For correspondence:-
Received: May 25, 2020 Accepted: June 19, 2020 Published: 25 June 2020
Citation: IFRS Adoption, Corporate Governance and Timeliness of Financial Reports among Nigerian Listed Firms. Account Tax Rev 2005; 4(2):33-56 doi:
© 2005 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Abstract
This study explores the nexus between corporate governance and the timeliness of financial reports upon the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Timeliness of financial reports is a prominent attribute of quality of accounting information and has been identified as important for an efficient capital market operation.IFRS possesses inherent benefits such as issuance of high-quality financial reports, global capital market integration among others while corporate governance provides support for corporate entities to attain their objectives with proper control and effective management of the welfare of its shareholders and stakeholders. The study employed a quantitative research design, specifically with the use of the ex-post-facto survey. Secondary data employed for the study were sourced from the audited published annual financial reports of the sampled listed firms for the period 2012 to 2017. The population comprised all listed firms at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) which stood at 176 As of July 2019. A sample size of 70 was however obtained across all sectors of the NSE leading to a pre-IFRS period of 2006 - 2011 and post-IFRS period of 2012 - 2017.This study established that adoption of IFRS had demonstrated a reduction in audit report lag of firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) which implies that IFRS-based financial reports are more timely than those issued under the Nigerian GAAP. The study recommends that the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria as well as the NSE regulatory body, should make an effort at ensuring more timeliness of financial reports issued by listed firms in Nigeria. Furthermore, there may be need to increase the members of the Board since its interaction with IFRS suggests a positive relationship with the audit report lag.
Fulltext in PDF