ABSTRACT
This study examined the impact of audit committee characteristics and sustainability reporting of oil and gas companies in Nigeria. Specifically, the study investigated the impact of audit committee size, audit committee independence, audit committee meeting frequency, audit committee financial expertise and audit committee multiple directorship on sustainability reporting in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
This study adopted census sampling technique in selecting eleven (11) oil and gas firms listed in the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The study covered an eleven (11) year period from 2010 to 2020. Secondary data were sourced for the study from annual and sustainability reports of the companies, while polled panel regression analysis was utilised for the data estimation.
The findings of study revealed that audit committee size and audit committee financial expertise have a negative and significant impact on sustainability reporting. It further showed that audit committee independence and audit committee meeting have a negative but insignificant impact on sustainability reporting. However, audit committee multiple directorship was found to have a positive and significant impact on sustainability reporting. The control variables, firm size and firm age, were found to have a positive and significant impact on sustainability reporting. The study recommended that audit committee size and composition should be established in line with the relevant provisions of the law. Furthermore, a minimum of one audit committee member should have interlocking directorship in order for companies to gain from the extended knowledge, wider channel networks and broader experience that these members gain from serving on different board.
