Audit Independence and Financial Reporting Quality: An Insight from Sub-Saharan African Stock Markets (Published)
This study examines the possible effects of audit independence on financial reporting quality in the Sub-Sahara African Stock Markets. Using quantitative data obtained from the annual financial reports of 106 listed firms in the 6 sub-Saharan African stock markets of ten-year period (2012 to 2021). The Ex-post factor research design was considerably suitable for the study.The result shows that audit tenure has a positive impact and is significant in explaining financial reporting quality. The results further show that audit firm size has a positive impact but is insignificant in explaining financial reporting quality. Audit fees were found to have a positive and significant impact on. It is recommended that listed firms should increase audit tenure and policies on audit tenure should be revised. It is also recommended that firms should carefully assess the audit report of previous auditors when determining whether to appoint a new auditor. Lastly, Firms should increase the amount of fees paid to auditors to enhance their work while adhering to ethical principles with regard to audit fees. The focus on only firms listed on Stock Market of Sub Saharan African
Keywords: Audit fee, audit independence, financial quality
Audit Input and Accounting Conservatism Among Listed Firms in Nigeria (Published)
This study investigated the effects of audit quality characteristics in areas of audit independence, audit firm size and audit tenure on accounting conservatism among listed firms in Nigeria. The study used longitudinal and correlation research designs. The population of the study consists 151 firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group as at 31st December, 2022. Statistics was analyzed using descriptive in addition to inferential statistics and panel data regression analysis. The results revealed that audit independence had significant positive effect {0.138(0.004)} on accounting conservatism, audit firm size had significant negative effect {-0.0623(0.050)}, while audit tenure had a positive but insignificant effect {0.110(0.494)}. The study recommended that firms in Nigeria should be conscious of the quality of the mechanism imputed into audit engagement in order to ensure audit quality as it has implication on quality of output. Firms should also not compromise audit independence in order to present globally accepted financial reports.
Keywords: Audit Firm Size, audit independence, audit input, audit tenure and accounting conservatism.
Examining Effect of Audit Committee Attributes on Firm Performance: Evidence from listed Food and Beverages Firms in Nigeria (Published)
Persistent material misstatements in financial statements and subsequent loss of stakeholder’s confidence on credibility of reported information necessitated the establishment of statutory audit committee by corporate governance ethic of most countries including Nigeria. This paper examined effect of different audit committee attributes on performance of firms listed in the food and beverage industries in Nigeria Stock Exchange. Audit committee independence, audit committee financial expertise and audit committee meeting are proxy for measuring audit committee attributes while financial performance was measured with Earning Per Share (EPS). Ex-post facto research design was adopted and secondary data were collected from annual reports of selected firms spanning eight years from 2011 to 2018. The population of this study constitute of all firms listed under the food and beverages sector in Nigeria stock exchange which are twenty-one (21) firms as at December 31st, 2018. The study purposively selected fourteen (14) firms based on the availability of their annual reports. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics was conducted. Analyses revealed that: audit committee independence and audit committee expertise has positive but insignificant effect on firm performance measured with EPS, while audit committee meeting exhibit positive and significant effect on EPS of listed food and beverages firms in Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Based on the findings, this study therefore recommended that firm should sustain frequencies of audit committee meetings, so as to ensure that the committee has enough time to take decisions that are efficient and effective in enhancing better firm performance. This study also recommends that regulatory bodies should ensure that audit committee are made more effective by ensuring that members includes independent non-executive directors and also ensure that more members with financial expertise especially accounting expertise be drafted into the audit committee to improve performance of firms.
Citation: Osevwe-Okoroyibo, E. E. and Emeka-Nwokeji, N. A (2021) Examining Effect of Audit Committee Attributes on Firm Performance: Evidence from listed Food and Beverages Firms in Nigeria, European Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance Research, Vol.9, No. 8, pp.26-43,
Keywords: Audit, Performance, audit committee characteristics, audit independence, audit meeting, financial expertise