Assessing Audit Committee Effectiveness on Real Earnings Management of Listed Non-Financial Firms in Nigeria

The study is aimed at investigating the potential impact of audit committee in the financial performance of listed non-financial firms in Nigeria for a period of 10years spanning 2011-202. The dependent variable of the study is real earnings management proxy Srivastava (2019) revised model while the independent variable of the study is audit committee proxy by audit committee independence, audit committee size, audit committee diversity and audit committee meetings. The study arrived at 760 firm year observations from a population of 113 listed non-financial companies in Nigeria; the extracted secondary data was analysed using PCSE and the results revealed that audit committee independence audit committee size and audit committee meetings have no significant impact on real earnings management while only audit committee diversity among all the variables showed a significant positive impact on real earnings management of listed non-financial firms in Nigeria. The study recommends that the number of members in the audit committee should be increased by the relevant authority and the percentage of women in the composition in the audit committee should also be increased as this will help in reducing earnings management and improve the efficiency of the committee.