Abstract:

Adopting the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) have been empirically found to improve the quality of accounting in countries, thereby increasing its usefulness to stakeholders. Drawing on extant literature in accounting and financial economics, this study sought to analyze the perception of accounting academics and practitioners on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)  adoption in Nigeria through an examination of its effects on creative accounting, actual accounting practice and the quality of financial reports . As an exploratory study, we drew a sample from the population of Nigerian academics and practitioners who are familiar with the phenomenon of interest. We examined three research questions on the perceptions of Nigerian academics and practitioners about IFRS adoption in Nigeria. The hypotheses were tested using frequency analysis, descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests. The economic consequences  of this study was evaluated through the impact of IFRS adoption on creative accounting, the quality of financial statement and the actual accounting practice in Nigeria. Closely related was the assessment of the perception of accounting academics and practitioners towards the subject matter. Our findings identified that: (i) there is difference between IFRS Financial Report and the actual accounting practice; (ii) IFRS adoption could not removed creative accounting in the system; (iii) IFRS adoption could not pave way for quality financial statements. The policy implication of the study’s findings is the urgent need to integrate IFRS into the accounting curriculum in Nigeria’s higher education system. It also calls for financial regulators and professional accountancy bodies to update their IFRS knowledge in order to maintain their professional competence.