AUDIT COMMITTEE ATTRIBUTES AND THE TIMELINESS OF FINANCIAL REPORTING IN NIGERIA AND GHANA

Abstract

The study- Audit Committee Attributes and the Timeliness of Financial Reporting in Deposit Money Bank in Nigeria and Ghana elucidates the concepts of timeliness of financial reporting and Audit committee of banks. The study expatiated on the audit committee’s attributes of audit committee independence, size, meeting frequency and financial expertise and evaluate its impacts on the timeliness of financial reporting amongst deposit money banks in Nigeria and Ghana. The population of the was the entire deposit money banks on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) and the Ghana Stock exchange (GSE), while the sample consist of nine banks each randomly selected from both countries. Secondary data for these banks over a period of five years (2018 – 2022) was utilized for the analysis. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression analysis, descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation analysis was adopted to ascertain the degree and strength of relationship between the dependent variable (Timeliness of Financial reporting in Nigeria and Ghana) and independent variables represented the audit committee attributes. The findings revealed that audit committee attributes- independence, size, meeting frequency and financial expertise significantly impacts on the timeliness of financial reporting in the two countries. In line with the findings and audit committee attributes reviewed, the study made recommendations that boards of deposit money banks establish policies to strengthen audit committee’s independence via ensuring the use of independent non-executive directors in committee, right size, standard meeting frequency and procedures and place members with cognate financial expertise and experience in the committee.