This series aims to concern itself with the theoretical, empirical and applied research into the macro and micro accounting issues of developing countries, including the relevance to the Third World of international accounting standards. It is our hope that we can raise the level of interest in the specific problems of accounting in developing countries and raise the awareness of the real issues, so that accounting in the Third World will not just be seen as a matter of copying what is done in the industrialized countries. It is our hope that through an increasing awareness of the issues, the accounting practices advocated and the training made available will become relevant to actual needs, and will make a real contribution to the development process.

This special edition (Supplement 1) of "Research in Accounting in Emerging Economies" (RAEE) focuses on accounting and economic development issues in developing countries, with special reference to Africa. The decision to publish a special supplement on Africa originated from the first conference on African accounting held under the aegis of the University of Botswana in February 1993. This supplement is a collaboration between African and non-African scholars. The chapters that have resulted have incorporated changes in accounting practices that have arisen between February 1993 (when the Botswana Conference took place) and December 1997. The last four chapters of this supplement did not originate from the Botswana Conference. They are derived from the unsolicited submissions to our annual series and went through our normal review process. They were included in this supplement because of their focus on an African country - Nigeria.