Fair Value Accounting and Loan Loss Provisioning- Early Evidence from Nigerian Banking Industry

The purpose of this study is to investigate the Loan Loss Provisioning under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Nigerian Prudential Guidelines. The audited first time annual reports of four Nigerian banks were analysed.  Simple percentages and tables were used to determine the relationships between the figures thrown out by the two provisioning models. We found that prudential guidelines provisions were more aggressive and higher in all cases than IFRS provisions. In other words, the profit figures under prudential guideline model were more conservative than the corresponding figures under the IFRS model. The result of the study was based on 1 year 2012 audited first time IFRS accounts of 4 Nigerian banks and therefore cannot be generalised but regarded as rather indicative of the differences between the two models. The paper has practical implications for Nigerian regulatory authorities and in particular the CBN who may wish to retain its Loan Loss Provisioning Model or transmute to the IFRS model. This is about the first study on Nigerian banks on this subject matter post mandatory adoption of IFRS in 2012 and, has added to our knowledge of IFRS Loan Loss Provisioning compared to the Nigerian Prudential guideline model. Key Words: IFRS, Fair value, Prudential Guidelines, Loan Loss, Early Evidence

Drivers of Audit Failure in Nigeria- Evidence from Cadbury (Nigeria) PLC.

This study is an investigation of audit failure factors in Nigeria’s corporate governance firmament. An explanatory case study approach was adopted for the study supplemented by archival data and newspaper reports. An explanation was sought for the findings of the regulatory authority that the auditor in this case was not only negligent and incompetent but also did not demonstrate sufficient Professional skepticism. One of our findings is the fact that the auditors may have stayed for too long on the job and had thus impaired their independence. Provision of non- accounting services to this particular audit client was also fingered as a cause of the audit failure. We recommend mandatory rotation of auditors and prohibition of provision of non- audit services to audit clients among others. One limitation, though, of our study is that it is a single case study and may not be generalised. KEY WORDS: Audit Failure, Cadbury (Nig.) Plc, Professional Skepticism, Negligence

Environmental Cost Accounting and Cost Allocation (a Study of Selected Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria)

The major objective of this paper is to determine the extent to which Nigerian firms have embraced environmental cost accounting in cost allocation.  This research adopted a research survey and the main research instrument is the questionnaire. 105 Accountants from twenty-five (25) quoted manufacturing companies were the respondents for this research. The mean, standard deviation and simple percentages were used to analyze the questions while the ANOVA was used to statistically analyze the differences between means. Findings show that majority of the firms have not embraced environmental cost accounting, they still lump all indirect costs under overhead and use mostly, one absorption method which may not have any relationship with the indirect costs to apportion these costs into the product costs. The identified commonest method of overhead allocation basis is the material use. Although the treatments given to environmental costs were conventional in nature, significant differences exist among firms on the method of allocating environmental costs to products/processes. Environmental accounting can be said to be in embryonic stage in the manufacturing firms in Nigeria. This paper offers a valuable insight into the environmental cost accounting practices of Nigerian manufacturing firms. This paper will help firms to understand what environmental cost accounting is all about and how to embrace it. Keywords: Environmental accounting, Environmental cost accounting, environmental costs, conventional system

Latex glove sensitivity amongst diagnostic imaging healthcare personnel: a study in Southeastern Nigeria.

The paper reports a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence and type of symptoms, causal agents and awareness of latex glove reactions amongst four professional groups. The study was done at diagnostic imaging departments within ten major hospitals in Southeastern Nigeria. Radiologists/resident radiologists, radiographers, radiology nurses and darkroom technicians who were occupationally exposed to latex gloves were investigated between June and September 2006 to determine the level of latex hypersensitivity. The results show that prevalence is similar to that demonstrated elsewhere with 12.4% of individuals expressing latex associated symptoms. Symptoms included itching and redness of hands, dry cracked skin, soreness of eyes, and upper respiratory tract complaints. There are strong relationships between number of gloves used per day, duration of glove use and expression of symptoms. About 62.8% (n=76) of the respondents had previous knowledge of hypersensitivity reaction to latex gloves prior to this investigation. The paper concludes that latex hypersensitivity is a real problem amongst diagnostic imaging healthcare personnel in our locality. This preliminary work, therefore, provides the basis of a much larger controlled study in the future

The expression of HSP27 is associated with poor clinical outcome in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The heat shock proteins (HSPs) 27-kDa (HSP27) and 72-kDa (HSP72), are ubiquitous chaperone molecules inducible in cells exposed to different stress conditions. Increased level of HSPs are reported in several human cancers, and found to be associated with the resistance to some anticancer treatments and poor prognosis. However, there is no study of the relationship between HSPs expression and patient's prognosis in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHCCA). In this exploratory retrospective study, we investigated the expressions of HSP27 and HSP72 as potential prognostic factors in IHCCA.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thirty-one paraffin-embedded samples were analyzed by immunohistochemical methods using HSP27 and HSP72 monoclonal antibodies. Proliferation rate was assessed in the same specimens by using monoclonal antibody against phosphorylated histone H3 (pHH3). Fisher's exact test was used to assess the hypothesis of independence between categorical variables in 2 × 2 tables. The ANOVA procedure was used to evaluate the association between ordinal and categorical variables. Estimates of the survival probability were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the log rank test was employed to test the null hypothesis of equality in overall survival among groups. The hazard ratio associated with HSP27 and HSP72 expression was estimated by Cox hazard-proportional regression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The expression of HSP27 was related to mitotic index, tumor greatest dimension, capsular and vascular invasion while the expression of HSP72 was only related to the presence of necrosis and the lymphoid infiltration. Kaplan-Maier analysis suggested that the expression of HSP27 significantly worsened the patients' median overall survival (11 ± 3.18 vs 55 ± 4.1 months, P-value = 0.0003). Moreover HSP27-positive patients exhibited the worst mean survival (7.0 ± 3.2 months) in the absence of concomitant HSP72 expression.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The expression of HSP27, likely increasing cell proliferation, tumor mass, vascular and capsular invasion, might promote aggressive tumor behaviour in IHCCA and decrease patients' survival. Immunohistochemical detection of HSP27 on routine sections may provide a reliable prognostic marker for IHCCA able to influence the therapeutic strategies for this cancer.</p

TSPO ligand residence time influences human glioblastoma multiforme cell death/life balance

Abstract Ligands addressed to the mitochondrial Translocator Protein (TSPO) have been suggested as cell death/life and steroidogenesis modulators. Thus, TSPO ligands have been proposed as drug candidates in several diseases; nevertheless, a correlation between their binding affinity and in vitro efficacy has not been demonstrated yet, questioning the specificity of the observed effects. Since drug-target residence time is an emerging parameter able to influence drug pharmacological features, herein, the interaction between TSPO and irDE-MPIGA, a covalent TSPO ligand, was investigated in order to explore TSPO control on death/life processes in a standardized glioblastoma cell setting. After 90 min irDE-MPIGA cell treatment, 25 nM ligand concentration saturated irreversibly all TSPO binding sites; after 24 h, TSPO de-novo synthesis occurred and about 40 % TSPO binding sites resulted covalently bound to irDE-MPIGA. During cell culture treatments, several dynamic events were observed: (a) early apoptotic markers appeared, such as mitochondrial membrane potential collapse (at 3 h) and externalization of phosphatidylserine (at 6 h); (b) cell viability was reduced (at 6 h), without cell cycle arrest. After digitonin-permeabilized cell suspension treatment, a modulation of mitochondrial permeability transition pore was evidenced. Similar effects were elicited by the reversible TSPO ligand PIGA only when applied at micromolar dose. Interestingly, after 6 h, irDE-MPIGA cell exposure restored cell survival parameters. These results highlighted the ligand-target residence time and the cellular setting are crucial parameters that should be taken into account to understand the drug binding affinity and efficacy correlation and, above all, to translate efficiently cellular drug responses from bench to bedside

The effect of culture on Corporate Governance Practices in Nigeria

This study focuses on the effect of culture on the application of corporate governance practices in Nigeria. Corporate governance has been receiving serious attention in emerging markets over the past two decades. But relatively little attention has been given to the study on corporate governance in a country study. The current situations in Nigerian public and private sectors such as the corporate scandal resulting from Lever Brothers Nigeria plc, Siemens, Shell, Halliburton, and Cadbury Nigeria plc, have shown that the issue of fraud, corruption, and corporate scandals cannot be overlooked. Most top management, as this study argues, bring in beliefs acquired from their early childhood into their senior management roles and responsibilities. This study adopts a grounded theory and reports on the effect of culture on the implementation of corporate governance in Nigeria. Based on the interview with 32 staffs, this study identifies the effect of culture that shapes corporate governance and they include abuse of power by top management, weak legal framework, poor recruitment and ineffective control. Although having efficient corporate governance is worth pursuing, this depends on the power of top management, the strength of internal control procedures and the legal framework put in place by management

From SAS to IFRS - an investigation of transition road map implementation problems

Purpose: the purpose of this paper is to investigate transition road map problems encountered by the Nigerian authorities in moving from local Statements of Accounting Standards (SAS) to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).Design/methodology/approach: a postal questionnaire survey of 50 accounting professionals which includes Nigeria's Financial Reporting Council and other industrial specialists was undertaken. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the most common problems. Independent t-tests were employed to determine whether there were any significant differences in the perception of the problems according to job type, experience, sector and gender.Findings: the questionnaire findings suggest that many problems have been encountered in the as yet unfinished transition from SAS to IFRs. These include lack of training on IFRS at tertiary institutions and the fact that Nigerian regulators do not have sufficient capacity to drive the transition process. The results also show that there are some significant differences in the perception of the transition road map implementation problems according to job type, experience, sector and gender.Research limitations/implications: the study's results are based on responses from 50 out of a possible 500 accounting professionals surveyed and therefore cannot be generalised. The problems documented in the results should therefore be regarded as indicative rather than exhaustive.Practical implications: this paper has practical implications for the Nigeria's Financial Reporting Council as it may want to review why the road map was not achieved and assess whether any lessons could be learnt for the future. The results are also important especially for those listed companies that failed to meet the January 2012 deadline for IFRS reporting.Originality/value: this paper identifies Nigeria transition problems that are peculiar to Nigeria in its bid to be IFRS compliant some of which have not been documented by existing literature. Second, it is the first study to document accounting standards transitional problems in the African contex

Le projet de la société de Gynécologie et d&apos;obstétrique du Nigeria (SOGON) pour la réduction durable des décès maternels : objectifs du millénaire (ODM) 4 et 5 au Nigéria.

In the year 2000, SOGON formulated a strategic plan on women&apos;s health based on the reproductive health approach with the aim of reducing maternal mortality by 50% by the year 2010. In 2005, the Nigerian Road Map for accelerating the attainment of Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 was launched. One of the key guiding principles of the Road Map was promoting partnerships and joint programming among stakeholders including professional associations. In response, SOGON decided to align her strategic plan with the Road Map by refocusing the plan to the key objectives of the Road Map. The new SOGON Plan involves interventions with a focal objective of reducing the case-fatality of emergency obstetric conditions. The plan is anchored on interventions where SOGON has comparative advantage such as providing human resources and promoting capacity building for emergency obstetric care and skilled attendance at delivery, and advocacy and information dissemination on maternal health.En l&apos;année 2000 la SOGON a formulé un plan stratégique sur la santé des femmes basé sur la santé de la reproduction en vue de réduire la mortalité maternelle de 50% en 2010. Le Nigéria a lancé des indications pour accélérer la réalisation des objectifs du millénaire 4 et 5 en 2005. Un des principes de base clé du plan était la promotion des partenariats et la co-programmation chez les intéressés, y compris les associations professionnelles. En réponse, la SOGON a décidé d&apos;aligner son plan stratégique sur les indications principales en reportant le plan sur les objectifs clé des indications principales. Le nouveau plan de la SOGON implique des interventions ayant un objectif focal de réduire la fatalité de cas des conditions obstétriques d&apos;urgence. Le plan s&apos;ancre sur les interventions où la SOGON a un avantage comparatif tel la procuration des ressources humaines pour la promotion et le renforcement de la capacité pour le soin obstétrique d&apos;urgence et l&apos;assistance compétente pendant l&apos;accouchement aussi bien que la plaidoirie et la diffusion de l&apos;information sur la santé maternelle