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WEAK ACCOUNTING, AUDITING, COST NIGERIAN BANKS N2TR, SAYS NDANUSA(Daily Trust (Nigeria) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Weaknesses in financial reporting, accounting and auditing have cost the country's banking sector between N1.5 to N2 trillion, during the crisis in 2008 the Chairman of the Nigeria Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Dr Suleyman Ndanusa has said. Speaking yesterday at the 19TH Annual Conference of Certified National Accountants by the Association of the National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) in Abuja, Ndanusa said the bankstook advantage of the weak accounting and auditing professions in the country and commited illegalities in their balance sheets during the period. He said the accounting profession in Nigeria has contributed greatly to the development of the economy but despite that the system is recognised as weak by many development institutions. "A number of banks are exploiting loopholes in the Nigerian accounting and auditing profession standard. .. These weaknesses in financial reporting in accounting and auditing contributed to the Nigerian banking crises in 2008, the magnitude of the crises cost the country between N1.5 to N2 trillion." "Since 2009 the Central bank of Nigeria, SEC and others have taken considerable steps to improve financial reporting and disclosure standard." Speaking at the event the president of the ANAN, Alhaji Sakiruddeen Tunji Labode said the mood of the country influenced the choice of the topic for the conference to discuss the governance and Accountability in the country in the last 100 years as a country. He said the issue of corruption has assumed an alarming dimension in the polity. Successive regimes in the country had in the past taken steps to curb this cankerworm with little or no success recorded. He urged that the country needed to increase efforts to fight this evil that has hindered our rapid economic development over the years. He warned that no right thinking investor will invest in an environment that is infested with corruption. |