Archives of Business Research – Vol.2, No.2 Publication Date: April 30, 2014 DOI:10.14738/abr.22.43 Taiwo, F. H., and Adejare, A. T. (2014). Empirical Analysis of the Effect of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Adoption on Accounting Practices in Nigeria. Archives of Business Research, 2(2), 1-14. Empirical Analysis of The Effect of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) Adoption on Accounting Practices in Nigeria Fasina H. Taiwo Department of Management and Accounting, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso. taiwofash4real2@gmail.com Adegbite Tajudeen Adejare Department of Management and Accounting, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso. adetajud@yahoo.com ABSTRACT This study empirically analyses the effect of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) adoption on accounting practices in Nigeria. The study adopted personal interview and questionnaire methods as the major techniques for primary data collection. Data collected were analyzed using both descriptive such as tables, frequencies and percentages and inferential statistics of Chi-square and ANOVA respectively. The study concluded that that there is a strong positive relationship between the adoption of IFRS and financial performance due to cost reduction of an organisation. IFRS adoption improves business efficiency and productivity for effective business performance. The adoption of IFRS saves Multinational Corporations the expense of preparing more than one set of accounts for different national jurisdictions. It is recommended that the financial reporting practice in Nigeria should cut across the public and private sector to bring uniformity in accounting practice regarding annual preparation of financial reports to the owner of companies and other interested parties. Key words: IFRS; Cost management; Challenges; Financial statement; Performance. BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION The widespread adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) heralded a new era in financial reporting. From 2005 onwards, publicly traded firms in more than 100 countries have been progressively required to prepare consolidated financial statements under IFRS (IASB, 2011). Realization of the anticipated benefits to be derived as a result of the change from national generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to IFRS in terms of improved quality of financial reporting is the core motive of the proponents of general adoption of IFRS. Supporters of IFRS adoption argue that benefits will flow from expanded financial statement disclosures, improved measurement and recognition practices, and the narrowing of differences in company reporting arising when a variety of national GAAP is used (Schipper, 2005; Whittington, 2005).The acceptance is also based on the concept of convergence of accounting standards to minimize areas of differences in reporting formats across international borders. According to Hoti and Nuhiu (2011), The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), the body that publishes International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), was established in Copyright © Society for Science and Education, United Kingdom 1