Evaluation of Cloud Accounting Costs on Timeliness of Financial Reports of Listed Consumer Goods Firms in Nigeria
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Nneka CHARLES-ANYAOGU School of Management Technology, Imo State Polytechnic Omuma, Imo State, Nigeria
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Edith Nkiruka MAZELI Faculty of Management Sciences, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, Nigeria
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Justice OMO-OKEI Faculty of Management Sciences, Michael and Cecilia Ibru University, Agbarhaoto, Delta State, Nigeria
This study provided an in-depth empirical analysis of the effect of cloud accounting costs and financial report timeliness by disaggregating cloud accounting costs into cloud accounting acquisition, training, and maintenance/upgrade costs. The study controls for firm size, financial leverage and audit firm type. The study sampled 14 listed consumer goods firms from 2014 to 2023. The Panel Estimated Generalised Least Squares (PEGLS) technique served as the main estimation technique. The study evidences that cloud accounting acquisition and training costs enhance the speed at which financial reports are released significantly. Conversely, the study confirmed that, while cloud accounting software maintenance is key for system upkeep, too frequent system upgrades may temporarily disrupt the timely release of financial reports. Both firm size (FMSZ) and audit firm type (AUFT) are associated with shorter reporting lags, while financial leverage reduces financial report timeliness significantly.
Overall, this study demonstrates that investments in cloud-based software, coupled with regular staff training in AI and AI-related courses and efficient system upgrades, are key to improving financial reporting processes in the Nigerian consumer goods industry. Hence, regulatory authorities should incentivise firms’ transition to automated accounting systems. Furthermore, management of the sampled firms should train their staff in AI and AI-related courses on a regular basis. Lastly, the sampled firms should establish clear protocols to schedule maintenance during non-critical periods to avoid delays in financial report release.
Copyright© 2026 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article’s History: Received 19th of April, 2026; Revised 29th of May, 2026; Accepted 22th of June, 2026; Available online: 30th of June, 2026. Published as research article in the Volume XXI, Summer, Issue 3(93), 2026.
Okolie, J. O., Charles-Anyaogu, N,, Mazeli, E. N., Omoyibo, F. & Onuorah, A.C. (2026). Evaluation of Cloud Accounting Costs on Timeliness of Financial Reports of Listed Consumer Goods Firms in Nigeria. Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, Volume XXI, Summer, 3(93), 861 – 876. https://doi.org/10.57017/jaes.v21.3(93).09
Acknowledgment/Funding Declaration: N/A
Declaration of Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Data Availability Statement: The data supporting the findings of this study were obtained from publicly available audited annual reports of the sampled listed consumer goods firms and from the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX). The dataset was compiled from publicly accessible corporate disclosures covering the period 2014–2023. The processed data and supporting materials are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Ethics Approval Statement: This study was conducted using exclusively secondary data obtained from publicly available corporate financial statements and official disclosures of listed companies. The research did not involve human participants, personal data, interviews, surveys, or experimental procedures. Consequently, ethical approval and informed consent were not required in accordance with applicable institutional and international research ethics guidelines.
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