ABSTRACT
This study aimed to examine the impact of joint audit on audit quality of Nigerian listed companies. It specifically investigated the impact of joint audit on audit delay, auditor independence and audit fees as proxies of audit quality.
The study made use of secondary data extracted from the annual reports of sixty-three (63) companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for a 5-year period (2014-2018). Three panel regression models were developed to accommodate the dependent variables (audit delay, auditor independence and audit fees) and independent variable (joint audit), while firm size, complexity and risk were also included in each of the equations as controlling variables. The data analysis techniques used includes descriptive statistics, correlation matrix and panel regression techniques using Eviews 10 econometric software.
The result showed that, joint audit has negative and non-significant impact on audit delay as well as non-significant effect on audit fees. However, no linear relationship was established between joint audit and auditor independence. On the three control variables, firm size and firm complexity significantly influenced both audit delay (negatively) and audit fees (positively), while firm risk was insignificant in the both established models. The study recommends, among others, that companies may reconsider their stance on the engagement of joint auditors in order to balance the audit market concentration by engaging Big4 and non Big4 audit firms.
