THE IMPACT OF ACCOUNTING PRACTICES ON THE GROWTH OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES: ANALYSIS FROM CENTRAL ZONE OF TARABA STATE.

Nkasi E. Ernest

ABSTRACT

Arguably for any Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) to be successful, owners of such businesses must possess appropriate skills and abilities to run the business. This paper therefore looks at the impact of accounting skills to entrepreneurs of small and medium enterprises for sustainable performance and development in a developing nation like Nigeria using the central senatorial district of Taraba State as a focal point. The broad objectives of this paper are to ascertain if acquisition of accounting skills by SMEs operators have benefits that are accruable to the firms. The paper adopted the descriptive research design approach and data were generated from professionals and operators/owners of SMEs in the state through a fifteen point structured questionnaire. However, Data was analyzed using percentage analysis, the weighted mean, and the Z-test statistics. The hypotheses were tested using the Z-test for population proportion adopted at 5% level of significance under the two tailed test. The results showed that accounting skills acquired by owners and operators of SMEs in the state will enhance their economic status and businesses performance. The result also showed that accounting skills will enhance their business acumen and profitability. Based on the findings the paper concluded that, the acquisition of fundamental accounting skills by owners of small and medium scale enterprises is of utmost importance given the numerous contributions which are accruable to owners and operators of SMEs especially in developing nations. In line with the findings the paper recommended that, a massive and regular training of owners and operators of SMEs nationwide on the accounting and business skills.

Keywords: Central Senatorial District, Sustainable Performance, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, Accounting Skills.