FIRMS CHARACTERISTICS AND AUDIT REPORT LAG IN LISTED DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS IN NIGERIA
Abstract
The timely issuance of audit reports plays a crucial role in ensuring transparency and building stakeholder trust in financial institutions. In the Nigerian banking sector, particularly among listed deposit money banks, the delay in audit report publication known as audit report lag can undermine confidence in financial statements and affect decision-making. This study investigates the effect of firm characteristics and audit report lag of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria with specific attention on the effect of firm size, firm leverage and firm profitability on audit report lag of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. The study employed ex post factoresearch design on a population 12 listed deposit money banks on the Nigeria Exchange Group as at December 31, 2023 over a period of 10 years from 2014- 2023. Secondary data were collected from the published annual reports of all 12 listed deposit money banks. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that Firm size (FS) [coef. = 8.420 {0.577}] has a positive but statistically insignificant association with the timeliness of financial reporting (TFR) of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria during the period under study.Firm leverage (FL) [coef. = 0.246 {0.436}] exhibits a positive but statistically insignificant association with the timeliness of financial reporting (TFR) of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria during the period under study.Firm profitability (FP) [coef. = –2.369 {0.605}] has a negative but statistically insignificant association with the timeliness of financial reporting (TFR) of the listed deposit money banks in Nigeria during the period under study. The study concluded that that efforts to improve audit report timeliness in Nigerian deposit money banks should go beyond firm characteristics and address structural, institutional, and regulatory challenges that contribute to delays in financial reporting. This requires the collaboration of bank managers, auditors, investors, and regulators in building a reporting system that is both efficient and credible.
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