Financial Reporting In Nigerian Emerging Market

Abstract

The need for the internationally comparable financial statements has never been greater. The globalization of the world economy has led many investors to look to other markets for better opportunities. From their perspective, the globalization of financial markets has been synonymous with obtaining rapid access to portfolio investment opportunities anywhere in the world, including those, once considered as remote. In 1990s remote emerging markets captured the interest of investors with their promise of higher returns. Last decade Nigerian marker became one of them. Nigeria is the world's sixth largest oil producer, and with large untapped offshore oil deposits, it is expecting to increase its export capacity by 50% or more within next few years (The International Herald Tribune, January 8, 2004). According to the U.S. National Intelligence Council forecast, by 2005 Africa's share of oil import will increase from 15% up to 25%, which is very close to current proportion coming from Middle East. The degree of foreign investment in the country is relatively small so far considering the abundant natural resources. However, the legislation passed by the government is helping to improve this situation. Economic liberalization, which is a government priority, is under its way. Major corporations from the U.S. (mostly oil) have already established their interests there. Under such circumstances the research on peculiarities of Nigerian financial statements become very timely. Thus, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First is evaluate the state if Nigerian financial reporting by comparing it to the U.S. And, second is to examine how entrepreneurs and investors use Nigerian financial statements to make informed judgments by investigating the oil, retail, and manufacturing industries. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: next chapter examines the infrastructure of the emerging market in Nigeria. Chapter 2 examines main characteristics of financial reporting, chapter 3 provides the analysis of financial statements there, chapter 4 shows the effects of the peculiarities of financial rules on the decision-making, and chapter 5 contains the conclusions.