AUDIT QUALITY AND FINANCIAL REPORTING QUALITY EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIAN LISTED DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of audit quality dimensions on the financial reporting quality (FRQ) of the 14 deposit money banks listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) from 2018 to 2024. Motivated by the persistent failure of banks despite "clean" audit opinions—most recently evidenced by the 2024 collapse of Heritage Bank—this research examines whether audit fees, tenure, and firm size influence reporting integrity. Using a Pooled OLS regression on 98 bank-year observations, the results reveal that audit fees exhibit a statistically significant positive relationship with FRQ (β = 0.0190, p < 0.001), confirming that resource commitment is the primary driver of audit effectiveness. Conversely, audit firm size and auditor tenure were found to be statistically insignificant. This study argues that in the Nigerian banking sector, "Big Four" affiliation (95% of observations) and mandatory rotation have become structural market baselines rather than differentiators of quality. The findings suggest that regulators should move beyond "brand-name" oversight and focus on the adequacy of audit pricing to ensure rigorous financial monitoring.
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Published in UNIPORT JOURNAL OF BUSINESS, ACCOUNTING & FINANCE MANAGEMENT
ISSN: 1596-9911
This article appears in our peer-reviewed academic journal
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