Nigera has signed an agreement to
begin the process of adopting
IFRS.
Now Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has
signed the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria Act 2011
into law, the countries road map to staged adoption of IFRS will
start 1 January 2012.
As the result of the new legislation a
Financial Reporting Council will be created to issue and regulate
accounting, actuarial, valuation and auditing standards.
Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment
Honourable Minister Olusegun Aganda said, “this law shall put
Nigeria on the path to adopting the best organised approach to
regulation of financial reporting as it is currently practiced in
the UK, Australia, Malaysia and the US”.
According to Aganda the new legislation is
meant not only to create the enabling environment for the
implementation of the IFRS and to guarantee credible financial
reporting regime in both public and private sector entities in
Nigeria but also to produce wealth creation and economic
transformation.
Aganda also said other benefits include job
creation, an increase in foreign direct investment and assurance of
easier access to external capital, an enhancement of local and
foreign investors’ confidence in the quality assurance systems of
financial reporting and, reassurance that more meaningful and
decision enhancing information will now be arrived at from
financial statements issued in Nigeria.
