Audit Tenure and Financial Reporting Quality of Listed Non-Financial Services Firms in Nigeria: The Modeating Role of Audit Committee’s Independence

Audit tenure in particular, has become a lingering issue after the accounting scandals involving wide-ranging corporate entities from both local and global business environments. This lingering issue has prevented auditors from conducting some specific non-audit services. This study examines the moderating role of audit committee independence on the relationship between audit tenure and financial reporting quality of listed non-financial services firms in Nigeria over a period of 2011-2021. The study employed ex-post facto as the research design for the study while data was obtained from the secondary sources. The method of data collection was by extraction from the annual audited financial reports and accounts of listed non-financial services firms in Nigeria. The sample size comprises of 30 listed non-financial services firms selected using purposive sampling techniques. Multiple regression was employed as the techniques for data analysis in the study. The Results of the analysis showed that the direct relationship has no effect on financial reporting quality of listed non-financial services firms in Nigeria. However, the effect of audit tenure on financial reporting quality is statistically significant when moderated by audit committee independence. The study recommends that more independent directors should be included on the audit committee of listed non-financial companies in Nigeria in order to improve the financial reporting quality of listed non-financial companies in Nigeria.