Speaking at a book launch in Abuja this week, Idris said: “There is an implementation committee at the national and state levels and they are working based on a time-frame. So, there is no delay; we are on course. The accrual basis is scheduled to start in January and by God’s grace, it will.”
He said the implementation of IPSAS would allow Nigeria to operate on the same platform with advanced economies.
Idris, who was helping to showcase the book: Government Accounting in Nigeria: An IPSAS Approach by a former accountant-general of Nigeria, Kayode Naiyeju and university of Lagos accounting professor Eddy Omolehinwa, added: “We will operate on the same platform with advanced economies in terms of financial accounting reporting, information rendition, services of our financial accounts and so on.”
He said if Nigeria implemented IPSAS the country would benefit from being rated “like any other advanced economy, like any other advanced player in the global economy.”
It will make information open and transparent, he noted.
Speaking alongside Idris, Omolehinwa said the book would help government tackle corruption by improving accounting standards.
“We need to take government accounting more seriously in Nigeria because without proper accounting, we are never going to have accountability and without accountability, we are not going to tackle corruption,” he said.
“And if we don’t tackle corruption, our country stands being labelled a failure. So we have written the book because we don’t want this to happen. We want stakeholders to know the roles they are expected to play.”
