Impact of Audit Committee Independence and Expertise on Financial Reporting Quality of Listed Commercial Banks in Nigeria

Abstract

The study aims at examine the impact of audit committee independence and expertise on financial reporting quality of listed commercial banks in Nigeria. The study covered a period of ten (10) years from 2013 to 2022. The study used panel data research design techniques for a sample of eight (8) commercial banks out of the fourteen (14) quoted banks on the Nigerian Exchange Group. The data for the study were collected from the annual accounts of the sampled banks through the measurements of the variables. The study found that audit committee independence (ACIND) has a negative significant impact on financial reporting quality (FRQ) and audit committee expertise (ACEXP) has a positive insignificant impact on financial reporting quality (FRQ). The major conclusion of the study is that as audit committee expertise increases, the quality of financial reports also increases. Therefore, the study recommends that commercial banks should invest more in training of its audit committee members and allow them to acquire professional qualifications.