Institutional Impediment to International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) Adoption

Abstract

Before the adoption of IFRS among firms, every country had its own reporting accounting standards which brought about challenges when it comes to comparing financial statements from different countries. The move of business into the global economy has brought a lot of difficulties in comparability, reliability and objectivity; this has therefore increased the need to move accounting standards into globalization. The study was conducted to know whether companies listed on Ghana stock exchange were actually complying with IFRS in Ghana since 2007 when it was adopted. This study used both primary source of data and secondary source of data for the data collection.Primary source of data was administering of questionnaires and for the secondary source of data was published financial statements. The findings of the study show that, over the years since the usage of IFRS was made compulsory, the level of compliance is high among some listed companies and also was able to identify some factors that influences the adoption of IFRS. This study recommends that more training and education for both preparers and users of financial information be made and also develop these standards in curricula sectors such as the universities to create more awareness to accounting students.