Audit committee characteristics and financial reporting quality: evidence from Nigerian listed companies / Abdulkadir Madawaki and Noor Afza Amran

This research examines whether audit committees characteristics are associated with an improved financial reporting quality. The sample of the study is the Nigerian listed companies for the year ended 2010. Data was gathered from annual reports and SBAInteractive. Findings show that there was a weak association between the characteristics of audit committee and improved financial reporting quality. The audit committee independence and expertise are found to significantly associate with improved financial reporting quality. Audit committee meets 4 to 5 times a year and audit committee size consists of 4 members. The result also shows that 70% of the sample firms employed Non-Big 4 auditors. These findings provide evidence on the mandatory audit committee requirement under the NSE listing rules on how the companies respond towards The Code.