Impact of Firm-Level Determinants on Timeliness of Financial Reports among Listed Non-Financial Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

The study presents empirical findings on the effect of audit firm type and leverage on timeliness of financial report of listed firms in Nigeria. The study formulated two hypotheses, while Panel regression analysis was used as an estimation technique to analyze the data extracted from the annual reports and accounts of the sixty listed companies in Nigeria for the period 2009 to 2019. The study found out that audit firm size and leverage have significant positive relationship with timeliness of financial report with coefficients of 0.12 and 0.11 respectively. It is therefore recommended that that the Big4 audit firms in Nigeria should maintain their reputation by putting measures to ensure quality audit report are readily available on time to stakeholders. In addition, board of directors should scrutinize debt financing and utilization of borrowed funds by the management in order to reduce the level of leverage of their respective firms, this is because an increase in leverage would increase timeliness of financial report of quoted firms in Nigeria