Christopher Ita Essien is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and a member of other professional bodies. He has practical experience in accounting, auditing, and taxation in both the private and public sectors of the economy. He attended the Southwest London College and London School of Accountancy, where he studied and passed the Association of Chartered Accountants examination in 1979. He later trained in the firm of KPMG (formerly Peat Marwick Ani, ogunde and Co) chartered Accountants and gained wide auditing experience in various sectors: banking, construction, oil and gas, and manufacturing services. He has worked with multinational and large organisations in Nigeria some of which are: nestle foods of Nigeria Ltd as internal auditor, Mercantile Bank of Nigeria (defunct) NDIC appointed director of finance and admin, University of Calabar as Bursar and managing partner of ita-essien Chris and co. He has attended several professional courses, seminars, workshops, and programs within and outside Nigeria.