ACCOUNTING COMPETENCIES REQUIRED BY BUSINESS EDUCATION GRADUATES FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP VENTURES IN ABIA STATE

Abstract

The increasing cases of business failures arising from inability of business
education graduates to adequately apply accounting competencies in managing
businesses informed the need for this study. The purpose of the study was to
determine financial accounting and auditing competencies required by business
education graduates for entrepreneurship ventures. Two research questions guided
the study while two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The
study adopted descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised
1,809 managers of Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) registered with
Abia State Ministry of Trade and Investment. Simple random sampling technique
was used to select 105 SME managers. A 28-item questionnaire tagged
“Accounting Competencies Required for Entrepreneurship Ventures
(ACREV)”wasused fordatacollection.The questionnaire had 5-point rating scale.
The instrument was validated by three experts. The internal consistency of the
instrument was established using Cronbach’s alpha method and it yielded a
coefficient value of .82. Data collected for the study in respect of the research
questions were analysed using mean and standard deviation while z-test was used
to test the null hypotheses. Findings of the study showed that financial accounting
competencies required by business education graduates for entrepreneurship
ventures are ability to prepare final accounts, keep accurate financial records,
journalize business transactions, among others. Also, the study showed that
auditing competencies required by business education graduates for
entrepreneurship ventures are ability to maintain good internal control system for
the business, investigate to an acceptable level to establish conformity or nonconformity of transactions to the set rules and procedures, among others. It was
concluded that business education graduates must possess financial
accountingandauditingcompetenciesrequired for entrepreneurship ventures in
order to manage small scale businesses successfully. Based on the findings, it was
recommended among others, that business education students should be encouraged to register for professional programmes in financial accounting and
auditing to help them acquire the required competencies.