Impact of International Financial Reporting Standards Adoption on Financial Reporting Quality in Nigeria

This study examines the impact of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 
adoption on financial reporting quality in Nigerian quoted manufacturing companies, focusing 
on variations across time (2020–2024) and firm size categories. Adopting a descriptive survey 
research design with a quantitative approach, a purposive sample of ten manufacturing 
companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) was selected based on full IFRS 
compliance and availability of complete audited financial statements from 2020 to 2024. 
Secondary data from annual reports were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Analysis of 
Variance (ANOVA), with Return on Assets (ROA) as a proxy for financial reporting quality. 
The results reveal no statistically significant differences in mean ROA across the years 2020
2024 (F(4,26) = 0.5854, p = 0.8043), indicating that IFRS adoption did not produce 
measurable year-to-year improvements in reporting quality during the review period. 
However, significant differences were found across firm size categories (F(2,27) = 13.1752, p 
< 0.001), with large firms demonstrating substantially higher mean ROA (0.1378) compared 
to medium (0.0485) and small (0.0212) firms, suggesting that larger firms benefit more from 
IFRS adoption due to superior resources and technical capacity. The findings imply that IFRS 
adoption alone is insufficient to guarantee improved financial reporting quality in developing 
economies like Nigeria; regulators must strengthen enforcement mechanisms and provide 
targeted capacity-building initiatives for smaller firms, while audit firms and corporate boards 
should prioritize governance structures that support rigorous IFRS implementation. This study 
contributes to the limited empirical literature on post-IFRS adoption outcomes in Nigerian 
manufacturing firms by highlighting the moderating role of firm size, offering critical insights 
for policymakers seeking to bridge the compliance gap between large and small firms in 
emerging markets.