Audit committee characteristics and financial reporting quality of selected firms in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper performs an empirical investigation on the effect of audit committee characteristics on financial reporting quality of selected oil and gas companies listed on the floor of Nigeria Exchange Group for a period of ten years spanning 2011 to 2020 adopting ex-post facto and longitudinal research design. For the purpose of this paper, the study conducted a comprehensive analysis of data based on audit committee characteristics represented by audit committee size, audit committee busyness, audit committee gender diversity and audit committee independence, while our dependent variable financial reporting quality was captured using timeliness of financial report. Secondary data extracted from annual report and accounts of 10 oil and gas firms was subjected to some preliminary data tests such as descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and variance inflation factor and was analyzed using panel multiple regression technique taking cognizance of non homogeneity of firms data, hence the use of hausman effect tests . Result of Hausman specification test suggests that the random panel Least Square (RPLS) regression result was most appropriate for the dataset. The panel regression result indicates that audit committee size has positive but insignificant effect on financial reporting quality. Again audit committee busyness, audit committee gender diversity and audit committee independence has negative and insignificant effect on financial reporting quality of oil and gas firms in Nigeria. Given a negative effect of audit committee independence and gender, regulatory bodies should increase the independence of audit committee members in order to have adequate members who can monitor financial reporting process and also encourage more male participation in order to improve financial reporting quality of companies.