Ethics of Accounting and Financial Reporting: Philosophical Foundations for Professional Accountants in Nigeria

This study examines the philosophical ethical foundations of accounting practice and financial reporting in Nigeria, addressing the professional obligations of accountants to truth, transparency, and the public interest in the context of pervasive financial reporting fraud. Accounting ethics is a branch of applied moral philosophy concerned with the duties of financial professionals to multiple principals, including shareholders, regulators, employees, and the public, and these duties generate philosophically complex obligations when they conflict. Using a professional practice design, the study draws on the philosophy of professional ethics from Michael Davis, Kantian duties of honesty, and stakeholder theory, supplemented by secondary literature published between 2020 and 2024. Structured interviews with 25 practising accountants, ICAN disciplinary committee members, and philosophy academics in Lagos and Abuja provide the primary data. Documentary analysis of financial fraud cases prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from 2021 to 2024 provides the case material. Findings reveal that the philosophical foundations of accounting professional ethics in Nigeria are poorly understood by practitioners, who tend to conflate legal compliance with ethical adequacy, creating a compliance-based ethics that fails when legal frameworks are inadequate or unenforced. The study argues that Kantian duties of honesty impose professional obligations that extend well beyond legal minimum requirements. Keywords: accounting ethics, financial reporting, professional philosophy, Nigeria, Kantian ethics.