Audit Committee Effectiveness, Internal Control Quality, and Financial Reporting Reliability: Evidence from Listed Non-Financial Firms in Ghana and Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66461/qkkreg05Keywords:
Audit Committee Effectiveness, Internal Control Quality, Financial Reporting Reliability, Earnings Quality, Discretionary AccrualsAbstract
This study examines whether audit committee effectiveness and internal control quality are associated with financial reporting reliability among listed non-financial firms in Ghana and Nigeria. Drawing on agency theory, institutional theory, and information asymmetry theory, this study develops a governance-bundle framework in which audit committee independence, financial expertise, meeting diligence, and committee size adequacy operate alongside internal control disclosures, internal audit evidence, remediation information, and auditor control references. Using 742 firm-year observations from 103 listed non-financial firms in Ghana and Nigeria during 2016–2023, the study estimates firm- and year-fixed-effects models and supporting sensitivity analyses. The pooled results show statistically significant associations of ACE and ICQ-E with reporting reliability; the indirect-association decomposition and Ghana–Nigeria differences are exploratory and do not establish causal mediation or inherent country-level effectiveness. This study contributes to the audit committee, internal control, and financial reporting quality literature by jointly examining board-level oversight and internal control quality in a West African setting, while treating digital-reporting risks as part of the broader institutional context rather than as directly tested empirical mechanisms.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Kwame A. Boateng, Ngozi I. Okafor (Author)
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