Accounting

This study, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria:
Problems and Prospects, was undertaken to find out if the SME sub-sector in Nigeria has performed its critical role of driving the country’s industrial transformation and development as it has done in other developed countries; and if not, why, and also to identify remedial measures.
The study thus investigated the performance of the Small and Medium Enterprises sub-sector of the Nigerian economy, its problems and prospects and recommended measures to make the sub-sector virile and vibrant in order to play the crucial role it is expected to play.
A total of 50 SMEs were randomly selected from a cross section of a population of 1,500 SMEs spread among all the states of Nigeria and covering virtually all forms (Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Private and Public Limited Companies etc) of business. The responses of the participants were analyzed using
the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), which generated the frequency distributions, means, standard deviations, variances, pie chart, chi-square statistics,
etc of the responses.
The potentials and opportunities for SMEs in Nigeria to rebound and play the crucial role of engine of growth, development and industrialization, wealth creation, poverty reduction and employment creation are enormous. SMEs themselves need to change their attitude and habits relating to entrepreneurship
development, the governments (Local, State and Federal) need to involve the SMEs in policy formulation and execution for maximum effect. There is also the dire need to introduce entrepreneurial studies in our Universities in addition to emphasizing science, practical and technological studies at all levels of our
educational system.
Promoters of SMEs should thus ensure the availability or possession of managerial capacity and acumen before pursuing financial resources for the development of the respective enterprise.

This article provides an overview of the Transfer Pricing Regime in Nigeria. It gives a brief on the Income Tax (Transfer Pricing) Regulation No. 1, 2012 (TPR) and provides insights into questions like Transactions covered by the TPR, who should file a TP Return, who is a connected Person under the Nigerian Transfer Pricing Regulation, what constitutes a TP Return, effective date for compliance with the TP Regulation, where to submit TP returns and Implication of the TP Regime for businesses in Nigeria.

The article is meant for information purposes only. It does not in any way represent the position of the FIRS. We therefore make no representation as to the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this publication. We accept no liability for any loss that may arise from the use of the article.

This is a technical paper presented in an in-house technical session on 30th August, 2018.

The paper reviewed the changes introduced into the Nigerian Transfer Pricing landscape by the Gazetting of the Income Tax (Transfer Pricing) Regulations, 2018.

Opinion expressed herein by the author does not necessarily in anyway represent the Opinion of OECD, ATAF or the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). The write up is strictly for information purpose, I therefore make no representation as to the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this publication. I accept no liability for any loss that may arise from the use of this paper.

This is a technical paper presented in an in-house training session sometimes in 2015.

The presentation focused on exploring transfer pricing comparability factors recommended by the OECD TP Guidelines of 2010 and the Nigerian Income Tax (Transfer Pricing) Regulations of 2012

Opinion expressed herein by the author does not necessarily in anyway represent the Opinion of OECD, ATAF or the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). The write up is strictly for information purpose, I therefore make no representation as to the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this publication. I accept no liability for any loss that may arise from the use of this paper.

This is an in-house training paper that reviews the highlights of the Income Tax (Country by Country Reporting) Regulations, 2018 released by the Federal Inland Revenue Service.

Opinion expressed herein by the author does not necessarily in anyway represent the Opinion of OECD, ATAF or the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). The write up is strictly for information purpose, I therefore make no representation as to the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this publication. I accept no liability for any loss that may arise from the use of this paper.

The article aims to investigate the relationship between corporate governance and financial performance by using the data of 61 Oman companies traded at Muscat Securities Market for a four-year period from 2013 to 2016. The models are divided into two groups. The first group constructed a corporate governance score which is the dependent variable; the second group used the components of the score separately as dependent variables. As independent variable, two types of indicators are used; market-based and accounting To reflect the market performance, Tobin's q is used and as accounting-based indicators; return on asset profit margin, EBIT margin and net profit margin are used. The results showed that there are significant results between financial ratios and characteristics of corporate governance, but the overall relationship is weak in Oman context. Even though individual effects of some components of corporate governance are not significant, most models produced overall significant results.

In recent times, companies improve corporate communication with stakeholders by providing information on measures taking to protect the environment through environmental disclosures. The main objective of the study is to examine how corporate governance affects environmental disclosures listed Nigerian consumer goods firms. The ex-post facto research design was used and regression analysis was used to analyzed data derived from seventeen consumer goods firms. The findings revealed that the presence of environmental sustainability committee, number of meetings held by the board of directors, and firm size have significant positive impact on the quantity of environmental information disclosure (EDI). However, the size of the board of directors (BSIZE) and board independence have an insignificant inverse influence on the Environmental Disclosure Index (EDI) of the sampled companies. It was concluded that corporate governance affects environment disclosure. Based on the findings it was recommended that companies should constitute environmental committee on the board of directors to improve environmental disclosure.

The result of some activities leaves the ecosystem worse-off comparatively. Most of such activities come through the release of waste as well as the extraction of environmental resources. Although benefits may accrue to some immediately, the consequences outweigh the benefits and those who benefit from environmental degradation, usually ignore these problems. This study evaluates the current method of handling environmental degradation problems and examines the possibility of using taxation or social responsibility in tackling the problems. Perception and observation of stakeholders on the data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation, which were also tested using 'Z scores' statistics. The study reveals stakeholders' support for a change in the current system and imposition of tax for degradation problems. Consequently, the introduction of a special tax for organisations that cause damages to the ecosystem was recommended, among others.

The study is against the background that sustainable development practices may involve financial outflows and hence, may be an unattractive investment to managers. This study evaluated the impact of corporate compliance with accounting standards that are ...

The worst state of a business is that of failure that may result into liquidation. A business owner or other business stakeholders never pray to experience such state. It, however, occurs very frequently, most especially, to small businesses and sometimes to ...

The paper studied financial crimes in developing economies. Fraud and corruption has affected the lives of citizens of third world countries negatively, it is engraved in the systems, it is alarming and seriously devastating. The work specifically evaluates the extent of financial crimes in developing countries and compares the private and public sector with a view to determine the sector where the services of forensic accountants is more required. The results of our reviews are that fraud and corruption are fundamental problems of third world countries. Empirically, we found that investigative or forensic accountant has a role to play, generally, but more in the public sector. We then recommend the strengthening of forensic accounting institution and utilization of their services in public sector of developing nations economies.

Accounting firms have long been profit-orientated ventures, and their pursuit of profits has overshadowed the protection of the public interest they avow. This study investigates how corruption, as an institutionalised practice in Nigeria, has led two accounting firms to support and engage in corruption rather than guard against it in an oil subsidy corruption scandal in Nigeria. Adopting Dillard, Rigsby, and Goodman's (2004) model of institutional theory, the study argues that the institutionalisation of corruption, through its pervasiveness at the social, economic and political level, is a premise for its institutionalisation at the organisational field level (the oil subsidy scheme). Because the two accounting firms were both involved in the operation of the oil subsidy scheme, their practices were essentially forced to conform to the institutionalised practice-corrup tion-as opposed to the protection of the public interest.

Against the background of the importance of entrepreneurship to economic growth and development, this paper investigates the potential for achieving growth and development through entrepreneurship in underdeveloped economies. Specifically, the study investigated the availability of the environment for and the extent to which individuals and groups are able to recognize/create opportunity for providing goods and services; and the extent to which they are able to utilize such opportunities. The study collected primary data about the environment for entrepreneurship development in Nigeria, the extent and nature of opportunity creation and the prospect for carrying through innovations in the country. The data were collected from entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship professionals, using a well-structured questionnaire administered to a sample of 360 respondents, drawn from among the groups. The responses were analyzed using Kruskal Wallis and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests. The study revealed that Nigerians are innovative and enterprising. It also revealed that infrastructural facilities, funding, and entrepreneurship education are significant impediments. The study also showed that economic growth in Nigeria is influenced by entrepreneurship growth, therefore the slow growth in entrepreneurship development in Nigeria contributed to the underdeveloped status of the economy. The study recommended specific solutions to the different entrepreneurship problems identified in the study.

Having observed the rate at which dissimilarity occurs between market and book value, and management ignorance concerning the impact intellectual capital disclosure has on companies’ values spurred the interest to probe the association between the efficiency of value-added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) and market-based financial performance of listed Nigerian conglomerate companies. To accomplish the purpose of this study, secondary data were employed and extracted from annual audited reports of listed conglomerate companies in Nigeria from the period of 2010–2018. The data obtained were subjected to static panel data regression analysis technique. The random-effects model was adopted because the empirical result from Breusch and Pagan Lagrangian multiplier (BP-LM) and Hausman tests chose it over the fixed-effects model to produce better results. This study revealed that the value-added efficiency of capital employed (VACA), value-added efficiency of human capital (VAHU), and valu...

The study investigated the perception of Ghanaian stakeholders of the nature of CSR expected of foreign corporations, operating in Ghana. It is and empirical survey of opinion and perception, data for which was collected using questionnaires distributed to stakeholders. The operational data within the questionnaires were collected on a Likert scale of 5-1 (for strongly agree to strongly disagree) while relevant options were provided for demographic questions. Descriptive statistics like Mean, Median and Standard Deviation were computed for the operational data and Wilcoxon Sign Ranked Test was used to analyse the grouped data relevant to testing the hypotheses. The study found that stakeholders in Ghana are mindful of CSR of foreign corporations and they expect the corporations to be responsible and responsive. Also, the study showed that ethical, legal, environmental and corporate citizenship are highly favoured by Ghanaian stakeholders, while philanthropy is the least favoured. Sp...

Regulators have ensured the compulsory disclosure of audit fees in the financial statement to overcome abnormal fees and instill credibility in the financial report since audit pricing is contingent upon audit quality. However, discrepancies between audit fee dimensions are evidenced in the abnormal audit fees, resulting in accounting scandals. Hence, this study assessed the determinants of audit fees in quoted financial and non-financial firms by building a model underpinned by agency theory (Mitnick, 2006) and economic theory of product differentiation (Beath & Katsoulacos, 1991). Secondary data were utilized from companies’ annual reports between 2009 and 2018 using the purposive sampling technique. Furthermore, Breusch-Pagan Lagrangian multiplier (LM) test and the Hausman test indicated the consistency of the models. The static panel regression estimations showed that auditee size, risk, auditor size, reputation, engagement lag, and International Financial Reporting Standards (I...

Greater pricing presume on audit service has been put by the regulations of the auditing and accounting practices for the disclosure of audit fees, since audit fee is directly related to audit quality. However, the audit fees perceived by the client is often different from the amount charged by the auditors. Hence, this study investigated the impact of firm-specific characteristics on audit fees of quoted consumer goods firms in Nigeria using a purposive sampling technique. Secondary data were obtained from annual reports of the companies for the period from 2009-2016. The empirical result from Breusch-Pagan Lagrange Multiplier Test (BP-LM) produced a chi-square value of 13.94 with p-value of 0.0001 indicating that pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) will not be appropriate for the study. The Hausman test showed a chi-square of 23.55 with a p-value of 0.001 indicating that the null hypothesis is strongly rejected. Thus, the only estimate from the fixed effect model was interpreted t...

Having observed the rate at which dissimilarity occurs between market and book value, and management ignorance concerning the impact intellectual capital disclosure has on companies’ values spurred the interest to probe the association between the efficiency of value-added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) and market-based financial performance of listed Nigerian conglomerate companies. To accomplish the purpose of this study, secondary data were employed and extracted from annual audited reports of listed conglomerate companies in Nigeria from the period of 2010–2018. The data obtained were subjected to static panel data regression analysis technique. The random-effects model was adopted because the empirical result from Breusch and Pagan Lagrangian multiplier (BP-LM) and Hausman tests chose it over the fixed-effects model to produce better results. This study revealed that the value-added efficiency of capital employed (VACA), value-added efficiency of human capital (VAHU), and valu...