Content area
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting among accounting students in the Nigerian universities. Furthermore, the study also compares the students’ understanding of Islamic and conventional accounting.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used survey research design through the administration of questionnaire on a sample of university undergraduate and post-graduate accounting students across the north-west region in Nigeria. The data generated for the study was analysed using Cronbach’s alpha, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics.
Findings
The study found that the accounting students have an adequate awareness and basic knowledge of Islamic accounting as they were able to contrast Islamic accounting from conventional accounting. Also, in their aspiration towards learning Islamic accounting, they agreed that Islamic accounting should be made a compulsory course in accounting curriculum.
Research limitations/implications
This study focusses on north-west region of Nigeria. Hence, data and more in-depth analysis can be further improved by considering a whole country as diverse as Nigeria. Also, only a questionnaire was used by the study. Hence, further studies can use face-to-face interviews to fully extract the awareness and knowledge of the target respondents. Lastly, majority of the respondents are Muslims given the area where the study was conducted, hence, non-Muslims are not properly represented.
Practical implications
Despite its limitations, this study is still of importance in providing insights on both undergraduate and post-graduate students’ level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting. This course is unique as it is different in orientation compared with other existing courses on offer. This paper also provides an invaluable insight, therefore, National University Commission of Nigeria, Islamic institutions and professional bodies like Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and Association of National Accountants of Nigeria should make continues effort towards promoting the awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting by properly integrating same into academic and professional curricula and other training and sensitisation programs. In doing so, Islamic accounting subjects could be introduced as independent courses for selection by the student. Courses like Islamic Accounting and Finance, Accounting for Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs), Accounting for Waqf, Accounting for Zakat, Shariah auditing, Corporate Shariah Governance, Education and Ethics could be introduced across levels to enable students learn more of Islamic accounting.
Social implications
Proper integration of Islamic accounting into academic and professional courses would greatly contribute to the production of experts most importantly ethical and God-fearing accountants for the growth and development of IFIs in Nigeria.
Originality/value
This paper examines Nigerian university undergraduate and post-graduate students’ level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting in the north-west region of Nigeria.
1. Introduction
Islamic banking and finance has grown rapidly in recent years across the world (Almutairi and Quttainah, 2017; Hakimi et al., 2018; Usman and Kibiya, 2021) and this new-found prominence has raised many questions as to what exactly is Islamic banking and by extension Islamic accounting and finance (Abdul Rahman, 2010). Since the inception of Islamic banking, the number of Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) worldwide has risen significantly (Grassa and Matoussi, 2014). This has led to the creation of other Islamic organisations, such as Islamic insurance (Takaful companies) and Sukuk markets, to mention but a few (Chapra and Ahmed, 2002; Usman, 2015).
However, despite the tremendous improvement recorded by the IFIs, there is still a growing concern as the IFIs continue to face challenges. These challenges emanate in different perspectives, which include less patronage of their products (Hidayat et al., 2020), an issue argued to be exacerbated by lack of awareness and knowledge of the IFIs’ activities (Umar and Kurawa, 2021). In a related development, there is also a growing concern about Islamic accounting education (Grassa, Khlif and Khelil, 2022), especially in the West-African countries where Islamic accounting education is not popular. In Nigeria, for instance, apart from Bayero University, Kano, which offers Islamic accounting-related courses through its International Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance, the authors could not find any among the north-western universities that offer Islamic accounting and finance courses, including the Al-Qalam University Katsina, which was to the best of the authors’ knowledge claimed as the first and only Islamic university in the north-west region. This is despite the region being the Islamic centre of Nigeria. Consequently, the lack of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting and finance in the region has exacerbated not to mention the country at large (Umar and Kurawa, 2021).
The north-west region of Nigeria contains some states like Sokoto, Katsina, Kaduna and even Kano state, which was reported as the most populous state in the country (National Bureau of Statistics, 2018). These states could argue to be about 90% dominated by Muslims. Although Nigeria is a secular country, these states somehow practice the Shariah, as there are courts that make judgement in consonant with Shariah principles (Shariah courts) in the region. Hence, a study of this nature is relevant in such an environment as the study is motivated to evaluate the level of the awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting and finance, which is the backbone of Islamic banking and finance.
This study argues that the conventional education system is failing in the country, as it fails to produce the desirable youth (leaders of tomorrow) who are ethical and God-fearing (Abdul Rahman, 2010). With the present system of accounting education, the issue of corruption in virtually every financial dealing has become so rampant and systemic that it threatens the peaceful existence of the country. The people at the mantle of power are becoming blind, greedy and insensitive in their desire to steal from public funds (Hidayat et al., 2020). Similarly, cases of the collapse of banks like the Inter-Continental Bank and Oceanic Bank are consequences of personal greed and unethical financial behaviours.
Consequently, these devilish and related activities have resulted in a severe situation and hardships, especially in the north-west region of Nigeria. The region has since been engulfed by illiteracy, banditry, kidnapping and ethnic and religious crisis, which have resulted to loss of lives and the destruction of homes, markets and towns, including property. Thus, the study argues that a well-educated, ethical and God-fearing person who in principle could abstain from corrupt and related practices should be the ideal person at the mantle of every financial dealing and one way of producing such individual(s) is through inculcating Islamic values and knowledge like Islamic accounting and finance knowledge, which guides on the Shariah-compliant way of every financial dealing (Mahdavikhou and Khotanlou, 2012). Hence, in the environment like the north-west region where majority of the Muslims in the country reside, knowledge of Islamic accounting and finance, which is lacking, is very pertinent and timely.
In Nigeria, there is a platform for financial institutions to participate in Shariah-compliant activities. Notwithstanding, there are constant concerns from financial institutions like Jaiz Bank on the lack of patronage of their products, which is threatening the true existence of the Islamic banks. Hence, the study argued that lack of awareness and knowledge of the Islamic accounting system could be attributed to lack of patronage by the citizenry, especially in the north-west region in addition to the inadequate supply of labour to champion the smooth operation of the IFIs. Thus, the present study evaluates the level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting among university students in the north-west region. Consequently, the study aims to achieve the following objectives:
To analyse the level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting system among accounting students in north-west region of Nigeria.
To evaluate the ability of accounting students to make informed comparisons between conventional and Islamic accounting system.
To examine the aspiration towards learning Islamic accounting system among accounting students in north-west region of Nigeria.
Admittedly, just as the higher institutions in Nigeria are lagging in manning Islamic accounting and finance courses, so also researchers, academics and practitioners in conducting researches in such area (Alshater et al., 2022). This is an argument that is also stressed by Umar et al. (2021). In a related study, Umar and Kurawa (2021) also expressed concern on how Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institution (AAOIFI), which is a standard guiding Islamic accounting practice, was not incorporated into the mainstream accounting curricular in Nigeria. Nevertheless, these studies were basically on promoting the awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting by curriculum setters and, thus, restricted to documentary search. They have neglected to evaluate students’ level of awareness and at least basic knowledge of Islamic accounting and finance in the country through other means like questionnaire instruments.
Therefore, the present study is positioned to evaluate students’ level of awareness and knowledge despite the proclaimed lack of promoting the awareness in the academic and professional curriculum (Umar and Kurawa, 2021; Umar et al., 2021). We argue that through other activities like group assignments, class presentations, excursion, social networks, etc. engaged by students, they could be exposed to the ideas of Islamic accounting/banking and finance, hence, the motivation for the study.
Consequently, the study contributes on evaluating the university accounting students’ awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting and finance in Nigerian higher institutions of learning. It also contributes on the need to introduce Islamic Accounting as one of the courses to be taken by accounting and accounting-related students. This study has several implications for students, the accounting profession, the education sector and north-west region of Nigeria.
The remainder of the paper is organized into four sections. Section 2 presents the literature review. Section 3 contains the research methodology. Section 4 provides the results and discussion. Section 5 covers the conclusion and recommendations.
2. Literature and empirical review
2.1 History of Islamic banking and finance in Nigeria
In Nigeria, the issue of establishing IFIs is not a new phenomenon. Various efforts have since been made to see it come to reality by some concerned Nigerian Muslims and non-Muslims (Umar and Kurawa, 2021). Nonetheless, this has resulted to all sorts of challenges and rejections due to differences in culture and religion and most importantly the lack of awareness and knowledge of the Islamic accounting system and the benefits therefrom (Allan et al., 2021; Bello and Abubakar, 2014). Nonetheless, since the establishment of Jaiz Bank, Nigeria has witnessed tremendous improvements on Islamic financial transactions where many IFIs, such as Islamic Banks, including Islamic windows, Takaful companies and Sukuk, among others have emerged. The pioneer and full-fledged Islamic bank in Nigeria is Jaiz Bank which was established in the year 2011. It is a giant bank that competes with other conventional banks in the country. Jaiz Bank has a capitalisation of about ₦27bn [1]. Recently, some Islamic banks like TAJ Bank and Lotus Capital have come into full operation (Umar et al., 2021).
Obviously, there is a huge potential for the development of the Islamic financial system in Nigeria. However, this could be practically impossible without awareness and proper knowledge of the Islamic accounting and finance system. Muslims and most of the financial institutions in Nigeria are very interested in the knowledge of Islamic accounting and finance system as it assists in deploying Shariah-compliant products. Unfortunately, the supply of labour articulate in the Islamic accounting system is still in short supply (Hidayat et al., 2020; Umar et al., 2021).
Nonetheless, recently the platform for learning Islamic accounting and practice in the IFIs is very much conducive and promising especially in the north-western part of the country where the idea is very much welcomed, as it is in consonant with the culture of the region. The judicial infrastructure to implement the Islamic accounting system is very much available. Recently, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued Islamic Bond (Sukuk) to cater the needs for its capital projects. Hence, CBN fully supports Shariah-compliant products and the Islamic accounting system politically and structurally. Even recently, pension administrators have started to practice Islamic pension called Fund VI where pension contributions are invested in Shariah compliant products.
2.2 Islamic accounting in the Nigerian universities
Universities are the peak place for inculcating character, learning and ethical behaviours to various students with a view to enabling them to become productive and better citizens and leaders for the future (Umar et al., 2021). In Nigeria, the first University was established in the year 1948 as the then University College, Ibadan which was an affiliate of University of London. Presently, there are 204 Universities in Nigeria consisting of 49 federal, 56 state and 99 private universities (NUC, 2021) [2].
In response to the continuous demand for students and professionals with knowledge, proper training and development in the areas of Islamic accounting and finance, the Nigerian university system is expected to contribute to the knowledge and awareness creation drive in such area of study necessary to service the economy in addition to conventional courses being offered by them. This is achievable through rigorous academic courses at diploma and degree levels (undergraduate and postgraduate). Consequently, universities play a significant role in terms of knowledge production and reproduction, training, research and innovation across the globe (Jega, 2020). In specific, the study argues that universities play a key role in the creation of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting.
2.3 Awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting
2.3.1 Review of the empirical literature.
Amin et al. (2009) investigated the acceptance level of the Islamic accounting course by undergraduate students at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah. The study used the Theory of Reasoned Action to analyse the findings. Using a self‐administered questionnaire, it revealed that the amount of information on Islamic accounting affected the intention of students to enrol in the course. In a related development, Umar and Kurawa (2021) explored the reasons for the low level of awareness and knowledge of AAOIFI accounting standards in Nigeria. By way of semi-structured interviews, the study observed the low level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting and finance as emanating from the non-integration of AAOIFI accounting standards into the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards for Nigerian universities and all their other accounting curricula and the professional accounting examination syllabus.
Furthermore, Allan et al. (2021) explored the perception, awareness and understanding of Islamic accounting among accounting students. This study analyses responses from 383 accounting students and reported that some of the respondents possessed basic knowledge on Islamic accounting. Although the results revealed a significant difference between the level of understanding between students in different years of study, however, the study did indicate an insignificant difference for the perception of Islamic accounting among male and female students. Hidayat et al. (2020) evaluated the awareness level of Islamic finance principles among the employees of financial institutions in Moscow, Russia. The study surveyed 310 financial institution employees to determine the level of their awareness of major Islamic finance principles. Findings of the study revealed the level of the awareness of financial institution employees towards Islamic finance as low. Nonetheless, the study argued that in Moscow Muslims were very few and Islamic accounting and finance was not popular in the country and could be the reason supporting findings of the study.
On the other scenario, Altarawaneh and Lucas (2012) explored the reasons for the dominance of Western accounting and the neglect of Islamic accounting in Islamic countries, using Jordan as a case study. The study used interviews and a semi‐structured questionnaire with senior members of the accounting regulatory regime in Jordan. Consistent with Umar et al. (2021), the study eventually concluded that economic dependency on developed Western nations and their international agencies is the major factor undermining the awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting and finance in Jordan.
Consequently, the common theme observed by the present study from the extant literature reviewed is that most of the findings express concerns about the lack adequate and proper awareness of Islamic accounting and finance (Hidayat et al., 2020; Allan et al., 2021; Umar and Kurawa, 2021), which they attributed to the dominance of conventional accounting curricula (Altarawaneh and Lucas, 2012; Umar et al., 2021) or lack of political will where a particular country is dominated by other religions (Hidayat et al., 2020). Nonetheless, must of the studies focussed on undergraduate students (Allan et al., 2021; Umar et al., 2021), ignoring the postgraduate students of the university. Hence, this study argues that post-graduate students like Master and PhD could have more awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting and finance in Nigeria and thus motivated the study.
3. Methodology
This study is quantitative and, thus, adopts survey research design. The questionnaire is divided into two sections. First section consists the demographic information of the respondents, whereas the second section presents statement preference responses based on the respondents’ awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting on a five-point Likert scale: 1 = SD (strongly disagree), 2 = DA (disagree), 3 = UA (undecided), 4 = A (agree) and 5 = SA (strongly agree). The self-developed questionnaire instrument was pre-tested by distributing the questionnaire to the faculty members of Al-Qalam and Umaru Musa Yar’aduwa Universities in Katsina state, who subsequently validated the content of the questionnaire with some minimal suggestions on the concepts and structure of the questionnaire. Furthermore, a reliability test conducted on the instrument indicated that all the items of the instrument possessed Cronbach’s alpha value greater than 0.83, thus, confirming the internal consistency of the instrument and, therefore, acceptable for analysis (Korukcu et al., 2012).
3.1 Data collection and sample selection
The authors used judgmental purposive sampling technique as the study considers the north-west region of Nigeria where Islam is the dominant religion, and, thus, used as the population of the study. The north-west is virtually Muslim and contains major Muslim states like Kano which is the commercial hub of the country where most IFIs are established and Sokoto where the Sultan (Emir of all Muslims in the country) originates as the descendent of Popular Islamic reformer – Usman bin Fodio. Therefore, evaluating the awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting system is very key in the region to ensure the proper application of Islamic accounting principles in the universities and IFIs in the region.
Consequently, the study targeted all accounting undergraduate and post-graduate students across twenty (20) Universities of the north-west region. The region contains seven (7) states (Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara) and each state has at least one Federal and State university and some states have private universities (see Appendix). Table 1 contains the selection procedure and the sample of the study.
Web-based surveys like survey monkey has been used in survey research (Ali et al., 2021) due to its efficiency, cost and time effectiveness. It helps researchers to cover a wider sample, especially in Nigeria, where self-administration for this study could practically be challenging given the security situation and poor transportation system coupled with Covid-19 and consistent industrial actions embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of the country.
Consequently, 180 responses (representing about a 60% response rate) were received out of which one of the responses was invalidated due to incompleteness. Although, achieving the highest possible response rate is always a worthy goal for mail surveys, yet debates about what is considered as an acceptable response rate in social science research still exists. While some accept rates as low as 30%; others reject anything below 70% (Goyder, 1985). Consistently, a study by Dolsen and Machlis (1991) revealed that response rates of at least 65% for surveys could be valid and useful result for analysis. In a related development, Amin et al. (2009) reported a 67.5% response rate from 135 responses out of 200 questionnaires administered. Precisely, the number of responses (180) and the response rate (60%) achieved by this study could relatively be valid and useful for analysis.
3.2 Statistical tools
The study follows Feng-I (2011) and Hamdan (2018) and thereby used Cronbach’s alpha, mean and standard deviation for analysis. Also, an independent t test was carried out to determine the mean difference of the respondents. All the questions were designed to evaluate the level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting among university students using a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree; Akhtar et al., 2016). Furthermore, the questionnaire contains 22 items (questions), which were categorised into three dimensions for which the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was computed for each dimension and for the whole scale for the measures of stability and consistency. A coefficient higher than 0.60 indicates that a dimension/scale has good internal stability and consistency (Creswell, 2010).
Hence, the alpha coefficient of the whole scale (whole questionnaire items) as shown in Table 2, was 0.91 and the alpha coefficient for the three dimensions were 0.86, 0.82 and 0.61, respectively. This implies that the scale has strong stability and internal consistency to evaluate the level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting among the university students in the north-west region.
4. Descriptive statistics result
4.1 Demographic profile
Table 3 presents the demographic data of the respondents in term of gender, age and educational profile. Analysis of gender was carried out to understand the dominant gender among them. The results indicate that the majority were Male (86.24%) with the remaining Female respondents accounting for 13.76%. This implies few female members among the respondents. In addition, the age bracket of the respondents revealed that most of them were between the age bracket of 22–25 years (37.43%) followed by those aged 18–21 years (24.02%) and those above 30 years (22.9%). While the remaining 15.64% were between 26 and 29 years of age. In addition, the educational profile of the respondents revealed about 86% as undergraduates and 13.97% post-graduates containing 7.82% for Masters students and 6.15% for Ph.D. students, respectively. Hence, all the respondents have the capacity to participate in the survey (Amin et al., 2009).
Table 4 presents the descriptive statistics of the study. The analysis shows that respondents across the sampled universities generally displayed a proper awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting and conventional accounting. The mean value for the first dimension – awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting ranges between 3.93 and 4.46 with a corresponding standard deviation (SD) of 1.01–0.76, respectively. This implies a high degree of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting among the respondents with an insignificant deviation irrespective of gender, age and qualification.
Equally, the second dimension containing the respondents’ ability to contrast conventional accounting and Islamic accounting indicates a minimum value of 4.01 and a maximum value of 4.35 with SD of 0.96 and 0.72, respectively. This means that the respondents were able to understand and contrast the concepts of Islamic accounting and conventional accounting without significant deviation. Finally, the aspiration of learning the Islamic accounting system displayed a minimum mean value of 3.69 and the highest mean value of 4.54, with SD of 1.27 and 0.62, respectively. This suggests that most respondents are determined and committed to acquire the knowledge of Islamic accounting. Also, the SD signifies no significant difference among the respondents in terms of their commitment to learning Islamic accounting.
5. Findings of the study
5.1 Awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting by gender
Table 5 presents descriptive statistics result for the three dimensions based on the gender of the respondents. For the three dimensions, the mean score ranges from 4.19 to 4.28 with a respective SD of 0.60 and 0.44, implying that most respondents irrespective of their gender displayed a higher level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting. The SD indicates that no significant difference according to gender of the respondents. Accordingly, the t test analysis shows no statistically significant difference by gender in terms of the awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting.
5.2 Awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting by qualification
Table 6 contains the descriptive result in respect of the awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting based on the educational qualification of the respondents. For the three dimensions, the mean score ranges between 4.13 and 4.51 with a respective SD of 0.69 and 0.49, implying an insignificant deviation among them. Moreover, the ANOVA result indicates that no statistically significant difference in the mean value of the respondents for the first and third dimensions. However, the analysis revealed a statistically significant result, though at a 10% level of confidence (p-Value 0.084) for the second dimension based on the respondents’ ability to contrast Islamic accounting and conventional accounting. This could be normal given the level of knowledge and experience of post-graduate students, who are mostly university lecturers differ from that of undergraduate students.
5.3 Awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting by age
Table 7 contains the results of descriptive statistics for the three dimensions by age of the respondents. For the three dimensions, the mean score ranges between 4.06 and 4.32 with a respective SD of 0.85 and 0.49. This implies that most respondents display a higher level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting. The SD indicates no significant deviation among them. Also, the ANOVA result shows no statistically significant difference between the mean value of the respondents irrespective of their age.
6. Discussion of findings
Drawing from the earlier analysis, it is clear that the level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting is very encouraging from the respondents. With the average weighted mean (AWM) of 4.25 in relation to first dimension (10 questions), majority of the respondents have some level of awareness and basic knowledge of Islamic accounting and finance principles. This result supports the work of Talib et al. (2014), Halim (2017) and Allan et al. (2021). However, the finding is inconsistent with that of Hidayat et al. (2020). Also, it contradicts the earlier work of Umar and Kurawa (2021), who earlier explored the reason for the low level of awareness of AAOIFI standards in Nigeria. The finding is not surprising considering the environment where the study was conducted, which is dominated by Muslims.
Furthermore, the second dimension evaluates the respondents’ understanding of conventional and Islamic accounting, where further analysis revealed an AWM of 4.17, signifying that majority of them can compare and contrast between the two concepts. Suffice to say that with an AWM of 4.17, majority of the students understood that Islamic accounting is based on Shariah principles, which promote profit and risk sharing contrary to conventional accounting, which is not Shariah-compliant and promotes interest bearing. This clearly indicates that the students have a basic knowledge of Islamic accounting, since they can contrast it from conventional accounting (Halim, 2017). This finding is against the work of Hidayat et al. (2020), although, the study was conducted in a Shariah unfriendly environment.
The rest of the questionnaire (third dimension) concerns more of the respondents’ aspiration towards learning Islamic accounting. This is very important to assess the commitment of the students which is very key to evaluating their awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting. The result (AWM 4.25) is not surprising, as it indicates a high aspiration by them towards learning Islamic accounting. Most of them agreed that Islamic accounting should be introduced as a compulsory course. Hence, the study could argue that more awareness could improve the students’ exposure towards Islamic accounting thereby increasing their aspirations to it (Amin et al., 2009; Umar et al., 2021).
Further analysis compares the mean value of the respondents due to their differences in characteristics – gender, qualification and age. Their gender and age revealed statistically insignificant results. This means that irrespective of gender and age, they do not differ significantly in their awareness and knowledge of the concept of Islamic accounting, which also helps them to contrast it from conventional accounting (Allan et al., 2021). Interestingly, educational qualification shows that the respondents differ significantly in their ability to contrast Islamic accounting and conventional accounting. This could be normal given the level of knowledge and experience of post-graduate students, who are mostly university lecturers and experience workers, differ from that of undergraduate students.
7. Conclusion and recommendations
This study provides an insight on the level of awareness and basic knowledge of Islamic accounting, and students’ aspirations towards learning the concept. This study shows a high degree of awareness among accounting students, who agree that Islamic accounting is important to be included in the accounting syllabus as a mandatory course. Consequently, the study offers the following conclusions:
The university students in the north-west region of Nigeria have a relatively proper awareness and basic knowledge of Islamic accounting.
The students understand the guiding principles of Islamic accounting (the Shariah), which is purely profit, loss and risk sharing.
The students have a strong commitment towards Islamic accounting as they agreed the course be included in the accounting syllabus (Shafii et al., 2014) as mandatory.
Also, the study revealed a statistically significant difference between post-graduate and undergraduate students. This means that their levels of understanding and knowledge of Islamic accounting among the three categories differ significantly, most specifically on how they compare and contrast Islamic and conventional accounting concepts.
The study recommends that more awareness and education of Islamic accounting should be encouraged in the region and the country at large. Also, it provides invaluable insights on both undergraduate and post-graduate students’ level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting. This course is unique as it is different in orientation compared with other existing courses on offer. Therefore, the National University Commission of Nigeria, Islamic institutions and professional bodies like the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and Association of National Accountants of Nigeria should make continuous effort towards promoting awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting by properly integrating same into academic and professional curricula and other training and sensitisation programs. In doing so, Islamic accounting subjects could be introduced as independent courses for selection by the student. Courses like Islamic Accounting and Finance, Accounting for IFIs, Accounting for Waqf, Accounting for Zakat, Shariah auditing, Corporate Shariah Governance, Education and Ethics could be introduced across levels to enable students to learn more of Islamic accounting (Abdul Rahman, 2010; Alshater et al., 2022).
The study has several implications for students, the education sector, IFIs and the society at large. For students, being exposed to Islamic accounting and finance could give them an advantage over other accounting students. They could fit into IFIs, especially in Nigeria where such expertise is lacking. Also, God-fearing and ethical accountants could be produced and help curtail the ever-growing corrupt practices involving accountants. One of the most important implications of this study is that the findings could help universities and curriculum designers to perhaps incorporate basic Islamic accounting courses in their current accounting programs.
Nonetheless, this study focussed on the north-west region of Nigeria. Hence, data and more in-depth analysis can be improved further by considering a whole country as diverse as Nigeria. Also, only a questionnaire was used by the study, hence, further studies can use face-to-face interviews to fully extract the awareness and knowledge of target respondents on Islamic accounting. Lastly, majority of the respondents are Muslims given the area where the study was conducted, hence, non-Muslims are not properly represented.
Notes
1.www.bloomberg.com/quote/JAIZBANK:NL
2.nuc.edu.ng
Sample of the study
| Category | No. |
|---|---|
| Federal universities | 07 |
| State universities | 08 |
| Private universities | 05 |
| Initial sample size | 20 |
| Less: universities that are not offering accounting | 06 |
| Universities that do not graduate first set | 03 |
| Final sample size | 11 |
Source: Authors computations
Awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting with Cronbach’s alphas
| SN | Dimensions | No. of items | Co-ef. of reliability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting | 10 | 0.8602 |
| 2 | Understanding of conventional accounting and Islamic accounting | 6 | 0.8193 |
| 3 | Aspiration towards the learning of Islamic accounting | 6 | 0.6105 |
| Whole scale | 22 | 0.9049 |
Source: Authors computations
Demographic data
| Respondent profile | Frequency | (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Gender of the respondent | ||
| Male | 149 | 83.24 |
| Female | 30 | 16.76 |
| Total | 179 | 100 |
| Age of the respondent | ||
| 18–21 years | 43 | 24.02 |
| 22–25 years | 67 | 37.43 |
| 26–29 years | 28 | 15.64 |
| Over–30 years | 41 | 22.90 |
| Total | 179 | 100 |
| Educational profile | ||
| Undergraduate | 154 | 86.03 |
| Masters | 14 | 7.82 |
| Ph.D. | 11 | 6.15 |
| Total | 179 | 100 |
Source: Authors computations
Descriptive statistics for the three dimensions
| Statements | Mean | SD |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting | ||
| Islamic accounting is an alternative accounting system that is based on the Shariah which deals with socio-economic and Shariah compliance information for decision-making | 4.46 | 0.76 |
| The key features of Islamic commercial law are the prohibition of uncertainty (Gharar), gambling (Maysir) and interest (Riba) | 4.42 | 0.86 |
| The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) is a global standard setting body for Islamic financial institutions | 4.23 | 0.73 |
| The concept of accounting was found in Muslim practices in the seventh century | 3.93 | 1.01 |
| Islamic accounting is the process of identifying, measuring and communicating economic and other relevant information inspired by Islamic law and ethics | 4.46 | 0.81 |
| Islamic accounting offers faithful representation of the economic transaction of a business entity | 4.35 | 0.70 |
| Islamic accounting harmonises the society by ensuring just and fair accounting that is appealing to various stakeholders for Shariah permissible activities | 4.31 | 0.70 |
| Islamic accounting standards need to be complied with to enable IFIs perform their roles effectively | 4.25 | 0.78 |
| Islamic laws must be adopted as mandatory requirement for IFIs | 4.27 | 0.81 |
| Accountants should provide information to enable society to follow Allah’s commandments | 3.97 | 1.14 |
| Understanding of Conventional Accounting and Islamic Accounting | ||
| IFIs are based on Shariah, while conventional financial institutions have no such religious preoccupations | 4.26 | 0.86 |
| Shariah compliant bond (Sukuk) is based on profit or loss sharing, while conventional bond is based on interest | 4.08 | 0.88 |
| Investment in IFIs must be guided by Shariah, whereas investment in conventional financial institutions is purely guided by profit motives irrespective of Shariah permissibility of the engagement | 4.35 | 0.72 |
| The conceptual framework of Islamic accounting is like that of conventional accounting, but with different focus and socio-economic motive | 4.01 | 0.96 |
| IFIs are based on profit or loss sharing principles, unlike conventional financial institutions which are based on interest | 4.16 | 0.93 |
| IFIs promote risk-sharing between providers of fund (investors) and the agent (management/entrepreneurs), whereas conventional financial institutions promote a guaranteed predetermined rate of interest | 4.11 | 0.93 |
| Aspiration towards the Learning of Islamic Accounting | ||
| I like to learn about Islamic accounting | 4.54 | 0.62 |
| Islamic accounting should be introduced as a compulsory subject in accounting program | 4.14 | 0.97 |
| Islamic accounting should be introduced as an elective subject in accounting program | 3.69 | 1.27 |
| Islamic accounting syllabus is needed for adoption by interested academic institutions | 4.25 | 0.88 |
| Islamic accounting is necessary for IFIs (e.g. Islamic banks and Takaful companies) | 4.50 | 0.71 |
| Accountants should be equipped with Islamic accounting knowledge | 4.36 | 0.80 |
Source: Authors computations
Awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting by gender
| Items | Gender | Mean | SD | t-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness and knowledge of Islamic Accounting | Male | 4.19 | 0.75 | |
| Female | 4.28 | 0.44 | − 0.82 | |
| Understanding of Conventional Accounting and Islamic Accounting | Male | 4.19 | 0.60 | |
| Female | 4.18 | 0.55 | 0.10 | |
| Aspiration towards the Learning of Islamic Accounting | Male | 4.28 | 0.47 | |
| Female | 4.20 | 0.44 | 0.82 |
Awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting by qualification
| Items | Educ. | Mean | SD | p-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness and knowledge Islamic Accounting | B.Sc. | 4.27 | 0.50 | |
| Masters | 4.38 | 0.51 | ||
| Ph.D. | 4.28 | 0.53 | 0.724 | |
| Understanding of Conventional Accounting and Islamic Accounting | B.Sc. | 4.13 | 0.69 | |
| Masters | 4.51 | 0.49 | ||
| Ph.D. | 4.36 | 0.50 | 0.084* | |
| Aspiration towards the Learning of Islamic Accounting | B.Sc. | 4.25 | 0.58 | |
| Masters | 4.19 | 0.60 | ||
| Ph.D. | 4.28 | 0.44 | 0.902 |
Awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting by age
| Items | Age | Mean | SD | p-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness of Islamic Accounting Knowledge | 18–21 | 4.28 | 0.46 | |
| 22–25 | 4.23 | 0.53 | ||
| 26–29 | 4.32 | 0.49 | ||
| 30-above | 4.16 | 0.87 | 0.703 | |
| Understanding of Conventional Accounting and Islamic Accounting | 18–21 | 4.06 | 0.85 | |
| 22–25 | 4.14 | 0.65 | ||
| 26–29 | 4.24 | 0.59 | ||
| 30-above | 4.18 | 0.88 | 0.767 | |
| Aspiration towards the Learning of Islamic Accounting | 18–21 | 4.18 | 0.79 | |
| 22–25 | 4.28 | 0.46 | ||
| 26–29 | 4.31 | 0.48 | ||
| 30–above | 4.08 | 0.87 | 0.411 |
List of the universities in the north-west region
| State | University | Category | Establishment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kano | Bayero University, Kano | Public (Federal) | 1976 |
| Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano | Public (State) | 2012 | |
| Kano State University of Sci and Tech | Public (State) | 2001 | |
| Al-Istiqama University, Sumaila | Private | 2021 | |
| Skyline University of Nigeria, Kano | Private | 2018 | |
| Kaduna | Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria | Public (Federal) | 1962 |
| Greenfield University, Kaduna | Private | 2019 | |
| Kaduna State University | Public (State) | 2004 | |
| Katsina | Federal University Dutsin-Ma | Public (Federal) | 2011 |
| Umaru Musa Yar’adua University | Public (State) | 2006 | |
| Al-Qalam University, Katsina | Private | 2005 | |
| Kebbi | Federal University Birnin-Kebbi | Public (Federal) | 2011 |
| Kebbi State University of Sci and Tech, Aliero | Public (State) | 2006 | |
| Jigawa | Federal University, Dutse | Public (Federal) | 2011 |
| Sule Lamido University, Kafin Hausa | Public (State) | 2013 | |
| Khadija University, Majia | Private | 2021 | |
| Sokoto | Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto | Public (Federal) | 1976 |
| Sokoto State University, Sokoto | Public (State) | 2009 | |
| Zamfara | Federal University, Gusau | Public (Federal) | 2011 |
| Zamfara State University, | Public (State) | 2018 |
Sample size of the study
| Federal universities | 7 |
| State universities | 8 |
| Private universities | 5 |
| Initial sample size | 20 |
| Less: Universities that are not offering Accounting | (6) |
| Universities that do not graduate first set | 3 |
| Final sample size | 11 |
Notes:Three hundred (300) questionnaires were administered across the 11 universities, where 220 were administered to 20 undergraduates (final year) students and the remaining 80 Three hundred (300) questionnaires were administered across the 11 universities, where 220 were administered to 20 undergraduates (final year) students and the remaining 80 administered to post-graduate students among the sampled universities
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