Accounting Research Seminar – Kolapo Odeniyi
Title: Ethical Values and Perception within the Accounting Profession in Nigeria, presented by Kolapo Odeniyi
Date: 23 October 2024
Time: 15:00 – 16:00
Venue: NUBS.2.03
If you would like to attend, please register using the following link:
Ethical Values and Perception within the Accounting Profession in Nigeria
Speaker: Kolapo Odeniyi
Kolapo Odeniyi is in the 3rd year of his PhD. Kolapo is supervised by Dr Shanta Davie and Professor David Higgins and was awarded the Newcastle University Overseas Research Scholarship (NUORS). Kolapo previously studied his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting at Lagos state university and Obafemi Awolowo university and worked as a finance and credit control analyst at African reinsurance corporation and Custodian and Allied Insurance Limited in Nigeria prior to joining NUBS as a PhD candidate. He is also an Associate Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria. His research interest concerns a critical examination of how accounting and auditing practices in Nigeria can influence policies and practices related to the global issues of ethics and justice, including exploring intersections of culture, gender, race, accounting ethics education and ethnicity.
Abstract:
Corporate organisations globally are not only evaluated based on their financial performance but also on their ethical actions and decisions within the business environment in which they exist and operate. The detrimental effects of poor business ethics and ethical decision-making by corporate firms and accounting practitioners have resulted in a significant loss of confidence by users of financial information in the accounting sector and the financial statements and reports provided by accounting practitioners. The accounting profession, a key player in developing the global economy, has unfortunately come under reproval due to the actions and decisions of accounting practitioners in fraudulent cases such as Enron in the US and, recently, Tingo farms in Nigeria. As a result of these scandals, it is necessary to assess the ethical values of accounting practitioners, particularly in developing countries in Nigeria, where corruption and unethical accounting practices have been documented. This study explores the perceptions of accounting ethics among accounting practitioners, regulators, academics, and accounting students about the accounting profession, the factors that determine the ethical values of accounting practitioners, the adequacy of ethics education and its influence on ethical accounting among professional accountants and the impact of culture, age, gender, education, religion, artificial intelligence and code of ethics on the ethical decision-making of accounting practitioners in Nigeria. This study is anchored on the cognitive moral development theory and Rest four-stage ethical decision-making model. This study adopts a qualitative methodological approach as it tries to explore the ethical values and notions that exist in the Nigerian accounting profession, which involves human participants and the interpretation of meaning created by them. This research aims to provide professional accounting bodies, policymakers and academics insights into the fundamental factors that impact the ethical values of accounting practitioners in Nigeria and how to develop regulations, practical teachings and professional training to equip accounting practitioners and accounting students with better skills to respond to ethical dilemmas to mitigate the high occurrence of financial fraud and corruption occurring in public and private organisation in Nigeria and hence improving public trust in the accounting profession.