THE ACCOUNTING REGULATION SYSTEM AND FINANCIAL REPORTING IN GUINEA-BISSAU

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the evolution of the accounting system in Guinea-Bissau, specifically the convergence process of SYSCOHADA with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). It seeks to understand to what extent political and cultural ties have influenced this convergence process in the country, as well as the links between cultural, social, economic, and financial dimensions, and their respective influences on taxation, education and vocational training, and the organization of the accounting profession, based on Nobes' (1998) classification of accounting systems. Guinea-Bissau is a member country of the Organisation for Harmonisation in African Business (OHADA), the entity responsible for establishing and formalizing accounting standards, which are approved through a uniform act involving seventeen African countries. This explains why it is influenced by, or influences, other member countries of that organization.

This research contributes to the literature in the field of accounting and financial reporting in the African continent in general, an area that is still little explored and little known by the academic community, and in Guinea-Bissau in particular, an independent country since 1973, after a period of several centuries of existence as a former Portuguese colony.