THE USEFULNESS OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS IN ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF COMPANIES AND IN GUIDING INVESTMENT DECISIONS

ABSTRACT

The use of financial statement in any business organization cannot be over emphasized, financial statements are needed by variety of people for different purposes.

For instance, the government needs the financial books (reports) of a company for taxation purposes, the investors want to know how profitable a company is and will be able if the management of the company will like to know the level of their performance, all these cannot be known without the analysis of financial statement of the company or companies involved.

The research work therefore forecast on the usefulness of financial statements in assessing the performance of companies and guiding investment decisions, in order to provide investors, management, government and others what the company is worth.

Finally, the sources of data which are, primary and secondary data which led to the discussion of findings, conclusions and recommendation of the research topic.