The Effect of Corporate Governance Attributes On Audit Quality in Nigeria

Abstract

An excellent relationship between corporate governance attributes and audit quality is another monitoring mechanism that enhances the reliability of financial information. Though, one of the strategies of achieving the qualitative audit is that auditors must be independent of mind and appearance. As such, an active board and audit committee may support in monitoring the reliability of an entity’s audit quality. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of corporate governance attributes on audit quality for the Nigerian listed companies. The population of the study includes all the companies in the eleven sectors of the economy, excluding the financial sector from 2012-2017. The study used only sixty-three companies as a sample after filtration and screening. The data was obtained from the annual reports and accounts of the selected companies. Multiple regression was carried out in testing the relationships between the dependent and independent variables. The result of the regression highlighted an insignificant negative relationship for board independence and positive significant and negative significant for meetings and gender of the audit committee, respectively. Agency is the main theory employed, which is supported by earnings management theory. Thus, the findings support and contradict the theories. For the implication, this study provides clarification on the contributions of the board independence and audit committee meetings and gender towards the audit quality of the Nigerian listed companies, and this will help the users of the financial information and relevant scholars in literature development.