The Development of Environmental Accounting and Disclosure Practices of Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria

Abstract

The study is an investigation into the development of environmental accounting and disclosure practices of manufacturing companies in Nigeria with emphasis on United Cement Company of Nigeria (UNICEM) Plc, Niger Mills Nigeria Plc and PAMOL Nigeria Ltd. The data for the study were collected through questionnaires administered and the annual reports obtained directly from the companies under study. The study employed independent t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) in the test of hypotheses. The findings of the study were that manufacturing companies do not charge environmental expenditures independently of other expenditures and the level of environmental cost awareness in manufacturing companies in Nigeria are not high. Based on the findings, it was recommended among other things that environmental expenditures should be charged separately of other expenditures, this will give room for more accountability on the companies' impact on the environment. More so, the level of awareness of environmental cost should be increased. This can be achieved by the ministry of environment liaising with relevant accounting bodies calling for training and retraining of accounting staff on environmental issues and how to track externality cost.

Keywords: environmental accounting, environmental expenditure, disclosure practices, environmental cost awareness.