounting.
(c) Identify and describe various financial objectives, including:
(i) Stakeholders value creation;
(ii) Shareholder wealth maximisation;
(iii) Profit maximisation; and
(iv) Earnings per share growth.
2. Corporate objectives and the influence of stakeholders
(a) Discuss the key stakeholders of an organisation and advise on their interests.
(b) Assess possible conflicts between stakeholder objectives.
(c) Evaluate management's role in managing stakeholder objectives, including the application of agency
theory.
(d) Assess the various methods of achieving stakeholder objectives, including:
o Regulatory requirements – corporate governance codes and stock exchange listing regulations; and
o Management reward schemes – share options and performance related pay.
(e) Advise on the various ways of evaluating corporate objectives, including:
o Ratio analysis; and
o Total shareholders' return changes.
3. Financial management in not-for-profit organisations
(a) Evaluate the various objectives of a not-for-profit organisation.
(b) Discuss the ways of measuring achievement of objectives in a not-forprofit organisation.
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ICAN Syllabus Summary for Nov 2025 Curled out by: Kabiru Yusuf Aremu, ACA (08169069670) From: Apex Professional Associates
4. The economic environment of business
(a) Evaluate major macroeconomic policy targets.
(b) Illustrate the role of fiscal, monetary, interest rate and exchange rate policies in achieving macro-
economic policy targets.
(c) Assess the influence of government economic policies on decision making in business.
5. Financial markets and institutions
(a) Assess the role of money and capital markets both nationally and internationally.
(b) Evaluate the functions of stock market and the corporate bond market.
(c) Evaluate the impact of technology on the changing role of financial markets and institutions.
(d) Evaluate the role of money market in providing short term liquidity and short-term trade finance.
(e) Compare and contrast money market and capital market operations.
(f) Evaluate the role of banks and other financial institutions in the operation of the money markets.
(g) Evaluate the role of principal money market instruments, including:
• Interest bearing instruments;
• (ii) Discount instruments; and
• (iii) Derivative products.
B. WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT - 15%
1. The nature, elements and importance of working capital
(a) Describe the nature of working capital and identify its elements.
(b) Identify the objectives of working capital management in terms of liquidity and profitability, and
discuss the conflict between them.
(c) Discuss the central role of working capital management in financial management.
2. Management of inventories, accounts receivable, accounts payable and cash
(a) Explain and calculate the cash operating cycle.
(b) Explain and apply relevant accounting ratios, including:
• Current ratio and quick ratio;
• (ii) Inventory turnover ratio, average collection period and average payable period; and
• (iii) Sales revenue/net working capital ratio.
(c) Discuss, apply and evaluate the use of relevant techniques in managing inventory, including the
economic order quantity (EOQ) model and just-in-time (JIT) techniques.
(d) Discuss, apply and evaluate the use of relevant techniques in managing accounts receivables,
including:
i) Assessing credit worthiness;
ii) Collecting amounts owing;
iii) Offering early settlement discounts; and
iv) Using factoring and invoice discounting.
(e) Discuss and apply the use of relevant techniques in managing accounts payable, including:
• Using trade credit effectively; and
• Evaluating the benefits of early settlement and bulk purchase discounts.
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ICAN Syllabus Summary for Nov 2025 Curled out by: Kabiru Yusuf Aremu, ACA (08169069670) From: Apex Professional Associates
(f) Explain the various reasons for holding cash, discuss and apply the use of relevant techniques in
managing cash, including:
(i) Preparing cash flow forecasts to determine future cash shortages or surpluses;
(ii) Assessing the benefits of centralised treasury management and cash control;
(iii) Cash management models, such as the Baumol model and the Miller-Orr model; and
(iv) Short-term investment.
3. Determining working capital needs
(a) Calculate the level of working capital investment in current assets and discuss the key factors
determining this level, including:
• The length of the working capital cycle and terms of trade;
• An organisation's policy on the level of investment in current assets; and
• The industry in which the organisation operates.
• Evaluate and discuss the key factors in determining working capital funding strategies, including:
• The distinction between permanent and fluctuating current assets;
• The relative cost and risk of short-term and long-term finance;
• The matching principle; and
• The relative costs and benefits of aggressive, conservative and matching funding policies.
C. INVESTMENT APPRAISAL - 25%
1. Investment appraisal methods
(a) Identify and calculate relevant cash flows for investment projects.
(b) Calculate and discuss the usefulness of each of the following investment appraisal methods:
• Payback period;
• Accounting rate of return (ARR);
• Net present value (NPV); and
• Internal rate of return (IRR).
(c) Evaluate capital investment decisions, using capital budgeting techniques that incorporate strategic
factors.
(d) Discuss the superiority of discounted cash flow (DCF) methods over non-DCF methods.
(e) Discuss the relative merits of NPV and IRR.
2. Inflation and taxation in DCF
(a) Apply and discuss the real-terms and nominal-terms approaches to investment appraisal.
(b) Calculate the taxation effects of relevant cash flows, including tax benefits of tax-allowable
depreciation.
3. Risk and uncertainty in investment appraisal
(a) Describe and discuss the difference between risk and uncertainty in relation to investment appraisal.
(b) Discuss and apply the following techniques of dealing with risk and uncertainty in investment appraisal:
• Sensitivity analysis;
• Expected value criterion, including, value of information;
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ICAN Syllabus Summary for Nov 2025 Curled out by: Kabiru Yusuf Aremu, ACA (08169069670) From: Apex Professional Associates
• Decision tree;
• Simulation; and
• Risk-adjusted discount rates.
4. Specific investment decisions
a. Evaluate leasing and borrowing-to-buy decisions, using Nigerian tax rules.
b. Evaluate asset replacement decisions, using equivalent annual cost/value method and least cost
method (LCM).
c. Evaluate investment decisions under single-period capital rationing, including:
i) The calculation of profitability indices for divisible investment projects;
ii) The calculation of the NPV of combinations of non-divisible investment projects; and
iii) A discussion of the reasons for capital rationing.
D. BUSINESS FINANCE - 20%
1. Sources of finance
(a) Identify and discuss the range of short-term sources of finance available to businesses, including
overdraft, bank loan, trade credit, etc.
(b) Identify and discuss the range of long-term sources of finance available to businesses, including equity,
debt finance, finance lease and venture capital.
(c) Identify and discuss methods of raising equity finance, including rights issue, placing, public offer,
introduction, etc.
(d) Discuss the major differences between islamic finance and the other forms of business finance.
(e) Identify and discuss methods of raising short-term and long-term islamic finance, including:
✓ The concept of riba (interest) and how returns are made by Islamic financial securities.
✓ (Islamic financial instruments available to businesses including:
· Murabaha (trade credit);
· Ijara (lease finance);
· Mudaraba (equity finance);
· Sukuk (debt finance); and
· Musharaka (venture capital).
(f) Identify and discuss internal sources of finance, including:
✓ Retained earnings;
✓ Efficient management of working capital;
✓ The relationship between dividend policy and the financing decision; and
✓ The theoretical approaches to, and the practical influences on, the dividend decision (including
legal constraints, liquidity, shareholder expectations and alternatives to cash dividends).
2. Cost of capital
(a) Evaluate the cost of equity, including:
i) Application of the dividend growth model (its assumptions, advantages and disadvantages);
ii) Explanation and discussion of systematic and unsystematic risk;
iii) Relationship between portfolio theory and the capital asset pricing model (CAPM); and
iv) Application of the CAPM (its assumptions, advantages and disadvantages).
(b) Evaluate the cost of debt relating to the following:
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ICAN Syllabus Summary for Nov 2025 Curled out by: Kabiru Yusuf Aremu, ACA (08169069670) From: Apex Professional Associates
✓ Irredeemable debt;
✓ Redeemable debt;
✓ Convertible debt;
✓ Preference shares; and
✓ Bank debt.
(c) Calculate the overall cost of capital, using weighted average cost of capital (WACC).
3. Sources of finance and their relative costs
(a) Discuss the relative risk-return relationship and the relative costs of equity and debt.
(b) Outline and discuss the problem of high gearing.
(c) Evaluate and discuss the impact of sources of finance on financial position, financial risk and
shareholder wealth using appropriate measures, including:
✓ Ratio analysis using statement of financial position gearing, operational and financial gearing,
interest coverage ratio and other relevant ratios; and
✓ Cash flow forecasting.
(d) Discuss the effects of cost of capital on investments, including:
✓ The relationship between company value and cost of capital;
✓ The circumstances under which WACC can be used in investment appraisal;
✓ The advantages of the CAPM over WACC in determining a project-specific cost of capital; and
✓ The application of the CAPM in calculating a project-specific discount rate.
4. Capital structure theories and practical considerations
(a) Explain the traditional view of capital structure and its assumptions.
(b) Discuss the views of Miller and Modigliani (M&M) on capital structure, both with and without
corporate taxation, and their assumptions.
(c) Identify a range of capital market imperfections and describe their impact on the views of M&M on
capital structure.
(d) Discuss the relevance of pecking order theory to the selection of sources of finance.
5. Finance for micro, small and medium sized entities (MSMEs)
(a) Explain the nature of financing problems for small businesses in terms of the funding gap, the maturity
gap and inadequate security.
(b) Describe measures used to ease MSMEs financing problems.
(c) Outline and evaluate the effects of financing sources for MSMEs, including:
i) Business angel financing;
ii) Government assistance;
iii) Crowd funding; and
iv) Supply chain financing.
E. BUSINESS VALUATIONS - 15%
1. Nature and purpose of the valuation of business and financial assets
(a) Outline and explain the rationale for businesses and financial assets valuation.
(b) Explain the information required in carrying out valuation of businesses and financial assets
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ICAN Syllabus Summary for Nov 2025 Curled out by: Kabiru Yusuf Aremu, ACA (08169069670) From: Apex Professional Associates
2. Choice of assets valuation bases
(a) Discuss and apply asset valuation methods, including:
✓ Historical cost method;
✓ Net realisable method; and
✓ Replacement cost method.
(b) Discuss and apply income-based valuation method, including:
✓ Price/earnings ratio methods;
✓ Earnings yield methods; and
✓ Enterprise value/EBITDAmultiple methods.
(c) Discuss and apply cash flow-based valuation methods, including:
✓ Discounted cash flow method; and
✓ (ii) Dividend valuation method
3. The valuation of debt and other financial assets
(a) Explain and apply appropriate valuation methods to:
i) Irredeemable bond;
ii) Redeemable bond;
iii) Convertible bond;
iv) Irredeemable preference shares; and
v) Redeemable preference shares.
4. Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) and practical considerations in the valuation of shares
(a) Distinguish amongst and discuss weak form efficiency, semi-strong form efficiency and strong form
efficiency.
(b) Discuss practical considerations in the valuation of shares and businesses, including:
✓ Marketability and liquidity of shares;
✓ Availability and sources of information;
✓ Market imperfections and pricing anomalies; and
✓ Market capitalisation.
F. RISK MANAGEMENT - 15%
1. The nature and types of risk and approaches to risk management
(a) Discuss different types of foreign currency risk, including transaction risk, translation risk and
economic risk.
2. Causes of exchange rate differences and interest rate fluctuations
(a) Explain the causes of exchange rate fluctuations, including:
✓ Balance of payments;
✓ Purchasing power parity theory;
✓ Interest rate parity theory; and
✓ Four-way equivalence.
(b) Carry out a forecast of exchange rates, using:
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ICAN Syllabus Summary for Nov 2025 Curled out by: Kabiru Yusuf Aremu, ACA (08169069670) From: Apex Professional Associates
✓ Purchasing power parity; and
✓ Interest rate parity.
(c) Discuss and apply covered interest arbitrage.
3. Hedging techniques for foreign currency risk
(a) Explain and apply method of foreign currency risk management, including traditional and basic
methods.
✓ Currency of invoice;
✓ Netting and matching;
✓ Leading and lagging;
✓ Forward exchange contracts; and
✓ Money market hedging.
(b) Discuss and apply the main types of foreign currency derivatives used to hedge foreign currency risk
and explain how they are used in hedging (Simple numerical questions will be required)
4. Hedging techniques for interest rate risk
(a) Explain and apply the following methods of hedging interest rate risk, including both traditional and
basic methods:
✓ Matching and smoothing;
✓ Asset and liability management; and
✓ Forward rate agreements.
(b) Outline and explain the main types of interest rate derivatives used to hedge interest rate risk and explain
their uses (Simple numerical questions will be required).
