Audit Reports and Value Relevance of Accounting Information: Evidence from Commercial Banks in Nigeria

This study examined audit reports and value relevance of accounting information in Nigeria quoted commercial banks. Data was sourced from financial statement of Commercial Banks. Two multiple regressions were formulated to investigate the effect of audit reports and audit characteristics on stock prices of the commercial banks. The data analysis technique employed is the multiple regression model based on Statistical Package for Social Sciences version (22.0). The Durbin-Watson statistics show the presence of multiple serial autocorrelation. The result shows collinearity that corresponds with the Eigen value condition index and variance constants are less than the required number, while the variance inflation factors indicate the absence of auto-correlation. The result from model I found that all the audit report variables have positive impact on value relevance while model II found that audit compensation, audit familiarity and corporate governance have positive effect and audit independence, joint audit and audit size have negative effect on stock prices. The study concludes that the independent variables have significant relationship value relevance of accounting information of Nigeria quoted commercial banks. We recommend that auditing should principle of corporate management beyond the present statue.