By Udeme Ekwere

The Nigerian Accounting Standards Board has reiterated its commitment to strengthening the public sector in Nigeria.

A statement from the body on Tuesday noted that there was the need to empower activities in addition to the private sector adopting the International Financial Reporting Standard.

It said, “The Federal Government last year concluded the segment of the private sector by approving a roadmap to the adoption of IFRS by the private sector.

“The focus is now on the provisions of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards to be used by the public sector in the state and Federal Government ministries, departments and agencies.”

The statement added that accordingly, the NASB, in furtherance of its commitment to strengthen financial reporting would be organising a two-day national workshop on Accounting and Financial Reporting in the Public Sector.

It added that the workshop with the theme, “Public Sector Financial Reporting and Adoption of IPSAS in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Options”, was expected to hold in four locations, and would seek to address means of improving financial sector reporting in Nigeria.

The Executive Secretary/Chief Executive, NASB, Mr. Jim Obazee, noted in the statement that NASB had been directed to commence a series of national workshops for the teaching of Cash/Accrual Based Accounting for Federal and State governments with a view to preparing government entities for a roadmap on a new financial reporting regime for the public sector.

He added that the major objective of the workshop was to provide an overview of important requirements for preparing financial statements and disclosures under cash/accrual based IPSAS, thus laying the foundation for the effective understanding and smooth implementation of the International Financial Reporting benchmarks.

“The workshop which will also afford participants the opportunity of understanding IPSAS, aims to improve the quality of general purpose financial reporting in the public sector accounting, leading to better informed assessment of the resource allocation decisions made by governments,” he said.

The NASB boss had said it was important for publicly quoted companies in Nigeria to adopt the IFRS by 2012, adding that the companies would be mandated to switch fully from the Nigerian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles to IFRS before 2012.

He noted that the transformation would be in different phases of programmes, noting that the board was working together with all the regulators.

“We are going to have the transformation in different stages. The first step is what we are going through now. We are setting up centers of excellence in Abuja; the regulators will be trained first, while the university lecturers will follow so that IFRS can be instituted in universities, he said,”

Source: Punch