Analysis of Environmental Accounting and Reporting Practices of Listed Banking Companies in Nigeria

Globally, environmental accounting and reporting practices as a branch of accounting has been significantly accepted to improve organizational financial performance as a result of both financial and non-financial disclosure on the usage of key natural resources. Multiple uncoordinated legislations by several environmental agencies and lack of technical monitoring devices are responsible for partial compliant with these regulations. Evidence from literature showed that it has improved community and organizational relationship. Nigeria Deposit Money Banks, as a subset of global corporate bodies were reviewed in this study for complete adherence to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) requirements and identify any challenges for non-compliant with environmental regulations. Ex-post facto research design was employed by the study. Sample of fourteen listed banks were selected out of the population of twenty two banks using purposive sampling technique. Secondary data were obtained from the annual reports and accounts of fourteen listed deposit money banks as at December 31, 2019. Data obtained were reviewed along the adapted environmental reporting indicators and previous research works conducted by earlier researchers. Contents analysis approach was adopted. The study revealed that Nigeria deposit money banks do not strictly adhere to global reporting initiative requirements since environmental reporting is at voluntary stage in Nigeria; Inadequate monitoring by the environmental agencies and regulatory auditors and non-inclusion of EA legal frameworks, DMBs related problems and Staff / Individual related problems. The study concluded that environmental accounting and reporting practices is positively significant to the corporate performance reporting; and its inclusion of non-financial reporting has significantly improved corporate decision. Nigerian deposit money banks have identified its relevance to their global acceptance by foreign investors and stakeholders. The study recommended that regulators and accounting professional bodies should make environmental accounting and reporting practices mandatory and its preparation and presentation should be uniform for easy understanding and analysis. Legal framework and policies should be enhanced by governments and agencies while auditors should be mandated to include EA & RP on their checklists.