Effects of Accounting Bases on Financial Reporting in Nigeria: The Case of Kaduna State

Abstract

Local Government financial reporting across the country has been largely driven by cash accounting basis and this has attracted a lot of criticism based on the quality of informational content of such report. Therefore, this study is carried out to assess the Local Government accounting basis on the financial reporting in Nigeria with particular emphasis on all the Local Government in Kaduna State. The study utilized descriptive research design using the entire 23 Local Governments in Kaduna State using their annual reports and accounts as a source of information. Also, the study utilized stata 12 to analyzed the formulated multiple regression model. The descriptive result reveals that there is wide variation in the financial reporting quality among the Local Governments under investigation across the state. This was supported by the large mean value of the size of the local government with a mean value of 16.824 suggesting that the Local Governments under investigation are of different sizes and probably their reporting quality will certainly differ. The regression summary reveals that the cumulative explanatory variables are statistically significant in explaining the effects of Local Government accounting basis on financial reporting. Similarly, the entire individual variable shows that they were all statistically significant having p-val < 0.05. This outcome suggests that the study failed to accept the null hypothesis. Therefore, the study recommends that the councils should ensure consistence in financial reporting in order to guarantee reliable and verifiable financial information as contained in the annual reports and accounts. Keywords: