Financial Reporting

Where the marks are

Percentages are the examinable weighting for each area. Revising in this order puts your time where the marks are.

1. Preparing and Presenting Financial Statements of a Simple Group (Parent, a Subsidiary and an Associate)

   20%

   Understanding a simple group (concept and objectives of group accounts; IAS 27, IAS 28, IFRS 3, IFRS 10; non-controlling interest measurement and consolidation adjustments) · Preparation and presentation of simple group financial statements (statement of financial position, statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income, statement of cash flows, IFRS 18 changes to IAS 1, management disclosures and analyses, application of IFRS to group scenarios)

2. Preparation and Presentation of Single Entity General Purpose Financial Statements

   20%

   Accounting policies, changes in accounting estimates and prior period errors (IAS 8) · Preparation and presentation of single entity general purpose financial statements (IAS 1 and other relevant IFRS accounting standards) · Changes introduced by IFRS 18 to IAS 1 · Statement of cash flows for single entities using direct and indirect methods (IAS 7) · Objectives, limitations and features of general purpose financial reporting · Other national disclosures under CAMA 2020 (as amended): value added statement and five-year financial summary

3. Analyses and Interpretation of Financial Statements

   15%

   Analyses of financial statements (types of analysis; profitability, efficiency, liquidity, solvency and investors' returns; ratio computation and interpretation for entities and simple groups; use of statement of cash flows; non-financial information; EPS and capital market reaction; analytical reports for stakeholders) · Limitations of analyses and interpretation of financial statements (historic information, window dressing and creative accounting, specialised and not-for-profit entities, limitations of EPS, limitations of consolidated financial statements, other and non-financial information)

4. IFRS Accounting Standards and Policies Relating to Specific Transactions in Financial Statements

   15%

   Tangible non-current assets (IAS 16, IAS 20, IAS 23, IAS 40, IFRS 5, IFRS 16) · Intangible non-current assets (IAS 38) · Impairment of assets (IAS 36) · Financial instruments: financial assets and liabilities (IAS 32, IFRS 7, IFRS 9, IFRS 13) · Inventories and revenue from contracts with customers (IAS 2, IFRS 15) · Provisions, contingent liabilities and assets, and events after the reporting period (IAS 10, IAS 37) · Income taxes, including current and deferred tax (IAS 12) · Earnings per share (IAS 33) · Effects of changes in foreign exchange rates (IAS 21)

5. Conceptual and Legal Frameworks for Financial Reporting

   10%

   The need for regulatory frameworks in financial reporting · Conceptual framework (purpose, objectives, qualitative characteristics, underlying assumptions, users, elements, recognition and measurement, capital maintenance, principle-based vs rule-based frameworks, accrual and cash bases, reporting entities, IASB standard-setting and due process, IFRS adoption and local standards, specialised/not-for-profit/public sector frameworks and IPSAS, role of the ISSB) · Legal framework (laws and regulations governing preparation of financial statements; CAMA 2020 as amended, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (Amendments) Act 2023 and pronouncements of CBN, NDIC, FRC, NAICOM, NGX, SEC, PENCOM)

6. Sustainability Reporting Framework

   10%

   Movement from social and environmental accounting to sustainability reporting · Documents and timelines for submission to the FRC of Nigeria for readiness test assessment by entities adopting IFRS S1 and S2 · Sustainability reporting and methods of reflecting its impacts in financial statements and narratives for investors · Factors responsible for the increasing demand for sustainability reporting – internationally and locally · Problems and limitations of sustainability reporting · Principles and content elements of GRI and US SASB frameworks and Nigerian Exchange Group's guidelines on sustainability reporting · Impact of sustainability reporting on corporate performance measures · Emergence of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) · IFRS S1 – General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information · FRC of Nigeria roadmap for adopting IFRS S1 and S2 (early, voluntary, mandatory and public sector adopters)

7. Ethics, Current and Technological Developments in Financial Reporting

   10%

   Ethical and professional issues in financial reporting and appropriate actions · New accounting standards in issue as may be specified from time to time · Current and emerging issues in financial reporting · Uses and application of cloud accounting, digital assets, blockchain, distributed ledger technologies and fintech · Effect of technological developments in financial reporting, including artificial intelligence and machine learning

Where candidates lose this paper

The Institute publishes its own past questions. What it cannot give you is an answer to these.

There is not enough time to read the whole study text before the diet.

The official study text condensed and reorganised by examinable weighting, with every claim cited back to the page it came from — so you can check anything you doubt in one click.

You write practice answers for months and never find out whether a single one would have scored.

Write by hand, photograph it, and have it marked against the examiner's own marking guide — with the marks broken down the way the examiner breaks them down, and the reason for each one.

The study text is hundreds of pages and none of it tells you which parts the examiner actually asks about.

Every syllabus topic, ordered by the share of marks it carries, so your revision time follows the marks instead of the page count.

You know the answer but lose marks anyway, and no one ever explains where they went.

The Institute's published solution beside your attempt, with the mark allocation visible — so you can see the marks sitting in the principle and the application, not only the final figure.

You have only ever typed your answers, and the paper is written by hand.

Timed mocks written on paper, under exam conditions, so you discover how long handwriting takes before it costs you a question.