FACTORS AFFECTING ADOPTION OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

This study aims to examine the factors that will influence the fully adoption of IFRS in the country, as well as specify the benefits will derive & the challenges will face in fully IFRS adoption. To provide answer to research questions and test the hypotheses of the study employed the mixed research approach. The study used questionnaire to finance officers, accountants and Auditors, interview with Finance & Audit managers of the sample banks & document analysis (annual reports, legislations, directives, and other documents), to collect the required data. The impact of independent variables of the study , (unavailability of Capital Market, Current level of Accounting Education, existence of Professional Association, level of Awareness regarding IFRS & legal system of the country) on dependent variable, which was fully IFRS adoption were investigate on this study. And the result reveals that those factors significantly affects the fully adoption of IFRS. A number of benefits derived from IFRS Adoption including enhancement on efficiency of financial reporting, improvements on reliability & comparability on financial statements prepared based of IFRS standards, improvement on quality of Management information and enhancement of transparency of the operation through better reporting are the major Ones. The results of the study also indicate that IFRS adoption in the country has faced some challenges that will significantly affects IFRS Adoption, such as ascertaining fair value measurement in financial reporting without availability of capital market in the country, Complexity of Financial reporting under IFRS, required detailed disclosures related IFRS, high potential volatility of earnings after adoption of IFRS, lack of professional association, implementation cost, & Our culture to accepted changes. Finally the researcher provides related recommendations which were associated with the