Perceptions of Auditors' Independence in Nigeria

It has been asserted that the value of an auditor's report or auditing services depends on the fundamental assumption that auditors are independent of their clients. This means that if the users of financial statements do not believe that an auditor is independent of a client, they will have little confidence in the auditor's opinion. There have been considerable studies on this issue. However, recent events like the collapse of Enron in the United States of America, the Africa Petroleum saga in Nigeria and Cadbury Nigeria P LC have opened fresh discussions on the vexed issue of auditors' independence. This study therefore examined the issue of auditor/ independence from tlie perspective of various stakeholders. It presents the results from a survey of a sample of auditors, .bank loan executives and financial analysts. The data. were subjected to the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The study found that Nigerian auditors are low on the auditor's independence scale due to a number of factors. The study also made recommendations to mitigate the situation

REPORTING HUMAN ASSET IN PuBLISHED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

This paper f ocuses on reporting human asset in published financial statements. The need is necessitated by the failure of the prevailing accounting practice to recognize human resource, normally acknowledged to be the most important asset of an organization, in the balance sheet as an asset, but rather the expenditure relating thereto (recruitment and training cost, wages and salaries) are simply expensed in the profit and loss account. This is considered as an anomaly, to the extent that this resource has value, which exceeds the expensed amount. A more valid treatment of human resources is to reflect it as an asset in the balance sheet taking into consideration that it has future economic benefits extending beyond the current period. The finding of the study was that human asset was considered by the. respondents to be the most important asset. Respondents were, therefore, in favour of disclosing both quantitative and qualitative information about human asset in the published financial statements

LONG TERM SOURCES OF FUND AND PROJECT FINANCING: OPTIONS FOR FINANCIAL MANAGERS IN NIGERIA

The capital structure of a firm is vital to its operations, growth, efficiency, maximization of shareholders' wealth and maintenance of their control or ownership. A finan cial manager, while deciding the long-term sources of fund and obtaining optimal mix of the funds, must know the peculiarities of each fund including the benefits, limitations and when to exercise his option

THE DETERMINANTS AND DECISION USEFULNESS OF IFRS 8 ON SEGMENT DISCLOSURES

The paper examined the determinants and decision usefuln ess of segment disclosures under SAS 24 and /FRS 8. The sampling population include 15 listed banks in the Nigerian Stock Exchange between 2010 and 2013 and survey of 126 chartered accountants in Benin Edo State. The findings suggest that there was a 10% increase in the segment disclosures after !FRS 8 adoption. The paired t-test reveals a significant difference in the pre and post !FRS 8 on operating segment disclosure practices of Nigerian bank. Therefore the findings indicate that Nigerian banks provided more disaggregated segmental information. Moreover. whereas profitability and growth rate of sales have significant positive relationship with segment disclosures. the company 's size and age have negative relationship with the segment disclosures. Again. most of the respondents agreed that !FRS 8 was more decision useful than the SAS 24. Therefore, the paper recommends the need for the regulatory authorities to compel Nigerian banks and other companies to segment information relating to the operation

THE INFLUENCE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ATTRIBUTES ON CORPORATE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL DISCLOSURE QUALITY IN NIGERIA

The paper examines the impact of corporate governance attributes on corporate, social and environmental disclosures (CSED) quality in Nigeria. The sample was made up of 174 listed companies in the Nigerian Stock Exchange between 2007 and 2008. The content analysis of the annual reports for 2007 and 2008 was adopted to measure CSED. Specifically, following Hassan (20 I 0), the two ranking scale (0, 1) was adopted to measure the CSED quality. The OLS regression analysis was used to test the impact of the corporate governance attributes on the corporate, social and environmental disclosures quality. The empirical findings reveal that the big 4 audit firms and the presence of corporate social responsibility committee have positive and significant impact on CSED quality. The corporate governance attributes of board independence, audit committee independence, CEO duality and the ownership structure of directors' shareholdings, institutional ownership and substantial shareholdings (shareholders power) have no significant impact on CSED quality in Nigeria. In conclusion the results revealed that corporate governance mechanisms- board characteristics and ownership structures have less impact on CSED quality. Therefore it is recommended that the corporate governance mechanisms should be strengthened so that they can play a greater role in making companies act in the best interest of all stakeholders through qualitative, specific and non-rhetoric disclosure of their social and environmental activitie

Effects of Characteristics of Audit Committee on Earnings Management in Nigerian Quoted Companies

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of Characteristics of Audit Committee on Eamings Management in Nigerian quoted companies. Data for the study were sourced from annual reports of one hundred and thirty one (131) companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange over the period of 2008 to 2014. The data were analysed using descriptive, correlation and Ordinary Least Square (OLS). The multivariate regression technique was utilised to estimate our model. The choice of this approach was based on the fact that our data are both time series and cross sectional. Our findings, using the panel regression results, indicate that each of these characteristics of audit committee, namely: audit committee independence, audit committee frequency of meetings and audit committee meeting attendance had a negative significant impact on eamings _ management. This implies that audit committee independence, audit commitTee frequency of meetings and audit committee meeting attendance are useful in reducing to the barest minimum, management's tendencies for opportunistic behaviour to manipulate eamings. Based on these findings, the paper recommends among others that, in order to strengthen the impact of audit committee independence on eamings management, the number of non-executive directors should be increased. Besides, non-executive directors should be appointed on the basis of competence and integrity. In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria should put in place a regulation which ensures statutory position on the maximum number of meetings to be held by audit committee members in a year. The practice whereby audit committee members are simply there just to complete the audit committee size without active attendance and participation at meetings should be curtailed

IMPACT OF AUDIT COMMITTEE ATTRIBUTES ON FINANCIAL REPORTING QUALITY IN NIGERIAN QUOTED COMPANIES

The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of Audit Committee on financial reporting quality in Nigerian quoted companies. Data for the study were derived from annual reports of one hundred and thirty- one (131) companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the periods, 2006 to 2012. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as correlation and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression. The multivariate regression technique was utilized to estimate the model. Using the panel regression estimation results, we found that each of the identified audit committee attributes, such as: frequency of meetings, financial literacy, independence, size and attendance at meetings had a positive significant effect on financial reporting quality. Based on these findings, the paper recommends the need for training and seminars to be organized for members of audit committee with a view to enabling them keep abreast of up to date information as regards their roles and responsibilities, to make them more effective and efficient in their assignments. In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria should put in place a regulation, which ensures that audit committee members maintain at least, an attendance level of 85%, for them to be retained in the audit committee for the following financial yea