Impact Of Accounting Regulatory Reforms On Audit Quality Of Listed Companies In Nigeria

Abstract

Audit mistakes, causing confidence erosion in accounting numbers and demonstrated by takeover of banks by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and fraud cases have become more worrisome and affected the country’s economy. However, the regulatory reform through establishment of Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) appears ineffective, and IFRS Adoption by the FRCN is also perceived by financial reporting stakeholders to have compounded the problems. Therefore, it became imperative to study how audit quality may have been affected by the regulatory reform efforts of the government. The specific objectives of this study are: (i) evaluate the effect of IFRS adoption on audit quality of Nigerian listed companies; (ii) assess the moderating effect of audit fee premium on the relationship between IFRS adoption and audit quality of listed companies Nigerian; (iii) examine whether audit firm size moderate the relationship between IFRS adoption and audit quality of listed companies in Nigeria; (iv) investigate if the effect of IFRS adoption on audit quality of listed companies Nigerian is moderated by auditors’ industry specialization; and (v) examine how FRCN rules and pronouncements have affects audit quality of listed companies in Nigeria. The study drew data from primary and secondary sources. Extracted data from financial reports of 52 listed companies in Nigeria covering periods between 2005 and 2019 form the secondary data employed in the study. With 517 observations, secondary data were analysed with the use of longitudinal econometric models. The primary sources involved interview of 11 respondents comprising of auditors, accountants and staff of the FRCN. Schematic analysis was conducted on the primary data and corroborated with document analysis. Evidence from both sources were triangulated to conduct mixed-method research. The findings of the study are: (i) adoption of IFRS significantly affect audit quality (t=-1.66, p<0.10 & t=-1.66, p<0.10) in the non-financials ervices industry. In the financial services industry, the results indicate that adoption of IFRS does not significantly affect audit quality (t=-0.78, p>0.10 & t=-0.16, p>0.10); (ii) audit fee premium after the IFRS adoption led to significant reduction in audit quality for the non-financial firms (t=4.88, p<0.01 & t=4.87, p<0.01). For firms in financial services, the relationship of IFRS adoption and audit quality was not significantly affected by audit fee premium as indicated by the results. (t=4.312, p>0.10 & t=12.16, p>0.10); (iii) audit firm size after the IFRS adoption led to the reduction in audit quality for the non-financial firms (t=4.68, p<0.01 & t=4.68, p<0.01) indicating that Big 4 firms audit quality significantly reduced for the non-financial services sector while there was indifferent moderation of audit firm size on the effect of IFRS adoption on audit quality given the result IFRS (t=-0.89, p>0.10 & t=0.02, p>0.10) in the financial services sector; (iv) IFRS adoption led to significant reduction in the audit quality of both financial (f=6220.57, P<0.01 & f=6225.71, P<0.01) and non-financial services (t=1.69, p<0.10 & t=1.69, p<0.10) industries; and (v) the rules and pronouncements of the FRCN were all found to improve audit quality with the exception of monitoring and review rules which has not been initiated. The study concluded that different aspects of regulatory reform affected audit quality differently. It specifically submits that IFRS adoption improves audit quality but there are aspects of FRCN, such as monitoring and review, which do not improve audit quality. The study recommends, among others, the need for the FRCN regulation to include oversight on audit fee, auditor industry specialization and audit firm size to inform better audit quality.