Sustainability Accounting and Financial Performance of Public Tertiary Educational Institutions in Nigeria: The case of Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

With the growing global concern for sustainability and its impact on financial performance, understanding the interplay between sustainability accounting practices and financial outcomes becomes crucial for organizations, including educational institutions. This research examined the effect of sustainability accounting practice and financial performance of public tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria. Focusing on institutions in Nasarawa State, the study covers all tertiary educational institutions in the state. Anchored on stakeholder and institutional theories, a Pearson correlation coefficient was used to find out if relationship exist between sustainability accounting and financial performance and the multiple regression analysis to determine the effect of sustainability accounting practice and financial performance by testing two null hypotheses. The results revealed that a significant relationship exists between the variables. The regression result as well revealed that sustainability accounting practice represented by Social and Community Development Costs (SCDC) and Human Capital Development Costs (HCDC) have a significant effect on financial performance represented by Operating Margin (OM) and Current Ration (CR) of tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria. The Study concluded that tertiary institutions in Nigeria actually incurred certain identified sustainability costs and confirmed the fact that sustainability accounting attributes significantly influenced financial performance of the institutions. The study recommended that professional/ regulatory bodies should develop a specific standard to regulate and guide sustainability accounting and reporting in public tertiary educational institutions in Nigerian.

Keywords: Sustainability Accounting, Financial Performance, Tertiary Educational Institution