This study examined the relationship between corporate governance and the quality of auditor’s report with evidence from the Nigerian Banking Industry. The research design adopted for this study is the ex-post facto as the research relied on historic data. Eleven (11) deposit money banks quoted on the Nigerian Stocks Exchange were sampled. In testing our hypothesis, the correlation analysis was applied to a dataset covering seven (7) years from 2007 to 2014 that is the post-corporate governance period. Analysis suggests that while board composition has a negative and insignificant relationship with audit quality, separation of the roles of the CEO from that of the chairman of the board, board size, and composition of the audit committee has positive and significant relationship with audit quality. Furthermore, findings also show that ownership concentration has a positive but insignificant relationship with audit quality. Findings also show that the strength of the positive linear relationship between the separation of the roles of the CEO from that of the chairman of the board and the audit quality is as high as 0.702377 or 70.23% followed by the relationship between board size and audit quality which stood at 0.452896 or 45.28%. However, the study thus concludes that effective corporate governance arises out of responsible and simultaneous vigilant actions by the managers, the board of Directors, shareholders and auditors. Good financial Reporting from the external auditors is an important building block of corporate governance because the information provided to the shareholders has to be optimal in terms of cost and benefits. The study also recommends that the relationship between management and shareholders have to be characterized by transparency and fairness.
Keywords: Audit Quality, Board Composition, Board size, Corporate Governance, Nigeria
