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Globalization of Financial Reporting: Obstacles to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Adoption in Nigeria Wilson E. Herbert (Corresponding Author) Professor of Accounting & Financial Management and Director, Academic Planning, Bingham University, Karu, Nasarawa State, Nigeria E-mail: [email protected] Emeka E. Ene Senior Lecturer & Head, Department of Accounting, Bingham University, Karu, Nasarawa State, Nigeria Ioraver N. Tsegba Associate Professor of Accounting & Finance, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria ABSTRACT This paper investigates the impediments to IFRS adoption in Nigeria. It examines the attitudes of key stakeholders towards IFRS adoption. The sample is drawn from academics and practitioners who are critical stakeholders in the success or failure of IFRS implementation. The results of the study overwhelmingly evidence that Nigeria was not prepared to adopt IFRS, even to date. The study finds the two major roadblocks to IFRS adoption as (i) lack of education, understanding and experience by preparers of financial reports with the use of IFRS; and (ii) lack of coverage of IFRS in contemporary accounting curricula. An important policy implication is the urgency of accounting curriculum review in the tertiary education system to incorporate IFRS and IPSAS and their implementation dimensions. Failure to both integrate IFRS modules into Nigeria’s tertiary education accounting curricula and coordinate tertiary accounting education programmes two years after IFRS adoption exacerbates the implementation challenges and frictions associated with such tardiness. Keywords:

Globalization, Financial Reporting, Reporting Standards (IFRS), Nigeria

International

Financial

1. INTRODUCTION The last two decades have witnessed an increasing wave of accounting scandals and financial statements fraud, weak corporate governance and risk management practices, culminating in the 2008 global financial meltdown. These corporate failures became scandalous not just because of the characteristics of the companies (size, age and their reported past successes) that collapsed and their multiplier effects on the national and global economies, “but also because of the discovery that questionable accounting practice was far more insidious and widespread than previously envisioned” (Bhasin, 2013). The plethora of incriminating evidence linking these egregious accounting practices to the corporate scandals and failures led to a number of national and global corporate governance initiatives. For example, nation states, Nigeria inclusive, have made concerted efforts to establish benchmark corporate governance codes, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002, national Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Governance Codes. In addition, not only have the integrity and competence of the accounting profession come under a sharp scrutiny by a disturbed and bewildered public, but also doubts have been raised about national standards of financial reporting and corporate governance. With increasing

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globalization, cross-border listings, and globalization of financial reporting, many countries and jurisdictions have responded by enhancing their countries’ accounting oversight functions as part of economic reforms to accommodate financial reporting standards. The new financial reporting architecture has thus assumed an influential role as a form of corporate governance. Since the 1970s, the community of international accounting professional bodies and business leaders has been developing a single uniform set of international accounting standards and reporting framework that will enjoy a global appeal. This single global reporting framework is perceived as a means of enhancing firm performance and good corporate governance. Effective corporate governance requires accurate and reliable financial information (Judge and Pinsker, 2010; Herbert and Tsegba, 2013). Historically, corporate financial reporting has followed national standards, in which each country developed and adopted its own financial reporting standards. However, since the 1980s, the imperatives of globalization have not only increased the integration of national economies and financial markets into a global market, but have also necessitated the need for global standardization of financial reporting methods and practices. The rationale within the international business and accounting professional communities was that the adoption of a consistent set of global financial standards would (a) curtail questionable and insidious accounting practices, (b) eliminate the inconsistencies in financial reporting methods across countries, jurisdictions and regional borders, and (c) overcome the widespread poor corporate governance practices that prospectively lead to poor corporate financial performance. The global concern for a uniform financial reporting architecture gave rise to the movement towards international harmonization of financial reporting standards of nation states. Thus, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which are a set of international accounting standards, define and specify how particular types of financial transactions and other events should be reported in financial statements. Issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), the IFRS have been embraced all over the world as the global benchmark for conducting and reporting financial transactions. The growing list of countries and the level of IFRS-compliance in these countries define IFRS’ acceptability by the international business community. From a historical perspective, the development of a strong international financial reporting framework has been of longstanding interest to and has elicited (and still elicits) frequent commentary from accounting academics and professionals and men of affairs (business leaders, politicians, labour leaders, and regulators). This perspective is reinforced by the fact that accounting is shaped by economic and political forces (Watts, 1977; Watts and Zimmerman, 1986). The key role played by financial reporting in national and global economic development is a prima facie evidence of investor confidence and trust it imbues the business community. Investor confidence is vital to the optimal functioning of financial markets that foster economic development. The globalization of economic activities juxtaposing increasing integration of national economies and markets has resulted in an increased demand for high quality, internationally comparable financial information. In the new globalized cum integrated world, companies and investors operate beyond borders with their boundary spanning capabilities; they have foreign affiliations in various forms. Banks establish foreign branches and correspondent banking relationships in several countries to service the incremental dimensions of their growing portfolio of international customers. Foreign companies and their nationals, development partners, international donor agencies, civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), all traverse the global space of accounting and finance. One of the discontents of globalization is the growing inequality between the Western (developed) economies and developing and less developed countries (DLDCs), whether it is in trade and commerce, energy and environmental policies, or in geopolitics in general. In relation to the latter, most DLDCs are economically weak due to lack of domestic capacity

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and weak social and physical infrastructure resulting in low export prices and significant terms-of-trade decline. Furthermore, most DLDCs have not done well in organizing themselves to coordinate substantial policy and negotiating positions or strategy in relation to the discussions and negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) as well as other forums (Khor, 2005). Thus, despite the deepening interdependence between national markets and economies, there is nevertheless an undeniable underlying reality that the world is constrained by people and economies fractured by strongly held beliefs, values, feelings, and practices that seem intractable to reconcile. These differences permeate all facets of human understanding and practices, of which accounting, finance and international business are no exception. Nation states and businesses need to understand and reconcile each other’s accounting principles upon which resident companies prepare their financial statements, since it is at least universally acknowledged that accounting is the language of business. The trajectory of this harmonization journey has been long, windy and tortuous. The IFRS are a testament to the many years of international harmonization dialogue: they are boldly designed to guide the accounting profession and business across the world into the global reality, showing businesses and nation states the simplicity of uniform standards on the other side of the complexity, illuminating insights and skills required to deal with contentious accounting dynamics in the 21st century of integrated economies and markets. The transition to a global uniform framework is, therefore, an eloquent authentication of the international consensus on IFRS as benchmarks for assessment of the financial health of economic entities across the globe. This consensus is premised on the fact that increasing integration of regional and global markets in the presence of financial statement comparability influences business decisions in many ways. Since IFRS adoption reflects a fundamental shift in national as well as global accounting systems and professions, their economic consequences are bound to evoke a lot of conversation. The dialogue is intended to create greater professional and public awareness about their dimensions and ramifications in a country. For example, before the European Union decided on IFRS adoption, it commissioned a lot of research and public discourse with key stakeholders involving the universities and the accountancy profession across Europe. In the U.S. a lot of research, public discussions and policy dialogue have been going on preparatory to the country’s adoption. This spate of preparation has been absent in most DLDCs, especially Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In many countries, it is their national standard-setting bodies that have been involved in limited public engagement and enlightenment campaigns. For most DLDCs, in particular, the capacity is severely constrained by lack of funds. In Nigeria, the involvement of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government (MDAs), financial regulatory bodies and large corporate organizations in training and/or supporting national awareness and seamless transition to this all-important global financial reporting language has been at best limited and at worst lethargic. Earlier studies, such as Herbert, et al. (2013), have shown that a country’s level of preparedness is crucial to successful seamless implementation. Although sketches of empirical attention to IFRS are springing up in Nigeria, these are fundamentally peripheral: the main issues remain largely unresolved. Two particular areas requiring systematic inquiry are the economic consequences of IFRS adoption, and the state of a country’s readiness to IFRS adoption. As regards the former, a number of studies have examined the economic consequences of IFRS adoption, with indicative evidence that IFRS adoption generally (a) improves quality of accounting information (Barth, Landsman & Lang, 2008), and (b) reduces cost of equity capital (Daske, et al. 2008; Li 2010), even as their effects seem to vary by country and firm. While a number of studies, such as Doidge, et al. 2004), have suggested that IFRS adoption holds significant economic consequences for DLDCs, empirical evidence has been relatively sparse. In particular, a largely unexplored praxis is how IFRS will benefit Africa’s economic development. Will it enhance or impede African countries’ economic development? Exploratory attempts to fill this lacuna include the works of Herbert (2010), Bova and

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Pereira (2012), Lin (2012), Madawaki, (2012), Herbert et al. (2013), and Herbert and Tsegba (2013). The consensus evidence from these studies is that IFRS are a good deal more significant and challenging for DLDCs than is commonly realized. In the main, because of the greater potential growth opportunities of DLDCs, they have greater incentives for better or improved information environment which will prospectively mitigate (a) information asymmetry between firms and foreign investors, and (b) other egregious managerial discretionary practices. These are some of the general governance problems which IFRS adoption is billed to overcome. With respect to a country’s level of preparedness for IFRS adoption, the present study seeks to principally explore the challenges or roadblocks. Suffice it, however, to make the following observation. Because of their quest for global competitiveness vis-à-vis the enormous challenges of political and socioeconomic development juxtaposing the troubles afflicting DLDCs - poverty, diseases, education and healthcare service delivery and infrastructure deficits –global issues that demand critical thinking and high level stakeholder consultations are simply discounted at the behest of exigency to satisfy international pressure. Most DLDCs are simply goaded to join their developed counterparts as a matter of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them”. Some countries have simply adopted IFRS as a matter of fulfilling membership obligation of multilateral government bodies such as the WTO, global accounting bodies like the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and/or mandated by the WB and IMF, without evaluating their economic effects in their jurisdictions. This perhaps explains the inchoate state of readiness in most DLDCs. Nigeria’s hasty adoption experience may be somewhat shared by other SSA countries, in particular and most DLDCs, in general. Ex ante versus ex post assessment in policy formulation and implementation In this section, we bring to the façade, some of the issues which have challenged or posed an obstacle to the faithful implementation of major policies in SSA, including the IFRS. The lessons learnt could guide other jurisdictions in their IFRS implementation plans. We wish to emphasize the significance of ‘ex ante assessment’ in major policy implementation to avert organizational failures. The notion of organizational failures framework is proposed and employed here to underline the efficacy of consummate implementation of policies across the economy (macro) or within an organisation (micro) in contradistinction to perfunctory implementation. As regards IFRS adoption, faithful implementation is the ultimate unit of microeconomic or macroeconomic analysis. Ex ante assessment, which exists at the time of the original decisions or negotiations (to adopt or not to adopt, and if so, when), should be distinguished from ex post assessment, which develops during the course of implementation (execution stage). Ex ante assessment is characterized by careful evaluation and judgment before taking action, that is, before policy implementation. It seeks to examine critical issues which ought to preface the implementation of any major policy, such as IFRS adoption. At the micro level, an enterprise needs to estimate or determine the nature, value, quality, its strengths, weaknesses, and significance of a major policy or project before embarking on it. Such a modelling apparatus is equally warranted at the macro level before embarking on major government policies. What is commonly referred to as the 'organizational failures framework' exists mainly from the failure to carry out, or hasty, ex ante assessment with depressing consequences for the economic entity or the economy. One synoptic trajectory of ex ante assessment commonly proceeds through a comparative assessment of the attitudes and opinions of critical stakeholders. With respect to country adoption of IFRS, the attitudes and opinions of academics and practitioners provide an important indication or reflection of a country's readiness. The topical issues with which the IFRS contend are important, relevant and largely technical or idiosyncratic. Simplifying their epistemological dimensions is somewhat difficult without a proper grounding in accounting. Such knowledge content (a) must be embedded in the accounting curricula of tertiary educational institutions, and (b) resides in the country's academic and professional accountants.

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Another approach to ex ante assessment looks at the economic consequences of the phenomenon of interest. In this context, IFRS adoption adumbrates a country's willingness and ability to remodel its accounting rules in the manner prescribed by the IASB. Given the ubiquitous incursion of globalization in the affairs of individuals, businesses, and nation states, remodelling the country's accounting architecture warrants a deeper look at the effect of adoption in the country's economic development and growth. A fortiori, the joint views of academics and practitioners are helpful in reviewing the accounting curriculum to incorporate the emergent changes occasioned by IFRS. In this study, we seek to provide both theoretical arguments and empirical evidence on what could impair successful adoption of IFRS in Nigeria. The following section (Section 2) discusses some of the conceptual issues associated with the determination to adopt, adapt or converge, as well as the drivers of IFRS. Section 3 summarizes the trajectory of IFRS adoption in Nigeria and the associated challenges. Although we defer a more complete statement of the empirical state of Nigeria’s readiness until the next section, a sketch of the basic approach set out in Section 4 both provides an overview of what will follow and permits some immediate application of the empirical assessment of how prepared Nigeria was when it adopted IFRS. Section 5 presents the methodology, data analyses and data analyses. Section 6 concludes with recommendations and policy implications. 2. CONCEPTUAL ISSUES IN IFRS ADOPTION, CONVERGENCE AND ADAPTATION: A Summing Up Although IFRS has increasingly become the global need of the hour and although there have been aggressive attempts by companies in globalizing their operations, there is still some confusion over the conceptual difference between IFRS Adoption, Adaptation (or Adaption), and Convergence. In both common parlance and extant literature, the terms are used interchangeably, however, conceptually; there exists a significant difference between them. While this difference is largely ignored in the literature, a sketch of the conceptual differences will both provide an overview of the basic distinctions and permit immediate applications of these by users of IFRS – researchers, regulators, professionals, etc. Thus, it is important to clarify this distinction in IFRS discourse. In practice, the implementation trajectory of IFRS involves three action words, to wit: adopt, adapt, and converge. The putative question is this: Should a country adopt, adapt or converge? In general, although IFRS adoption is the ultimate objective and offers similarities in both challenges and benefits, however, national differences (sociocultural and political) persist. Thus, every country/jurisdiction will inevitably follow its own path towards achieving adoption. Clearly, many countries face cultural, legal, and/or political obstacles to an immediate adoption of IFRS. As a result of those impediments, countries and jurisdictions may decide to follow the path and strategies that will enable them to best achieve the objective. A country may implement strategies of (a) immediate full adoption of IFRS, (b) continuous convergence with IFRSs, or (c) modify the standards to suit their national peculiarities, without compromising the preparation and disclosure requirements of IFRS. Both approaches of (b) and (c) provide necessary preparation for eventual adoption of IFRS in the presence of hurdles to full adoption. In both cases too the country decides to gradually bring its national standards to a point where the amounts reported in the financial statements are the same as in IFRS financial statements. In so doing, there is a conscious realisation that the ultimate objective is to make full adoption of IFRS possible because only then will a country avail itself of the full advantages of using the standards. In effect, while convergence or adaptation (or adaption) may be warranted as a desideratum, they are by no means an end, which full adoption presents. Finally, there is a presumption that the simplest, least costly and most straightforward option for a country is to adopt the complete body of IFRS in a single step rather than opting for piecemeal or long-term gradual process of convergence or adaptation. To be sure, adoption is a significant change, but the alternatives are not easier or cheaper either: in fact, they could be more difficult and of less benefit to a country in the long run. In reality, there are four basic approaches to IFRS implementation in a jurisdiction. These include

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processes where (a) IFRS are, by definition, fully integrated domestic accounting principles; (b). IFRS are integrated into domestic accounting standards, using the exact words in the IFRS, but with possibility of local jurisdiction restricting accounting provided in the IFRS and provision of additional commentary to assist implementation; (c) IFRS are incorporated into local legislation without amendments after a formal review; and (d) IFRSs are the benchmark towards which domestic accounting standards are moving, through a gradual process of convergence or harmonization. These approaches are trichotomized into adoption, convergence, and adaptation routes, as espoused above. 2.1. Drivers of IFRS In addition to the changing landscape of business in today’s global environment, several internal and external drivers have become a compelling force for voluntary adoption of IFRS. The key internal drivers of interest can be summarised as follows: (i) opportunity to streamline a disjointed financial reporting process; (ii) ability to reduce cost of statutory reporting by developing standardized training programs and to reduce third party fees related to statutory reporting; (iii) availability and more efficient use of resources; and (iv) opportunity to improve internal controls, since statutory reports are often prepared as a manual conversion from national GAAP. External Drivers of Interest in IFRS A pervasive force driving global acceptance of IFRS is the globalization of capital markets following the increasing integration and regionalisation of national economies. There is virtual unanimity with the proposition that a single, global set of accounting standards can facilitate easy access to foreign capital markets, lower the cost of borrowing for companies, attenuate the opportunistic proclivity of corporate financial reporting under weak or poorly regulated environments, and enhance the international comparability of corporate financial reports. Another external driving force is the palpable concern that firms that adopt IFRS will not only have first-mover advantages over non-adopters, but also create an expectation from markets, analysts and shareholders that IFRS information is necessary and/or required. First-mover advantage will attend to knowledge idiosyncrasy – for understanding the principles and workings of IFRS and for acquiring during the course of their employment significant IFRS-specific skills and related task-specific knowledge. Another driving force comes from differential national regulatory developments. 3. IFRS ADOPTION IN NIGERIA: A Summary of its historical trajectory Prior to IFRS adoption in 2012, Statements of Accounting Standards (SAS) were issued by the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board (NASB) (now, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, FRC). The defunct NASB was the Federal Government agency statutorily charged with the responsibility of developing and issuing SAS used in the preparation of financial statements in Nigeria. The SAS, which had many similarities with IASB standards, were governed by Nigeria’s GAAP. The defunct NASB derived its powers from Section 335(1) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), 1990 until the enactment of the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board Act No. 22 of 2003. The Nigerian GAAP consisted of Companies and Allied Matters Act, as amended 2004; SAS issued by the NASB, Other local legislations and industry-specific guidelines such as Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA), Prudential Guidelines issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, Insurance Act, and SEC Rules. The application of these laws, rules and guidelines in accordance with international best practice was optional. From inception, the SAS were patterned after IAS except in structure. In 2007, the NASB started the process of closer harmonization with the release of SASs 25, 27, 28, 29, and 30. Altogether, the NASB issued 30 Statements of Accounting Standards (SAS) which mainly addressed financial reporting issues affecting all major sectors of the economy. However, the SAS were never reviewed or revised to match the pace with IASB pronouncements. The NASB was renamed the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) through the enactment of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria Act No. 6, 2011. Thus, the FRC is now a unified independent regulatory body for accounting, auditing, actuarial, valuation and corporate governance practices in both public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy (Obazee, 2014). As the IFRS blaze spread rapidly across the globe, it became inevitable that the basic

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function of accounting standard setting was no longer tenable. National response came in the way of new legislations that would ensure the protection of the new global financial reporting architecture. Consequently, a number of countries - Malaysia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Republic of Ireland, the U.K, etc., - set up their Financial Reporting Council, as the counterpart of the USA’s Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

Figure 1. 2010-2014 Timeline of IFRS Implementation Milestones Reporting Date: SME’s

Transition Date: Other Public Interest Entities

Transition Date: Listed & Significant Public Entities (SPE)

IFRS

Reporting Date: (Listed & significant public entities) Transition Date: SME’s

(PIE’s) 2012

2011

•

  

•

Awareness Assessment Legislative changes Training Planning/Imp act analysis Transition adjustments/ Opening BS (listed& SPE’s)

 • •

• •

  

2013

ine of IFRS Implementation Milestones

Competence

2010

Reporting Date: Other PIE’s

• •

Transition adjustments Prepare IFRS Opening Statement of Financial Position (SFP) “Dry Runs” for Listed & SPE’s Prepare comparative figures

• • •

•

IFRS/ Quarterly reporting by listed & SPE’s Audit procedures Investor communications PIE’s prepare opening SFP & comparative figs Dry Runs” for PIE’s SME’s commence transition planning

• • • •

IFRS/Quarterly reporting by PIE’s Audit procedures PIE Investor communications Compliance monitoring for Listed & SPE’s SME’s prepare opening SFP & comparative figs PIE/SME Investor communications “Dry Runs” for SME’s

2014

• • • •

IFRS reporting by Other SME’s Audit procedures Investor communicatio ns Compliance monitoring

Alignment with other initiatives and training for appropriate personnel Realisation and standardisation of statutory reporting

A serious constraint in corporate financial reporting against which IFRS is designed to militate is the perceived institutional weakness in corporate governance. The FRC was established to, inter alia, address the institutional weaknesses in regulatory, compliance and enforcement standards and the development of robust infrastructure for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the IFRS. The FRC Act is also meant to (a) reshape the

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national risk management system to enhance the alignment of government and private sector responsibilities, (b) forestall the worst outcomes of and/or sanction errant management of SPEs, and (c) economize on the bounded rationality attributes of board members in terms of increasing their competences and responsibilities. The catalyst for change was October 22, 2009 with the inauguration of a Committee of Stakeholders on the Roadmap to the Adoption of IFRS in Nigeria under the auspices of NASB. The NASB’s committee submitted its report on January 26, 2010to the Federal Government of Nigeria with the explicit recommendation that from 2012, significant public interest entities (SPEs) should comply with IFRS. Government gave its approval on July 28, 2010, with January 1, 2012 as the adoption commencement date. From then on, the NASB set important IFRS implementation milestones, as shown in Figure 1 below. Four years after, there is no discernible evidence of understanding of the implications of IFRS adoption by Nigeria’s policy makers, financial regulators and many SPEs. Were this to be the case, there would have been a serious holistic attempt at upgrading the accounting curriculum across Nigerian universities to capture the pedagogic intricacies and realities of IFRS. Furthermore, the financial regulatory agencies’ discordant tunes towards implementing effective compliance machinery offer a good ground for a reasonable doubt of the country’s readiness to IFRS adoption. Their failure to assert joint responsibility and the resulting confounding of accountability impair compliance incentives by commercial banks, insurance companies, and other SPEs. 3.1. IFRS and Corporate Governance Can the adoption of a uniform global financial reporting framework enhance corporate governance? Theoretically, IFRS can help to promote good corporate governance and firm performance; however, there is as yet no robust empirical evidence that this causal relationship is quantitatively significant. Corporate governance refers broadly to the systems or structures (internal and external) – processes, rules, regulations and control mechanisms – that govern the conduct of an organization for the benefit of all stakeholders. An effective corporate governance, for example, creates organizational efficiency by (a) specifying the rights and responsibilities of stakeholders: shareholders, employees (managers and staff), and third parties; (b) balancing shareholder interests with those of other key stakeholder groups, including customers, creditors, government and communities; (c) ensuring that the organization operates in accordance with international best practices and accepted ethical standards; and (d) instituting incentive and control techniques to mitigate abuse of corporate power and other egregious frictions and distortions within the firm (Tsegba and Herbert, 2013). In short, effective or good corporate governance is the joining of both the letter and spirit of the law (corporate governance code) to achieve organizational efficiency. One particular corporate governance mechanism that has received considerable attention in the literature is the use of a monitoring board appointed by the shareholders (John and Senbet, 1998; Abdullah, 2006; Kyereboah-Coleman and Biekpe, 2006; Nguyen and Faff, 2006). However, the collapse of Enron, WorldCom, etc., and reported cases of unacceptable accounting practices and assortments of corporate accounting fraud in many countries, both demonstrate the limits of internal or self-regulating mechanisms and exemplify the complexity of the monitoring task (Deakin & Konzelmann, 2004). The failure of the board (of directors) to effectively monitor entrenched management has not only refocused attention on the composition of the firm’s ownership structure as a core governance mechanism (Tsegba and Herbert, 2013), but has triggered regulators, policy-makers, business leaders and investors to ponder what improvements could be made to the corporate reporting system. Arguendo, the global adoption of IFRS may be an indication of the confidence reposed on its capacity to mitigate internal opportunism to govern and/or to regulate executive actions, which redound to internal and external control mechanism. The response by many jurisdictions in opting for new legislations that will unify corporate governance practices and protect financial reporting is a prima facie evidence of the universal agreement on the efficacy of the IFRS in these respects. For example, in the USA, there is the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), which is an independent oversight body, answerable to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with wide

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powers to protect public investors from potentially misleading or fraudulent uses of accounting rules and all manner of accounting infractions. In the UK, Republic of Ireland, Nigeria, Mauritius, Malaysia, etc., there is the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), which is an independent regulatory body responsible for promoting high quality corporate governance and reporting to foster investment. The nexus between corporate governance and IFRS stems from the need to enhance the value of a company through ethical, transparent and accountable corporate practices. Further, it is expected, a fortiori, that IFRS implementation will curtail the ‘expectation gap’ problem associated with different countries having different financial reporting standards with the concomitant effect on corporate management and corporate reporting vis-à-vis stakeholders’ expectations. The primacy of this nexus is attributed to four related factors (a) the increasing incidence of corporate fraud and corporate collapse on a previously unimagined scale; (b) the dominance of the corporation in modern business, occasioned principally by privatization and consolidations; (c) the collapse of socialism and centralized planning; and (d) opportunistic proclivity of corporate executives and boards. Besides, since fiat cannot easily be invoked where equity issues are at stake, the IFRS constructively serves as norms of internal justice, which emphasize accountability, support quasi moral involvement, check attempts at vigorously implementing the compliance machinery, and establish a reasonable doubt by asserting joint managerial responsibility. Although internal auditing serves to check egregious distortions, the board is nevertheless severely limited in information impactedness respects. It is simply prohibitively costly or, perhaps for bounded rationality reasons, infeasible, for the board of directors to be apprised of everything that goes on at the operational level. The increasing global adoption of IFRS is an eloquent indication of the confidence reposed on its internal and external control mechanism and disclosure threshold to mitigate the agency costs, internal opportunism and internal distortions of subgoal pursuit – where by subgoal is implied a strategic, not instrumental, effort or behaviour to manipulate the (accounting) system to promote individual and/or collective interests of the affected managers (see, Herbert, 1995). The confounding of transparency and accountability in developing countries impairs incentives because of weak legal systems and capital markets which, in turn, increase risk and cost of capital and depress asset values. Consequently, it is plausible for firms to limit transaction costs in such scenarios (weak legal systems and inefficient capital markets) by adopting a uniform financial reporting framework. Further, the control potential of IFRS is rooted in the wealth gain achievable through more effective monitoring of managerial performance by firm owners and stakeholders. If the market for corporate control and managerial labour market perfectly aligned the interest of managers and shareholders, then control potential would play no role in explaining corporate governance structure but, in the presence of costs of maintaining corporate control, the market imperfectly disciplines corporate managers who work contrary to the wishes of shareholders (Demsetz and Lehn, 1985). A uniform global financial framework is an increasingly influential form of corporate governance. The instrumentality of IFRS can discipline entrenched managers towards corporate productivity and efficiency, social welfare, value maximization, and accountability of corporate executives. The IFRS and the FRC’s enhanced regulatory and oversight powers will prospectively attenuate the frictions associated with egregious management behaviour and boost management credibility. For investors and lenders, the global financial reporting framework engenders better, improved and internationally comparable disclosure. This assures more relevant information to make sound investment decisions, risk assessment, lower cost of capital, and improve access to new capital and higher share values. 3.2. Challenges to IFRS Implementation The implementation of IFRS provokes a plethora of development issues and challenges. The leading candidates can be compactly summarized under three categories, namely: bounded rationality challenges, process challenges, and technical challenges.

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Bounded rationality Challenges: These are mainly deposited in the firm’s staff and involve their capacity to take on idiosyncratic skills and competencies required by IFRS. Technical capacity is a basic requirement for effective implementation of IFRS. “Countries that implement IFRS face a variety of capacity-related issues, depending on the approach they take. One major challenge encountered in the implementation process is the shortage of skilled accountants and auditors who are technically competent in implementing IFRS and ISAs” (United Nations, 2008). Where the firm’s human resources are limited in knowledge, skill, foresight and time, these will have implications for the achievement of human purpose and for economic organization of IFRS. In this regard, inadequate internal staff, poor resource deployment, change management issues, inadequate training, inadequate top management and board support, and poor incentive structure, are bounded rationality challenges inherent in human behaviour. Juxtapose these with uncertainty and complexity of business, bounds on rationality become further stretched. Process challenges are usually resident in the nature of enterprise and business performance. IFRS implementation in an environment of poor business performance is bound to be prolonged or fail totally. Technical challenges are related to both bounded rationality and process management. Transactional disabilities are implicit in the presence of scarce resources, poor skills functionality and poor application management. Process and technical impediments also resonate with the intricacies of IFRS technical accounting standards, the overlap of local and international regulatory considerations, the required conversion across business units and countries, and the level of information technology (IT) infrastructure required in the organization and the dearth of IT professionals with IFRS technical knowledge who can interpret and translate IFRS into IT changes. An organization that lacks men of resource will invariably lack the ability to deal resourcefully with unusual problems. A proper implementation plan should begin with an evaluation of the firm’s internal organizational strengths, skills and weaknesses in terms of availability and capacity of human resources. IFRS implementation introduces complexity into the accounting environment and the firm may be required to progressively improve its internal controls as a first step. A seamless transition to IFRS platform must overcome these challenges. Both government and many Nigerian companies underestimate the level of technical expertise required to transit to IFRS. IFRS requires idiosyncratic skills, and these are in short supply. Because it demands basic understanding of accounting, a successful implementation requires a lot of training and re-orientation for all professional accountants in Nigeria. IFRS is complex and requires huge resources in both finance and time respects for intensive skills training and acquisition, and to recalibrate organizational systems and processes. Given the country’s acute infrastructure deficits, the transition challenge is certainly beyond what many SPEs bargained for, which explains why most of them are finding implementation very daunting and arduous. 3.3. IFRS Education and Training: How Prepared Was Nigeria? The IFRS represent a unified global commitment to developing a single set of high quality, global accounting standards whose aim is to provide transparent and comparable information that is in the public interest through general purpose financial statements (Herbert, 2010). This commitment has led to a growing acceptance of IFRS as a basis for financial reporting across the world. The momentum represents a fundamental change for both national and global accounting systems and professions. Aspects of national systems that are critical to a successful transition to IFRS include the tertiary educational system and the accounting profession. Important components of the former (that is, the tertiary education system) for IFRS implementation are accounting lecturers and students who, in various contexts, complement the accounting profession in the development of accounting practice. Thus, the IFRS have been accepted around the world, including Nigeria, as a common accounting and financial language (ibid). Indeed, Nigeria had in 2010 signaled its willingness to adopt the IFRS in 2012. This date line was anchored on the understanding of a progression along the milestones and timelines enunciated in the Country Roadmap. However, as the FRC, formerly Nigerian Accounting Standards Board (NASB), duly

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acknowledged, the transition framework for effective and meaningful adoption may be derailed if any of the milestones and timelines is ignored. IFRS adoption reflects a fundamental shift in national accounting systems and professions. Critical constituents of a national system for a successful transition to IFRS include the tertiary educational system and the accounting profession. On this premise, the joining of anecdotal evidence with the paucity of published research about the dimensions of IFRS adoption in Nigeria tends to suggest that not much is known about this new financial language in the Nigerian academic environment and even in the world of work. Two key questions are critical in this conclusion. (a) How prepared are the companies, accounting educators and professionals for IFRS adoption? (b) To what extent is the gap in knowledge bridged by academics through IFRS curriculum development and professional development? To be sure, the transition to IFRS and its implications for preparers and users of financial statements, regulators, professionals, academics, and other stakeholders are yet to be adequately assessed empirically in Nigeria. As the FRC acknowledged in its roadmap, the implementation of IFRS requires considerable preparation both at the country and entity levels to ensure coherence and provide clarity on the authority that IFRS will have in relation to other existing national laws (NASB, 2010). Effective implementation of IFRS demands considerable and adequate technical capacity among preparers, users, auditors, regulatory bodies, investors and even the public. The state of preparedness of knowledge in any field of learning can be gauged through the degree of its familiarity at both the academic and professional levels. Thus, if a given knowledge base is sustained through programmes of academic and professional study, a presumption of systematic effort towards understanding the content and practice of the phenomenon can reasonably be made. Put differently, a comparative analysis of a country’s academics and practitioners views on the subject matter provides an insight into the state of its readiness for IFRS adoption. 4. EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF STATE OF IFRS READINESS IN NIGERIA While there has been considerable research on the effects of IFRS adoption, there is relatively little or no systematic study on the antecedents of IFRS adoption in Nigeria. In other words, what informed what may be characterised as Nigerian Government’s ‘hurried’ adoption of IFRS from January 2012, when even the most advanced or sophisticated economy, the U.S. is still studying the implications for its economy? Put differently, why did the Federal Government of Nigeria adopt IFRS without ex ante assessment of the country’s state of readiness and/or the economic consequences thereof? In two related studies, Herbert and Tsegba (2013) and Herbert et al. (2013) sought to assess the extent to which major Nigerian stakeholders, such as accounting academics and professionals, are familiar with and ready for IFRS as well as their perception of the benefits and challenges of adoption. These studies also touched on IFRS education and the role of training and information technology. Because each country has its own set of rules or standards guiding the preparation of financial statements – although there are commonalities among groups of countries, as with former British colonies that tended to adopt, mutatis mutandis, the Anglo-Saxon accounting standards – to a large extent, it has been difficult to synchronize these. As Herbert et al. (2013) posit, the joint views of academics and practitioners are helpful in reviewing the accounting curriculum to incorporate important emergent changes of the kinds occasioned by the IFRS. Global synthesis of international accounting and financial reporting standards cannot do justice to the peculiar characteristics and circumstances of the various countries covered. Earlier, Herbert and Wallace (1996) had noted that only a survey of specific country studies could provide an in-depth understanding of the accounting situation. Such may be pursued through a survey and collection of data on the perception of academics and practitioners regarding familiarity, readiness, challenges or roadblocks, and proper implementation plans of IFRS adoption. Such a survey is needed because (a) the concerns of critical stakeholders (academics and practitioners) on the relevance of extant IFRS research, and (b) their views on IFRS research agenda might help to suggest new emphasis and new directions for seamless country adoption.

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5. METHODOLOGY, DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS The sample used in this study is a 105-respondent random subsample of the sample in the original Herbert et al.’s (2013) study. The latter sought to elicit the respondents’ views on a variety of IFRS adoption issues in Nigeria. The accounting lecturers were randomly selected from federal, state and private universities located in the South-East and South-South zones of Nigeria. Also, the respondent practitioners were randomly selected from accountancy/auditing firms, banks, finance and insurance firms in the same geopolitical zones of the country. The respondents’ views were sought on three major issues: (1) the extent of their familiarity with, and sources of awareness of, IFRS; (2) Nigeria’s readiness to embrace IFRS, and (3) the obstacles towards IFRS implementation. The present study follows a similar one conducted in the U.S.A by Rezaee, Smith and Szendi (2010) and Moqbel and Bakay (2010). Replication research is important to the future of world economy because different national contexts (developed and developing countries alike) of IFRS, or any phenomenon of global interest, help to define the status of education and practice of accounting and financial reporting, or the focus of interest. They help to identify global IFRS topics of interest and support globalization of IFRS curricula and practice. They also help to build a literature on comparative national issues on IFRS, which are presently scanty although there is a growing literature on international financial reporting. The chi-square test of independence was used to test for differences in responses involving categorical dependent variables for the between subject analysis. The KruskalWallis (K-W) test was used to examine differences in responses in the ranked data. The K-W test was also performed to investigate demographic differences in the responses. Table 1 provides the respondents’ demographic profile. The respondents are somewhat matched with respect to gender. Most of them are young, with over five years’ experience in teaching accounting in the university and are qualified to express opinions - being in possession of either B.Sc. or in conjunction with professional accounting qualification (ANAN or ICAN). Over 15% of them have higher degrees in Accounting or Accounting related fields. Table 1. Demographic Profile of Study Sample Questionnaire administration

Sent

Returned

Percent

Industry Classification Academics (Federal, State & Private Universities) Practitioners (Accountancy & auditing firms, banking & finance, etc. Total

60 140 200

33 70 103

55 50 51.5

Gender Male Female Total

Frequency 55 48 103

Percent 53.4 46.6 100.0

Age 21-30 31-40 40+ Total

53 22 28 103

51.4 21.4 27.2 100.0

Work Experience 1-4 years 5-10 years Over 10 years Total

19 32 52 103

18.4 31.1 50.5 100.0

Education & Qualification Bachelor’s Degree Master’s PhD Bachelor’s + Professional Qualification Total

42 9 7 45 103

40.8 8.7 6.8 43.7 100.0

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Table 2 reports the extent to which the sampled Nigerian academics and practitioners displayed their familiarity with IFRS. As might be expected, accounting academics (with a mean of 4.28) are more familiar with IFRS than practitioners (mean of 4.00) on the 5-point Likert scale. However, the K-W test of the null hypothesis of no significant difference between Nigerian academics versus practitioners regarding the extent of IFRS familiarity (that is, their mean responses are the same) is rejected. The high significance level indicates that there is certainly a true difference in the extent of familiarity with IFRS by academics and practitioners in the population from which the sample was drawn. Table 2. Extent of Familiarity with IFRS by Nigerian Academics and Practitioners Academics Practitioners

Anchor scales range from: = (1=- Not familiar to 5 = Very familiar)

Mean Response 4.2778

Std Dev. .4609

Mean Response 4.000

Std Dev. .9877

K-W Chi-Sq. .000

A further test was carried out along the line of Moqbel and Bakay (2010). Here, the levels of IFRS familiarity by academics were collapsed and dichotomized into: Familiar and Unfamiliar. The reason for this dichotomy is to consolidate and compare the levels of academics’ familiarity with practitioners, as was done in the above U.S. study. The chisquare test of no significant difference between academics and practitioners was also rejected. This finding corroborates the U.S. study where the respondents were also found to be largely unfamiliar with IFRS. Table 3 is designed to explore the familiarity level more deeply in terms of source of familiarity. Both the academics and practitioners have heard of IFRS, however, the differences in their responses were not statistically significant. Respondents who claimed familiarity with IFRS were asked about their source. Table 3 reveals that an overwhelming majority (77.1%) became aware of IFRS from professional lectures, workshops and seminars. The next source of IFRS awareness – a distant second - is the news media (16.9%), while other sources such as the internet were surprisingly negligible, given the growing ubiquity of internet as information and knowledge medium. Table 3. Source of Awareness Source/ News media Respondent Academics 8 Practitioners 6 Total 14 Percentage 16.9%

Lectures/Professional Development 29 35 64 77.1%

Internet/Others 4 1 5 6.0%

Total 41 42 83 100%

The IFRS awareness disparity between academics and practitioners reveals an underlying lacuna in the state of readiness by relevant Nigerian institutions and stakeholders. Table 4 reports that most of the respondents indicated that Nigeria was not ready for IFRS adoption. The results show that the respondents do not have different perspectives regarding the state of readiness of IFRS adoption in Nigeria. This finding represents the average view of most Nigerians regarding the country’s haste towards IFRS adoption. Table 4. Extent of Readiness for IFRS Adoption Academics

State of readiness of IFRS Adoption (1= not ready to 5 = very ready)

Mean Response 3.611

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Practitioners Std Dev. 1.290

Mean Response 3.643

Std Dev. 1.144

K-W Chi-Sq. .000

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We seek the perspectives of academics and practitioners regarding a proper plan to transition to IFRS. Precisely, do critical Nigerian stakeholders have different perspectives about Government’s transition plan for public sector entities? Table 5 reports that a proper plan to transition Nigerian SPEs to IFRS must begin with proper educational alignment to create nationwide systemic awareness through systematic introduction of IFRS in accounting curriculum in Nigerian educational system. About 42 percent of the respondents feel this should have been the number one priority plan. IFRS education and training for management is next on the respondents’ transition agenda. This is mainly achieved through workshops, seminars, conferences or other structured training programmes. The differences in responses between accounting academics and practitioners were tested and found not to be statistically significant, thus leading to acceptance of the null hypothesis. Table 5: Respondents’ Perspectives on Plan to Transition Nigerian Companies A Proper Plan to Transition Nigerian Companies Requires

Lecturers Practitioners

IFRS Training for Investors 10 (71.4%) 4 (28.6) 14 (13.6%)

IFRS Training for Auditors 13 (72.2%) 5 (27.8%) 18 (17.5%)

IFRS Training for Management 15 (51.7%) 14 (48.3%) 29 (28.1%)

IFRS Course in Accounting Curriculum 23 (54.8%) 19 (45.2%) 42 (40.8%)

Total 61(59.2%) 42(40.8%) 103 (100%)

5.2. Impediments to IFRS Adoption The four major obstacles to IFRS adoption in Nigeria are in this order: (i) Lack of education, understanding and experience by preparers of financial reports; (ii) Lack of coverage of IFRS in financial accounting/auditing textbooks; (iii) Initial cost of adoption; and (iv) Transition plan and issues pertaining to IFRS. Over all, there is a consensus among academics and practitioners on the factors that severely impede IFRS adoption, even though the null hypothesis of no significant differences in their assessment is rejected for all the factors. Table 6. Comparative Assessment of Severity of Impediments to Adoption: Academics vs. Practitioners Severity of perceived obstacles to IFRS convergence Academics Practitioners (1=Not Severe; 5=Very Severe) Severe Not Severe Not Avg K-W % Severe % Severe Rank Chi-Sq. (Rank) % (Rank) % Initial cost of convergence 89.5 10.5 71.8 28.2 5 .000 (2) (6) Required changes in auditing standard 74.5 25.5 73.9 26.1 6 .000 (7) (5) Perceived uncertainties about IFRS. 75.0 25.0 69.5 30.5 7 .000 (6) (7) Lack of sufficient involvement of global regulators 86.9 13.1 76.1 23.9 4 .000 in the IASB standard setting process (4) (4) Transition plan and issues pertaining to IFRS. Lack of education, understanding & experience by preparers of financial reports with the use of IFRS Lack of coverage of IFRS in financial accounting Textbooks

83.0 (5) 94.8 (1) 88.2 (3)

17.0 5.2 11.8

84.1 (2) 84.8 (1) 82.6 (3)

15.9

3

.000

15.2

1

.000

17.4

2

.000

Our findings are largely consistent with those of Moqbel and Bakay (2010). The evidence from these studies suggest the need for a reassessment of accounting education and training curricula in order to enhance the teaching and learning of IFRS. In general, SSA countries and companies can appropriate the learning experience of other countries such as USA, South Africa and the European Union. An ideal preparatory ground would have been for their tertiary educational institutions and professional accountancy bodies to

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embed IFRS into their curricula as a prelude to IFRS adoption. This is the path being treadled by the U.S., although the U.S. argument for this trajectory has more to do with national pride and politics than technical considerations. The point being canvassed here is that a more systematic preparation is warranted when both the tenets of IFRS are not wellunderstood and the country’s educational system and accounting professionals are illequipped. Table 7: Comparative Assessment of Attitudes towards IFRS Adoption: Academics Vs. Practitioners

Academics Level of Agreement with the following statements Mean Std (1= Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree Dev.

Practitioners Mean Std K-W Dev. Chi-Sq.

I have interest in IFRS 4.5000 I know the IFRS well 3.8889 Many companies are preparing well to adopt the IFRS 3.6667 IFRS adoption will affect financial performance 4.2222 IFRS adoption will affect operating performance 4.2778 IFRS will affect stakeholders such as investors or shareholders 4.1111 IFRS must be offered as a core curriculum in tertiary education4.3333 Will you be willing to take a course in IFRS if one is offered 3.9444 in the university?

4.1667 3.8810 3.5714 3.8810 3.9048 4.1190 4.0714 4.0000

.5145 .7584 .9075 .7321 .7519 .7584 .7670 .9376

.5809 .7392 .8595 .8025 .7905 .7715 .9472 .8264

.000 .973 003 .000 .000 .000 .002 .048

5.3. Attitudes towards IFRS Adoption We then seek to gain further insight into the attitudes of respondents towards IFRS adoption with a view to validating our earlier findings. Table 7 indicates a high level of unanimity among academics and practitioners on the following issues: (1) interest in IFRS; (2) offering of IFRS as a core curriculum in tertiary education; and (3) the way IFRS will affect investors or shareholders. The respondents are also united in their ambivalence towards the level of IFRS preparation. Overall, the results provide affirmative conclusions concerning the respondents’ attitudes towards IFRS adoption. 6. CONCLUSION There is a growing acceptance of IFRS as a basis for financial reporting across the world. This momentum represents a fundamental change for both national and global accounting systems and professions. Since establishment, the number of countries that require or allow the use of IFRS for the preparation of financial statements by publicly held companies has continued to increase. A systematic dialogue with critical stakeholders should have prefaced Nigeria’s adoption of IFRS in order to establish an understanding of the trajectories of convergence into one global financial reporting language. Comparability of financial reporting which IFRSs offer is the underlying rationale for adoption of or convergence towards a single set of standards. The expectation that the efficiency and competitiveness of global financial markets is facilitated by IFRS adoption must be circumscribed, strengthened and validated by systematic empirical investigation in different countries and jurisdictions. Despite the 2012 IFRS adoption, there is overwhelming evidence that Nigeria was never prepared even to date. Anecdotal evidence suggests that by 2014, not all the financial regulatory agencies, most banks, insurance companies and institutions of higher learning have the operational framework to support IFRS implementation, two years after the country adopted the standards. That is the clearest evidence of the country’s state of unpreparedness for IFRS adoption. This parlous situation underscores the importance of ex ante assessment of major policies before implementation. A more worrisome development is the haste with which Nigeria adopted IFRS without consultation with key stakeholders, such as tertiary institutions, professional bodies and the business community. Closely related is the assessment of the attitudes of academics and practitioners towards the subject matter. The question remains whether the 2012 adoption date was feasible due to the implementation challenges and the level of unpreparedness prior to and till date.

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6.1. Recommendation and Policy Implications Even though Nigeria has adopted IFRS, empirical studies have thrown up reservations and roadblocks to its implementation. An important policy implication is the urgency of accounting curriculum review in the tertiary education system to incorporate IFRS and IPSAS and their implementation dimensions. Also, governments at all levels, regulatory agencies, accountancy bodies, private and public companies and institutions, and accountancy firms all need to fast-track IFRS education in order to boost the acquisition of IFRS knowledge and competences. REFERENCES Abdullah, S. N. (2006). Board Composition, Audit Committee and Timeliness of Corporate Financial Reports in Malaysia. Corporate Ownership and Control, 4(2): 33-45. Ball, R. (2001), “Infrastructure requirements for an economically efficient system of public financial reporting and disclosure”, Brookings-Wharton Papers on Financial Services: 127–169. Barth, M. E., Landsman, W.R. & Lang, M.H. (2008). International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality, Journal of Accounting Research 46: 467-728. Bhasin, M. L. (2013). Corporate Governance and Forensic Accountants’ Role: Global Regulatory Action Scenario, International Journal of Accounting Research, Vol. 1(1): 1-19. Bova, F., and Pereira, R. (2012). The determinants and consequences of heterogeneous IFRS compliance levels following mandatory IFRS adoption: Evidence from a developing country. Journal of International Accounting Research, 11(1), 83–111. Daske, H., Hail, L., Leuz C. and Verdi, R. (2008). Mandatory IFRS Reporting Around the World: Early Evidence on the Economic Consequences, Journal of Accounting Research 46, 1085 – 1142. Deakin, S. and Konzelmann, S. J. (2004). Learning from Enron. Corporate Governance, 12(2): 134-142. Demsetz, H. & Lehn, K. (1985). The Structure of Corporate Ownership: Causes and Consequences. Journal of Political Economy, 93:1155-1177. Doidge, C., G. A. Karolyi, and R. M. Stulz. (2004). Why are foreign firms listed in the U.S. worth more?, Journal of Financial Economics 71: 205–238. Herbert, W. E. (1995), Alternative Strategies to Foreign Investment, (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI). Herbert, W. E. (2010). Adoption of IFRS in Nigeria: Assessing the Level of Preparedness. A Paper presented at FSS2020 Retreat on IFRS, CBN Head Office, Abuja, 13 December. Herbert, W. E. Wallace, R. S. O. (1996). A Corporate View of Research Needs in Corporate Finance. Accounting and Business Research, 26(2), 107 – 124. Herbert, W. E. and Tsegba, I. N. (2011). Corporate Governance and Firm Performance through Ownership Structure of Nigerian Listed Companies. Journal of Business and Financial Studies, 3(1), 1-27. Herbert, W. E. and Tsegba, I. N. (2013), Economic Consequences of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): Evidence from a Developing Country. Research Journal of Finance and Accounting, 4(6): 121-135. Herbert, W. E., Tsegba, I. N., Ohanele, A. C., and Anyahara, I. O. (2013). Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): Insights from Nigerian Academics and Practitioners. Research Journal of Finance and Accounting, 4(6), 121-135. International Federation of Accountants (2008). Global Survey Recognizes Profession’s Role in Contributing to Economic Growth and Highlights Need for More Accounting Talent. Available at http://www.ifac.org/globalsurvey. John, K. and Senbet, L. W. (1998). Corporate Governance and Board Effectiveness. Journal of Banking and Finance, 22:371-403. Judge, W., Li, S. and Pinsker, R. (2010). National Adoption of International Accounting Standards: An Institutional Perspective. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 18(3), 161–174. Khor, M. (2005), Globalization and the South: Some Critical Issues, (Malaysia: Third World Network).

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Kyereboah-Coleman, A. and Biekpe, N. (2006). The Relationship between Board Size, Board Composition, CEO Duality and Firm Performance: Experience from Ghana. Corporate Ownership and Control, 4(2): 114 – 122. Li, S. (2010). Does mandatory adoption of international financial reporting standards in the European Union reduce the cost of equity capital?. The Accounting Review, 85 (2): 607-636. Lin, S. (2012). The Determinants and Consequences of Heterogeneous IFRS Compliance Levels following Mandatory IFRS Adoption: Evidence from a Developing Country. Journal of International Accounting Research 11 (1): 113-118. Madawaki, A. (2012). Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards in Developing Countries: The Case of Nigeria. International Journal of Business and Management, 7(3), 152-61. Moqbel, M. and Bakay, A. (2010). Are US Academics and Professionals Ready for IFRS?. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1662162or doi:10.2139/ssrn.1662162 Nigerian Accounting Standards Board (2010). Report of the Committee on Road Map to the Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards in Nigeria. (Lagos: FGN). Nguyen, H. and Faff, R. (2006). Impact of Board Size and Board Diversity on Firm Value: Australian Evidence. Corporate Ownership and Control, 4(2): 24 – 32. Nobes, C. and Parker, R. (2008), Comparative International Accounting, Prentice Hall. Obazee, J. O. (2014). Overview of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria Act No. 6, 2011 and Its Implication for National Universities Commission and Nigerian Universities. A paper presented at the National Implementation Workshop on Adoption of IFRS & IPSAS in Nigerian Universities held at the National Universities Commission (NUC) Secretariat, Maitama, Abuja, 12-17 May, 2014. Rappaport, A. (1977). Economic Impact of Accounting Standards – Implications for the FASB. The Journal of Accountancy, May: 89-98. Rezaee, Z., Smith, M., and Szendi, Z. (2010). Convergence in Accounting Standards: Insights from Academicians and Practitioners. Advances in Accounting, 26 (1): 142154. Watts, R. L. (1977). Corporate Financial Statements, a Product of the Market and Political Processes. Australian Journal of Management: 53-75. Watts, R. L. And Zimmerman, J. (1986). Positive Accounting Theory. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall).

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