BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF ADOPTING INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS (IFRS) IN ETHIOPIAN PUBLIC ENTERPRISES

Abstract

This study aims to assess the benefit and challenges of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption in public enterprises of Ethiopia. This study was employed a descriptive research type and a survey research design for the research design. And besides a mixed or pragmatic research approach also applied. A non-probability sampling which was purposive sampling was used for the sampling techniques. The questionnaire data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and data from interview were interpreted qualitatively. The results show that IFRS adoption in public enterprises will result in a number of important benefits to a wide range of stakeholders. Lack of awareness, high potential knowledge gap, tax driven nature of previous system, lack of ethical environment are the main challenges of IFRS adoption. From the findings it is recommended that a rigorous IFRS capacity building program should be embarked by the government, all regulatory bodies, firms and training institutions in order to provide the needed and companies, investors, policy makers and national regulators should work together towards the increment of awareness for managing the dynamics of continuous amendments of IFRS.