An Assessment of Compliance with Disclosure Requirements of IAS 41 (Agriculture) By Listed Agricultural Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the extent of compliance with disclosure requirements of IAS 41 by agricultural companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the period of 5 years (2013-2017). The data for the study were obtained from the published financial statements of the sampled firms for the period under review from which a compliance index were constructed, The tools for analysis used were the qualitative grading using a compliance index and the one way ANOVA purposely to test the hypotheses proposed. The study observed that three out of the four Companies achieved more than 70% with overall mean scores of 76.02%. This shows that majority of the agricultural firms in Nigeria strongly complied with the disclosure requirements of IAS 41. Based on the findings the study recommends among others that firms should strive at all times to comply with all regulatory and statutory requirement in the preparation and presentation of financial statements, giving the fact that it is a set of documents that prescribe the performance of the reporting entity. The Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria should publish annually the compliance status of all listed firms in Nigeria; so that the compliance status of every firm will become known to all interested users of financial statements; and also the Council should urge external auditors of firms to ensure that their clients are complying with the requirements of IASs issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).