COMPUTERIZED ACCOUNTING SYSTEM AND PERFORMANCE OF UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTHWEST, NIGERIA

The introduction of Computer Accounting System (CAS) is expected to lead to effective accounting operations for the organizations. Despite the several benefits of CAS, incidences of fraudulent activities and untimely delivery of financial reports are rampant in public institutions most especially Federal Universities in Nigeria. This raises the question of whether the introduction of CAS has enhanced the efficiency of accounting-related work and the overall organization performance. The study examined computerized accounting system and performance of universities in Southwest, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive research survey design. Population of the study covered all the 779 staff in the Bursary Units of all the federal universities in the Southwest region of Nigeria, out of which 271 were sampled using convenience sampling techniques. An adapted close-ended questionnaire, subjected to validity and reliability test, was used to elicit information from the sampled respondents and thereafter, Pearson correlation and multiple regression were used for the analysis. The result reveals that all the predictor variables exert a positive effect on the performance of universities in the Southwest region of Nigeria with the following regression coefficients of 0.627, 0.098, 0.114, 0.442 and 0.334 for automated data-processing component, internal control component, automated reporting component, relational database component and enhancing technologies respectively. However, automated dataprocessing component, relational database component and enhancing technologies exert a positive and significant effect on performance to the tune of 0.0000.05 and 0.139>0.05. It was established that there existed a statistically significant effect of computerized accounting system on the performance of universities in the southwest region of Nigeria. It was therefore recommended that government should establish a commission on ICT sector to regulate and see the full implementation of Computerized Accounting system in all institutions in Nigeria.