Ethics, Corporate Governance and Financial Reporting in the Nigerian Banking Industry: Global Role of International Financial Reporting Standards

Abstract

Nigerian banking sector has witnessed financial distress which has led to the liquidation of some financial institutions from pre-independence to date. It was discovered that non-compliance with relevant ethical codes and poor corporate governance affected the preparation of quality and faithful financial reports. The study therefore purposed to evaluate ethics and corporate governance in financial reporting and looked at the role of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in the harmonized global reporting system. The study adopted survey research design with the use of structured questionnaire in obtaining opinion from the operators and regulators. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data obtained from the field with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). In hypothesis one, the p-value of 0.562 is greater than the level of significance 0.05 thereby accepting the null hypothesis, showing that ethical irregularities and poor corporate governance have been the major factors affecting quality financial reports in Nigeria. In hypothesis two, the p-value of 0.249 is greater than level of significance 0.05 accepting the null hypothesis indicating that the supervisory level of the Nigerian regulatory authorities was weak to discover and rectify the problems of ethics and corporate governance. The p-value 0.118 for hypothesis three is higher than the level of significance 0.05 which made us to accept the null hypothesis indicating that Nigeria banking industry post-consolidation is full of ethical challenges and irregularities in corporate governance. Poor ethical and corporate governance are still major challenges in Nigeria banking industry. We recommend among others that Nigeria regulatory authorities should reorganize their monitoring and auditing systems to ensure ethical codes and corporate governance codes compliance are enforced with the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards for the production of quality financial reports to the global economy.