the product of its output (graduates) is accurate accounting records. Finance ... issues are areas where the products of T AAE are deeply involved in. The crux of ...
Proceedings of International Conference on Research and Development, Volume 3, Number 15, 20_1_0 TERTIARY EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF NIGERIA: FOCUS ON THE T AAE-NED MODEL T. A.Ngerebo-A, and 20gbole Friday Ogbole Dept. of Banking & Finance, Rivers State University of Science and Tech, Port Harcourt, Nigeria 2 Department of Accountancy, The Federal Polytechnic, Damaturu, Yobe State, Nigeria 1
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ABSTRACT Tertiary Education in Nigeria was primarily aimed at producing technically and strategically competent middle level manpower that will high level human capacity index in administration, science and technology in Nigeria with the view to gaining a significant degree of self reliance and sustainable economic development. It is against this background that the Accountancy Education in the universities and polytechnics is tailored towards producing trained Accounting officers and technologists to maintain the appropriate financial records of economic entities whose combined output of goods and services dovetail into sustainable economic growth and development by enhancing the Gross National Product (GNP) . The paper focuses on the Tertiary Academic Accountancy Education (TAAE) - National Economic Development (NED), i.e. TAAE-NED, model which explains the assumed/imaginary link between tertiary academic accountancy education and national economic growth and development of Nigeria. Keyword: Tertiary Academic Accountancy Education, National Economic Development. INTRODUCTION
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Formal education can take the form of academic institutional (schooling), professional institutional, and/or on-the-job training, accountancy education, as a specialised type of tertiary education, is not an exception. Accountancy education generally, and in particular Tertiary Academic Accountancy Education (TAAE) takes place in the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education . T AAE is crucial to the economic growth and development of any nation because the cardinal tool is financial resources of organizations and the product of its output (graduates) is accurate accounting records. Finance constitutes the life-wire of every economic entity and must be adequately and appropriately accounted for in order to enhance its effective management which translates into higher levels of productivity (Uzor, 20 IO; Ngerebo, 2007). Those who are trained to keep proper accounting and financial records of transactions of businesses and other economic entities, in both private and public sectors of the economy, are accountants and accounting technicians. These sets of people are the products of T AAE. The preparation of financial statements (Wood and Sangster, 2008); financial accountability and management in governments, public services and charities (Hyndman and McDonnell, 2009); tax assessments (Weber and McMillen, 201 O); investment decisions and financial analysis (Elliott, Krische, and Peecher, 201 O; Damodaran, 2009; Feng and Tian, 2009) and related issues are areas where the products of T AAE are deeply involved in. The crux of the matter is that the economic entities, whose accounting units/departments are manned by products of TAAE, produce indispensable services to the composition of the Gross National Product (GNP) of any country, and hence National Economic growth and Development (NED). This linkage results from the fact that the products of are found in all sectors of the economy. Infact, in some countries, like India, service industry accounts for 55% of the GDP, and 43% of total employment second to agriculture (CIA, 2007). Thus, TAAE has an appreciable link with NED through the economic entities that it serves to enhance their productivity and profitability. This is the philosophy that underlies the conceptualisation of the TAAE -NED model. This study is divided into seven parts. The second part deals with the rudiments of T AAE; the third deals with the purpose of T AAE; the fourth deals with Sector-based contribution of T AAE; the fifth deals with the T AAE -NED model; the sixth concludes the paper while the seventh gives useful recommendations towards a sustainable T AAE.
RUDIMENTS OF TAAE Accountancy as a profession anchors solidly on (1) book-keeping, (2) application of analytical techniques; and (3) preparation of and interpretation of financial statements and analyses for managerial decisionmaking. Book-keeping involves keeping proper accounting books and records of all transactions. Business transactions, no matter the contexture, have monetary connotations, and financial proprietary and performance are fundamental bases for judging efficiency and effectiveness of managements in modern times. This is why these records of transactions are expressed in monetary terms (NERDC, 1999). The data
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Tertiary Education and Sustainable Economic Development of Nigeria: Focus on the Taae-Ned Model to be entered into the relevant books of accounts are obtained from source documents such as ordinary notes/memos, invoices, cheques, receipts, debit notes, credit notes, etc. Prime books of accounts kept by organisations include Journals (General Purchases, Sales, Returns Inwards, Returns Outwards), and the Cash Book. The Principal books of account are the ledger (purchases, sales, general, personal and impersonal) and the cash book. Accounts opened in the ledger are balanced and their balances are summarised in a way that tries or checks the arithmetic accuracy and obedience of the ledger account entries to the golden rule of accounting. This is simply known as Trial Balance. Final accounts (income statements and balance sheet) are prepared from the ledger accounts balances (Ekezie, 1997), and interpretation therefrom and financial ratio anal~ses conducted to {{Ynerate additional_ information_ to_ Pnhanc&>~ inv.es.tmf'nL ti.f'J'j~on. makinir0 (Jennings, 1993). Not-for-profit organisations generally prepare Receipts and Payments Accounts, Income and Expenditure Accounts and a Statement of Affairs in place of cash book, income statements and balance sheet aforementioned . Other financial statements include Statement of Source and Application of Funds, and Value Added statement.
PURPOSE OF TERTIARY ACADEMIC ACCOUNTANCY EDUCATION (TAAE) The main purpose of TAAE is to academically train and equip middle level manpower that will be able to keep/maintain adequate accounting records at different levels and for different types of businesses and notfor- profit organisations in both the public and private sectors of the economy. Thus, the TAAE graduates of the National Diploma (ND), Higher National Diploma (HND) and B.Sc. programmes in Nigerian universities and polytechnics should be able to keep, update and interpret accounting records properly, in line with the financial regulations and the nature of the businesses of the organisations where they are employed. They should be able to maintain the petty cash book, the main cash book, all ledger accounts with correct postings of their respective entries and balancing each of them at appropriate periods; extract a trial balance; prepare the Profit and Loss Account and Balance Sheet, Cash flow statement, Value Added statement, Bank reconciliation statements etc. depending on the organisation and the need of the management from time to time for decision making. Some of the above responsibilities could be performed by employees who have been trained mechanically on-the-job. The difference is that sound and higher level reasoning, justifying entries made, is attached to the TAAE than the on-the-job.Since all organisations where money flows in and out need to keep appropriate and adequate financial records which would serve as the basis for adequate financial planning, the need for T AAE graduates cannot be overemphasised. However in Nigeria, we are aware that some of those in charge of accounting offices/units of some organisations are not necessarily trained in the accountancy profession formally. Besides, the underdeveloped nature of the Nigerian economy and the weak private sector in particular have made so many private businesses not to thrive as expected. As a result, some of them may not be able to afford employing trained accountants or accounting technicians. When proper financial records are kept, fraud may be minimised, better financial information provided, better financial decisions made and these translate into enhanced quality of service delivery, higher quality products, larger market share and higher profit levels. When the market values of all goods and services produced by all these businesses and other economic entities are aggregated the macroeconomic aggregate called the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is arrived at. And, when the incomes of those that render services outside Nigeria are added, as part of invisible trade, the sum ordinarily is Gross National Product (GNP). For the GNP to increase, it means that more jobs are being created, unemployment is reducing and there is a great contribution to all sectors of the economy. SECTORAL CONTRIBUTION OF TAAE Through the Book-Keeping and Accountancy services rendered to businesses and not-for-profit organisations, these organisations may perform better, expand, create more jobs for job seekers ::... eventually increase GDP of the nation. Welfare situations also improve as increased business profits translate into higher wages and salaries, increased dividends and increased corporate social respon si::. commitments. However, what is perhaps more interesting is that various sectors of the econom: positively enhanced. Since businesses and not-for-profit organisations fall into various sectors, almossectors of the economy are involved. These include the following sectors: Health; Education; Ba Agriculture and its allied; Oil; Manufacturing; communication; Commerce; Aviation; Transport; De._ External Affairs; Power; etc. This is shown in Appendix 1 . THE TAAE -NED MODEL There is a strong theoretical correlation, though not statistically, between T AAE and NED. This i~ difficult to unders_tand because the essence of the formal academic education/training in tertiary institl!' 28
P roceedings of International Conference on Research a nd Develop ment, Volume 3, Number 15, 2010 is to produce the needed manpower (labour) for the industries, organisat ions and businesses of various sizes and categories in the various sectors of the economy. It is interesting to note that it is this same philosophy that underlies the T AAE. The intermediary between T AAE and NED is the contribution of book-keeping and accountancy services to economic entities, in the form of provision of dependable financial information for timely, effective, adequate and appropriate financial management decisions . These positively enhanced fi nancial decisions translate into better performances (ceteris paribus) of these organisations. The result is the provision of high quality goods and services. These in turn trans late into increased patronage of the physical products of these organisations that the real sector of the economy deals in, and tend to generate higher returns (profits for the profit-making businesses and social benefits for not-for-profit organizations). The overall expected effect of these on the macro-economy is increase in GNP, fall in unemployment rate (through increased job creation from business exp.ans ion and growth), improved welfare conditions (through increase in wages and salaries that may result from increase in profit levels of business organisations) and overall growth in other macroeconomic aggregates . This chain effect is captured in Appendix 2.
CONCLUSION
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