Social and Environmental Accounting, Stakeholder Theory, and Corporate Accountability in Nigeria’s Extractive Industries

This study develops an original stakeholder-based social and environmental accounting framework for Nigeria's extractive industries and provides comprehensive empirical testing of the relationships among accounting disclosure quality, stakeholder engagement depth, and corporate accountability outcomes. Extractive industries in Nigeria, encompassing oil and gas, solid minerals, and quarrying, generate the country's dominant export revenues but also impose significant environmental and social costs on host communities. Despite the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative membership and various disclosure frameworks, the social and environmental accountability of Nigerian extractive firms remains deeply contested. This study employs a longitudinal mixed-method design covering 18 extractive sector companies for the period 2014 to 2023. Social and environmental accounting quality is assessed using a 90-item customized disclosure index derived from the GRI Standards, EITI requirements, and Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative disclosure framework. Stakeholder engagement is measured using community investment, host community consultation frequency, and grievance mechanism accessibility indicators. Corporate accountability is operationalized through environmental incident frequency, regulatory violation rates, and host community satisfaction scores from an original 600-household survey in Niger Delta, Plateau, and Zamfara States. Longitudinal structural equation modeling is applied. Results establish a robust causal chain from accounting disclosure quality through stakeholder engagement to improved corporate accountability outcomes. The study contributes an original Nigerian Extractive Industries Accountability Model and recommends mandatory community impact accounting as a legal requirement for all extractive licenses in Nigeria.

Keywords: social accounting, environmental accounting, stakeholder theory, extractive industries, Nigeria.