ICAN · Skills
Performance Management
The Performance Management syllabus for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, broken down by how much of the paper each area is worth. Decision Making Techniques is the heaviest at 25% of the marks.
Where the marks are
Percentages are the examinable weighting for each area. Revising in this order puts your time where the marks are.
Decision Making Techniques
25%Relevant cost analysis · Cost volume profit analysis (CVP) · Limiting factors · Pricing decisions · Make-or-buy and other short-term decisions · Dealing with risk and uncertainty in decision making
Budgeting and Control
20%Budgetary systems and types of budgets · Analytical techniques in budgeting and forecasting · Standard costing · Material mix and yield variances · Sales mix and quantity variances · Planning and operational variances · Performance analysis
Advanced Costing Techniques
15%Activity based costing (ABC) · Target costing · Life cycle costing · Throughput accounting · Accounting for environmental and sustainability factors
Performance Measurement, Control and Management System
15%Performance analysis for profit-oriented organisations · Performance analysis in not-for-profit organisations · Divisional performance and transfer pricing · Analysis and evaluation of business objectives and strategies using value chain analysis · Analysis and evaluation of suitable performance measures for profitability, liquidity and solvency
Performance Evaluation and Corporate Failure
10%Strategic performance issues in complex business structures · Alternative views of performance measurement and management · Predicting and preventing corporate failure
Management Information Systems and Data Analytics
10%Management information systems · Application of big data and data analytics
Emerging Issues in Performance Management
5%Current developments in management accounting · Current issues and trends in performance management
Where candidates lose this paper
The Institute publishes its own past questions. What it cannot give you is an answer to these.
- There is not enough time to read the whole study text before the diet.
- The official study text condensed and reorganised by examinable weighting, with every claim cited back to the page it came from — so you can check anything you doubt in one click.
- You write practice answers for months and never find out whether a single one would have scored.
- Write by hand, photograph it, and have it marked against the examiner's own marking guide — with the marks broken down the way the examiner breaks them down, and the reason for each one.
- The study text is hundreds of pages and none of it tells you which parts the examiner actually asks about.
- Every syllabus topic, ordered by the share of marks it carries, so your revision time follows the marks instead of the page count.
- You know the answer but lose marks anyway, and no one ever explains where they went.
- The Institute's published solution beside your attempt, with the mark allocation visible — so you can see the marks sitting in the principle and the application, not only the final figure.
- You have only ever typed your answers, and the paper is written by hand.
- Timed mocks written on paper, under exam conditions, so you discover how long handwriting takes before it costs you a question.
Syllabus areas and weightings are published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. Past questions and their official solutions are the Institute’s copyright and are available to signed-in candidates only.