The audit committee characteristics and earnings management in post IFRS Nigeria

This study is designed to examine the impact of audit committee characteristics on earnings management in Nigerian listed companies after the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The study consider a total of 71 listed companies in Nigerian Stock Exchange, the period cover is 2012 to 2014. The data mainly obtained from secondary source, through the financial reports of the sample companies and DataStream. The multiple regression results indicated that audit committee independence, audit committee financial expertise and audit committee
stock ownership were found to be negatively and significantly associated with earnings management. In contrast, audit committee size and audit committee activity are not associated with earnings management. The result also shows that firm
performance is negatively and significantly correlated with earnings management, while leverage is found to be not significantly related with earnings management. However, firm size is positive and significantly related with earnings management.
Finally, the results suggest that the policy makers in Nigeria shall make policies that will further strengthen the audit committee independence, and financial expertise since are found to be significant in preventing earnings management. The results also suggest that the companies should be encouraged to have outside directors with
significant stock ownership, as this is also found to be important in preventing earnings.