Africa’s journey towards accrual-based financial reporting is well underway, but progress is uneven and hampered by a critical gap: the absence of context-sensitive application guidelines. At the 2025 IPSASB Standard Setters Forum in Lisbon, African and Middle East delegations raised concerns about the lack of IPSAS implementation support. Unlike IFRS, where entities benefit from extensive implementation resources, IPSAS practitioners often face ambiguity in applying complex standards to real-world situations. IPSASB acknowledged this gap but highlighted its resource limitations.
This lack of guidance has contributed to slow adoption and inconsistent application across the continent. Without structured support, IPSAS risks remaining a technical aspiration rather than a transformative tool for fiscal transparency and accountability. Compounded with this, many governments do not maintain or struggle with incomplete asset registers, asset valuation, weak systems, and limited technical capacity.
AAAG, working with African partners, proposes a coordinated initiative to develop IPSAS application guidelines. By doing so, Africa can accelerate adoption, strengthen reporting credibility, and ensure accrual IPSAS becomes a driver of better debt management, asset stewardship, and service delivery.The Case for Practical Application Guidelines.