An Assessment of the Trend in the Unified Chart of Accounts in Some Selected Government Ministries in Nigeria (2008-2017)

Abstract

Nigeria has since 2010 adopted the IPSAS and has equally accepted all that the new standard has to offer which includes the chart of accounts (COA). The COA adopted in Nigeria is prescribed by the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) and it is called the unified national chart of accounts with the objective that the presentation of accounts must follow a uniform pattern. In addition to that, the COA adopted in Nigeria is a flexible one because it does not use the same coding structure as the styles for coding differ in number of digits to be used. But as at 2017, it was obvious that so many ministries in Nigeria had consistently prepared and presented the budget statements using the IPSAS coding structure but are yet to classify accounts with the IPSAS approved standard budget classification methods.