Nigerian Commercial Banks and Creative Accounting Practices

Abstract

This study is an empirical investigation on the opinions of experienced staff of commercial banks on creative accounting practices in Nigerian commercial banks. To achieve the objective of this study research questions were raised, hypotheses formulated, and a review of related literature was made. The population of this study is the staff of commercial banks currently operating in Nigeria. Quota sampling technique was adopted for this study. The sample used consisted of the most experienced/senior 42 Managers/Assistant Managers and 42 Accountants/Assistant Accountants drawn from the twenty-one (21) consolidated commercial banks head office branches in Lagos state. The survey method of research design was adopted and the primary data were employed. The major instrument used for generating the primary data was the questionnaire, which was designed in five-response option of Likert-scale and administered on senior branch Managers/Assistant Managers and Accountants/Assistant Accountants of the commercial banks chosen for this study. The data generated for this study were analyzed through mean scores while the stated hypotheses were statistically tested with Z-test. Our findings revealed that, the major reason for creative accounting practices in Nigerian commercial banks is to boost the market value of shares; users of accounting information are adversely affected by this practice of creative accounting; Streamlining accounting principles and rules to reduce diversities of professional judgment in financial reporting will help minimize creative accounting practices. Therefore we recommended among others that creative accounting should be considered as a serious crime and as such accounting bodies, law courts and other regulatory authorities need to adopt strict measure to stop the practice.