Thursday 27 November 2014

Nigeria: Aganga Lists Benefits of Compliance With IFRS

Olusegun Aganga
THE Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, has identified compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as a veritable tool in the quest to attract much needed investments and guarantee investors' confidence.
Delivering the keynote address at a training the trainer workshop on IFRS for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) organised by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) in Lagos, on Tuesday, Aganga identified some of the benefits of adoption of the global set of accounting standards to include compilation of meaningful data on the performance of various reporting entities at both public and private levels in Nigeria.
This, he said, would thereby engender encouragement of comparability and reliability of financial reporting in the country; assurance of useful and meaningful decision on investment portfolio in Nigeria; and attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Other benefits, according to Aganga, are assurance of easier access to external capital for local and domestic companies, reduction of the cost of doing business across borders by eliminating the need for supplementary information from Nigerian companies, facilitation of consolidation of financial information of the same company in different countries, and easier regulation of financial information of reporting entities in Nigeria.

According to the roadmap, the SMEs are expected to prepare their financial statement for the year ending December 31, 2014 using IFRS for SMEs.
In her own contribution, the Chairman of the FRC, Hajia Maryam Ladi Ibrahim, said the overriding goal of the Council is the protection of investors and other stakeholders' interest.
"My board strives to ensure that investors get reliable and accurate financial information that will enable them make informed judgment and investment decisions through the development, publication and enforcement of financial reporting standards and corporate governance code that are used by preparers and users of financial statements", she declared.
She also predicated the workshop which was jointly organised by the FRC with Accounting Bodies in West Africa (ABWA) and the IFRS Foundation, London, to train the trainers on the provisions of "IFRS for SMEs on the requirement of the FRC Act.
Restating the commitment of the FRC to boosting investors' confidence, she said "the recent global economic meltdown, with its attendant devastating effects on the capital market and capital accumulation processes around the world, have equally necessitated that concerted efforts be made by relevant national stakeholders in order to continually sustain the confidence of investors in their economy".
Source: The Guardian

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