IMPACT OF CLOUD ACCOUNTING ON FINANCIAL REPORTING QUALITY AND TIMELINESS IN NIGERIA

This research seeks to determine the impact of cloud accounting on financial reporting quality and timeliness of Nigerian deposit money banks (NDMBs) during 2015–2024. The Objectives are to determine if cloud computing has any influence on the reliability of information released by cloud-based platforms and the speed with which they report, and whether governance mechanisms as well as firm-specific characteristics play any role. The research design is quantitative, explanatory and longitudinal in nature. The population consists of deposit money banks as quoted on the Nigeria Exchange Group as at December 2024. A sample of ten banks was drawn from this, resulting in 100 firm-year observations. We used data from annual reports and regulatory filings. Analytical methods involved descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and Panel EGLS (Period SUR) regression along with diagnostic tests of the theoretical soundness and robustness. Results indicate that there is a positive effect of cloud adoption on the quality of financial reporting in deposit money banks (β = 0.0906, p < 0.01) and it also reduces reporting delay (β = 0.0724, p < 0.05). The examination of governance indicators such as size of audit firm and bank size enhances the reporting usefulness while profitability has a slight effect and leverage is found to be insignificant. On the basis of the results, it is asserted that cloud accounting improves financial report credibility and timely accessibility. It suggests the creation of regulatory incentives and institutional support that will encourage the uptake of cloud, enhancing transparency and trust levels among stakeholders in the country’s banking industry