The Development of Accounting in the Franc Zone Countries in Africa

Charles Elad

The International Journal of Accounting, 2015, vol. 50, issue 1, 75-100

Abstract: This paper develops a taxonomy of the different accounting systems that have evolved in Africa from the colonial era, through the early years of independence, to modern times. A preliminary test of the classification scheme for the current era of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) was carried out using data from a PricewaterhouseCoopers (2011) survey. The results confirm Nobes' (2008) hypotheses on patterns of national reaction to IFRS. The results also show that a distinctive approach to financial accounting, which is alien to Anglo-American practitioners, and modeled on long-established French traditions, is still entrenched in Africa's franc zone countries in the 21st century, despite sustained pressure from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for large entities to adopt IFRS. These findings provide some evidence against Alexander and Archer's (2000) claim that the contemporary notion of “Anglo-Saxon accounting” is a myth.

Keywords: Accounting classifications; IFRS practices; CFA franc zone; OHADA accounting system; Plan Comptable Général (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F33 M41 O19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020706314001216
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:accoun:v:50:y:2015:i:1:p:75-100

DOI: 10.1016/j.intacc.2014.12.006

Access Statistics for this article

The International Journal of Accounting is currently edited by A. R. Abdel-Khalik

More articles in The International Journal of Accounting from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().