CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The institutionalization of Accounting started in Britain, from where Accounting was imported to Nigeria. During the pre-independence period, in Nigeria, especially before the establishment of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences (particularly the one in Ibadan), people who wanted to enrol into the Accounting profession had to be trained through articleship. This meant that, they had to be attached as apprentices to those in the profession already. When the College of Arts and Sciences in Ibadan (now university of Ibadan) was established, it offered courses in Accounting; students were prepared for the intermediate level of ACCA (Association of Certified Chartered Accountants), a British Accounting Body, (Obi2icez, 2012).
In 1960, the University of Nigeria Nsukka started offering courses in Accounting, the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the University of Lagos joined in offering Accounting courses form 1962. Other Nigerian Universities (most of them) and many polytechnics follow suit in the later years. Together they produce large number of Accounting graduates (B.Sc. and HND holders, (Obi2icez, 2012).
In 1960, specifically on 17th November, some Nigerians who had some professional training in Accounting from different parts of the world, got together and formed an association called Association of Nigerian Accountants. This was the first attempt at forming a national and indigenous accountancy professional body in Nigeria. It included people working in companies, industries, government offices and the likes. The Association was formed with the view to providing and maintaining a high standard of Accounting in Nigeria, (Obi2icez, 2012). Accounting Education in a higher institution incorporates a package of instructional programmes designed to educate “would be” accountants, to make them versatile and adaptable to any of the numerous roles they may be called upon to play after graduation, (Anao, 2009).
This training of becoming accountant is not only anchored by Higher institutions but also professional Accounting bodies like the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), which was Chartered by an Act of Parliament in 1965, and Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), which was incorporated in 1993. There are others like Chartered Institute of Taxation in Nigeria (CITN), Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Nigerian (ICPAN), Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). The apparent demand for Accounting education, as evidenced by the number of students has continued to grow significantly since Nigeria universities started offering complete undergraduate Accounting courses. Business Education was divided into three areas and Accounting education is one of them, others are marketing, distributive education and secretarial education. In every business establishment, be it government, parastatals, private companies, banks and other financial institutions, the importance of Accounting cannot be overemphasized. (Umunnah 1992)
However, Accounting education is not only for ‘would be’ accountants but regarded as an area of study needed to equip the youths with knowledge, skills and attitude necessary for efficient financial calculation required for occupational competence, and economic activities of an organization are measured, recorded and communicated to interested parties for analysis and interpretation. Everyone should be required to study Accounting because Accounting is very essential for our daily life. There are many importance of studying Accounting. Asking an accountant why Accounting information is important is similar to asking why fish need to live in water. This is because Accounting is the backbone of the financial world. Different levels of society need Accounting information for different purposes, (Chakma, 2012).