Effects of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) on Value Relevance of Accounting Information

Abstract

The broad objective of this research was to empirically examine the effect of IFRS on value relevance of accounting information. This study employs a longitudinal panel research design. The population of this study covers all quoted banks listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. As at the study period, there were only 15 quoted banks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and this also forms the sample for the study. Secondary data was been used for this study. The data was retrieved from corporate annual reports of the sampled banks for 2010-2017 financial years. The researcher utilizes only corporate annual reports because they are readily available, accessible and also provides a greater potential for comparability of results. More so, they are produced annually and kept in public sphere. The Ordinary least square regression (OLS) was used for the data analysis. The study findings revealed that while IFRS adoption has a statistically significant influence on Earnings per share and Dividend per share value relevance; it has no statistically significant influence on Book value per share value relevance. The study recommends that investors and indeed users of accounting information should still be confident in relying on accounting information prepared by corporate entities in making investment decisions. The study recommends that there is need for companies to comply fully with all IFRS standards in the preparation of financial reports since IFRS adoption was found to have positive effects on value relevance.