The combined effects of board expertise and audit committee size on financial statement fraud prevention in Nigerian banks

Purpose: The study examined how board expertise and audit committee size jointly influenced the prevention of financial statement fraud among listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. Methodology: The study adopted an ex-post facto research design using secondary data from twelve banks covering the period 2014–2023. Data were analyzed using panel regression based on the Fixed Effects Model, following descriptive, correlation, and diagnostic tests. Results and conclusion: The results revealed that both board expertise and audit committee size had positive and statistically significant effects on financial statement fraud prevention. These findings indicated that technically competent boards and adequately structured audit committees enhanced monitoring effectiveness and improved financial reporting quality. The study concluded that intellectual capacity and structural oversight are complementary governance mechanisms in mitigating fraudulent reporting. Implication of findings: The study recommended that Nigerian banks strengthen board competence and maintain optimally sized audit committees to enhance financial transparency and investor confidence.