AN INVESTIGATION INTO ACCOUNTING EDUCATION FOR SMALL SCALE ENTREPRENEURS IN LANGTANG NORTH

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page………………………………………………………………….i

Declaration………………………………………………………………..ii

Approval page …………………………………………………………..iii

Dedication…………………………………………………………………iv

Acknowledgement…………………………………………………………v

Table of content…………………………………………………………….vi

Abstract…………………………………………………………………….xii

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the study                                                                    1

1.2     Statement of the Problem                                                                   4

1.3     Purpose of the Study                                                                         5

1.4     Research Questions                                                                           5

1.5     Significance of the Study.                                                                  6

1.6     Delimitation of the Study                                                                   7

1.7     Operational Definition of Terms                                                         7

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERTURE

2.1 Concept Accounting Education                                                              8

2.2 Need for Accounting Education                                                             10

2.3 Small-Scale Enterprises Development in Nigeria Economic                    12

2.4 Meaning of Small-Scale Entrepreneurs                                                   14

2.5 Role of Small-Scale Entrepreneurs                                                          15

2.6 Financial Impediments Encountered by Small-Scale Entrepreneurs          16

2.7 Fund Raising by Small-Scale Entrepreneurs                                           18

2.8 Government Financial Regulatory Policies in

Small-Scale Enterprises                                                                     22

2.9 Ways of Ameliorating the Financial Impediments to

the Growth and Development of Small-Scale Enterprises                    24

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1     Research Design                                                                                27

3.2     Population and sample of the Study                                                    28

3.3     Sampling Techniques                                                                         28

3.4     Instrument for Data Collection                                                           28

3.5     Validity and Reliability of Instrument                                                 29

3.6     Procedure for Data Collection                                                            30

3.7     Method of Data Analysis                                                                   30

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.1     Presentation of Demography Data                                                      31

4.2     Analysis of Data                                                                                33

4.3     Discussion of Findings                                                                       41

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1     Summary of Major Findings                                                              45

5.2     Conclusion                                                                                        46

5.3     Recommendations                                                                             47

5.4     Limitation of the Study                                                                      48

5.5     Suggestions for Further Studies                                                          48

          References                                                                                         49

          Appendices                                                                                       54

ABSTRACT

This research work is an investigation into accounting education for small scale entrepreneur in Langtang-north Local Governmant Area. The research design use for this study is survey research design; the population comprised all the small scale entrepreneurs in Langtang-North, stratified random sampling technique was used to sample 100 respondents. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire. Mean statistical tool was used for data analysis. The findings revealed that financial institutions consider small-scale enterprises as risky and small in size, therefore, show little interest on them, The wrong attitude of some entrepreneur to loans and that of their workers is counterproductive because some entrepreneurs when offered credit facilities; believe that it’s their share of the national cake, that inability of small-scale enterprises to provide sufficient account of their business impedes their financial growth in Plateau State, that Nigeria Governments’ policies have constituted a serious problem to the growth of SSEs, in Langtang-north. The study recommended that government and other financial institutions operating in Plateau State should make credit facilities available to all categories of small scale enterprise and should ensure adequate monitoring of how the small scale enterprise account for their funds, Government policies should be made to favour and protect small scale enterprises in order to weird off competitions from larger businesses.

 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

            Accounting as a profession has a very important role to play in the economic development of any nation. As a measurement for small scale entrepreneurs, the profession can cover both micro and macro-economic activities. It consists of various subsystems with related economic events and decisions (Ajayi, 2013). These subsystems which can be identified as the major accounting fields include; business accounting, government accounting, social accounting, auditing and taxation, all of which aid in economic planning, project appraisal, capital formation and so on (Badejo 1997). Accounting Education is critical for economic development of both developed and developing entrepreneurs for two important reasons (Peltier & Scovotti, 2010; Matlay, 2009; Millman and Matlay, 2008). Firstly to instill in the entrepreneurs the mindset to create ventures, Secondly it expands the platform which the entrepreneurial business community can access accounting and financial management skills “tailor made” for its needs.

            The American Accounting Association (AAA 1986) states that the function of accounting is to provide qualitative information, primarily financial in nature, about economic entities that is intended to be useful in economic decisions. This information allows users to make reasoned choices among alternative uses of scarce resources in the conduct of business and economic activities. The need for accounting therefore arose in response to the desire to make judicious use of scarce resources, accumulate wealth and produce high quality of goods and services in a competitive economy. To perform these roles, accountants are needed both in number and in quality and this is a function of the level of accounting education available (Armstrong, 2010). An appropriate level of accounting education must embrace the development of the character of the aspiring accountant in such a manner as to engender in him or her a strong moral code; a sense of discretion; an almost total commitment to the confidentiality of information or data established as a result of work carried out; an enquiry and analytical mind consistent with providing clients with high standards of professional services; an ability to assess data and situations and to prepare reports in such a way as to impress upon users of accounting services that their problems have been addressed in ways consistent with the highest ideals of a true professional, a sense of dress and carriage designed to develop a confidence in the competence and probity of the practitioners within the profession (Kimmel, 1995; Maher,2000; Ravenscroft & Williams, 2003). The objective of this paper is to examine the challenges confronting accounting education in Nigeria.

            Business exists in different forms and sizes. A business can be undertaken on a small scale, medium scale or large scale basis. Small and Medium entrepreneurs are seen as driving forces that promote and contribute immensely to the economic development of any country. Small-Scale business are the backbone of an economy as major contributors of job creation and play an important role as efficient providers of intermediate goods and services to large firms (Muhammed, 2010).

            In view of entrepreneurship Gibson (2001), defined entrepreneurship as the process of using private initiative to transform a business concept into a new venture or to grow and diversify an existing venture or enterprise with high great potential. The reason for this is obvious, Nigeria educational system that turns out graduates from about 150 Universities and 50 Polytechnics and Mono-technics have not trained our graduates to be self-reliant, but to depend solely on white collar jobs for sustenance. As a result, there are several graduates from Nigerian Universities today who are not gainfully employed. Apart from the book knowledge that they gained there are no requisite skills to make them self-dependent. There is therefore, the need to engage the youth who constitute over 60 percent of the population in meaningful ventures to avoid unhealthy alternatives for this group of people. Also in the view of Agbionu (2008), entrepreneurship involves a process aimed at creating wealth for the purpose of growth, development of the environment and eradication of unemployment for national sustainability.           The concept of Small-Scale entrepreneurs varies from country to country, region to region and from agencies to agencies. Different authors often use different parameters such as the number of employees, sales volume, turnover, and capital to differentiate small, medium, and/or big scale entrepreneurs (Ahmed, 2006). However, these parameters do not provide uniform benchmark for all entrepreneurs. Furthermore, what is a big capital today may become small in years to come (Aremu and Adeyemi, 2010). Consequently, there are as many definitions of small scale entrepreneurs as there are scholars and institutions. Makhbul, (2011) stated that small scale industries, small scale businesses, and small scale entrepreneurs are some of the terms that are used interchangeably to describe small and medium scale entrepreneurs. The author further stated that SSEs or SMEs are very heterogeneous group because these enterprises embrace a wider variety and diverse forms ranging from tailors and garments, textiles, furniture producers, wood cutting mills and bakeries. Others include villages, handicrafts centers and weavers, small machine shops, restaurants to computer software firms using sophistication and skills.

Small-scale business in Langtang-north LGA, there are thousands of businesses, which fall into the category of small scale business. They include weaving, business centers, restaurants, tailoring, carpentry, farming, and transport, setting up and managing it to fruition can be rewarding both financially and psychologically, many of such small-scale business when established to succeed. However, small-scale business in Nigeria today faces a literary of problems occasioned by global economic recession.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Small scale entrepreneurs are very important in any society but the rate of failure of such business in Langtang-north LGA, in Nigeria particularly is becoming a matter of serious concern. Experiences show that the poor attitude of the government to create conducive environment for business might have reduced the chances of survival of small scale entrepreneurs. The inability of entrepreneurs to implement the accounting policies just as experiences have shown, might have contributed to failure of most entrepreneurs in Langtang-north. That is, greater numbers of people who enter into business operation in Langtang-north local government area of Nigeria every year fail, rather than succeed. Above all, the poor marketing strategies of most entrepreneurs just as experience can show may not have helped matters. It is in view of this problem that this research work is conducted. Accounting education which is supposed to contribute to improved living standards of entrepreneurs which bring about substantial local capital formation and achieve high level of productivity and capability are highly ignore. The entrepreneurs have also been identified as vehicles for employment generation and providing opportunities for entrepreneurial sourcing, training, development, and empowerment. Yet small scale entrepreneurship is a failure

1.3 Purpose of the Study

            The general purpose of this study was to investigate into accounting education for small scale entrepreneur in Langtang-north LGA. Specifically, the study will sought to:

1. To determine the extent to which government financial regulatory policies impede the growth and development of small scale entrepreneurs in Langtang-North LGA.
2. To investigate the extent to which poor accounting management practices impede the growth and development of small scale entrepreneurs
3. To investigate the problems encountered in financing small scale entrepreneurs
4. To proffered a lasting solution to challenges facing small scale entrepreneurs in Langtang-north LGA

1.4 Research questions

To guide this study the following were the research question:

1. To what extent do government financial regulatory policies impede the growth and development of small scale entrepreneurs in Langtang-North LGA?.
2. To what extent to which poor accounting management practices impede the growth and development of small scale entrepreneurs?
3. What are the problems encountered in financing small scale entrepreneurs?
4. How can the challenge facing small scale entrepreneur be solve?

1.5 Significant of the Study

            This research has great importance for all enterprises such that:

            It will enable Small-Scale entrepreneurs’ operator to know their impact on the socio-economic well-being of the people.

            The result of this work would provide useful information to existing and potential entrepreneurs (business owners) on the possible ways of sourcing funds to business organization at a low interest, thereby overcoming their financial challenges and bringing about growth and development. Owners of small scale businesses will get to understand

some accounting practices and how their deficiencies are counter-production to their business.

            Youths in the state can easily become aware of possible sources of capital to start or expand their businesses, because the study will expose possible ways of accessing funds from both government and non-governmental agencies. Findings from this study will enable the youths to be more focused, self-employed and as well reduce the rate of crime and unemployment in the area.

            The Management of small scale enterprises will benefit by addressing financial impediments such as source of credit facilities and policies that often hinder the growth of their businesses. This will enable the management to boost their financial strength. Managers and accountants and accountants of SSEs can easily access valuable information, such as accurate and timely information on market opportunity, technology, business practices, and regulations and also assist them to take a full advantage of these.

            Policy makers of Plateau State will become aware of the financial inhibitors such as insecurity, weak policies, inadequate collateral, and non-timely information to small scale businesses.

            The research work will also serves as reference materials for future research, if be conducted on related topic under investigation.

1.6 Scope of the Study

            The scope of this research work centre on accounting education for small scale entrepreneurs in Langtang-north local government area of plateau state.

            This research will also deal with the impact of small – scale enterprises financing in improving the socio-economic well-being of the Nigerian people. This work will also look at how banks help to finance small scale enterprises activities of those businesses in terms of revenue generation and employment and income accruing to the owners.

1.7 Definition of Operational Terms

Accounting education: this dealt with keeping the financial record of an entrepreneur

Small scale entrepreneur: this are business own by an individual or group of individual with view of profit making and human development

Entrepreneur: this is seen as business man who carefully study the need of his society and come-up with a suitable business to cater for the need of the society