Audit Committee Attributes and Credit Risk Management of Listed Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria

Sarah U. Odudoh, Eno G. Ukpong, Uwem E. Uwah, Joseph O. Udoayang — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 10:29:48 +0000

The Nigerian banking sector has undergone significant reforms over the past two decades, aimed at strengthening governance, enhancing financial stability, and mitigating systemic risks. Despite these reforms, poor credit risk management remains a persistent and critical challenge for deposit money banks. Frequently and recently, the prevalence of non-performing loans blamed on poor credit risk management continues to threaten banks’ profitability, capital adequacy, and overall resilience, undermining confidence in the financial system. Hence, the main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of audit committee attributes on credit risk management of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. The sources of data were secondary sources generated from published audited financial reports of sampled deposit money banks listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group between 2009 and 2024. The population of the study comprised of 11 listed deposit money banks and census sampling technique was employed to study the entire population. The study adopted both the descriptive and ex-post-facto research designs. STATA version 17 was used to conduct correlation and regression analyses of the panel data and both the fixed and the random effects regression specifications were conducted. The decision rule was based on a 5% significance level (p<0.05). The study found that: Audit Committee Size (AUS, coef. = -0.064 (0.022) has a statistically significant negative effect, Audit Committee Independence (AUI), coef. = 2.614 (0.004) has a statistically significant positive effect. Audit Committee chairperson tenure (AUT), coef. = -0.119 (0.036) has a statistically significant negative effect. Based on the above findings, the study concluded that governance credit risk nexus in Nigerian listed deposit money banks is complex, content-contingent, and not amenable to simplistic prescriptions premised solely on formal structural compliance with regulatory governance thresholds. Hence, this study recommended, among others, that the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Securities and Exchange Commission should look beyond mere prescriptions of non-executive membership with their corporate governance codes and instead institute more substantive quality oriented criteria that ensure non-executive audit committee members possess demonstrable credit risk literacy, bank specific operational understanding, and the requisite technical grounding to meaningfully check management’s credit administrative decisions in line with Agency theory.

Audit Quality and Failure Risks of Listed Deposit Money Banks In Nigeria

Stella T. Effiong, Eno G. Ukpong, Uwem E. Uwah, Dorathy C. Akpan — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 10:58:14 +0000

The stability of the banking sector is fundamental to economic growth and financial system resilience, particularly in developing economies such as Nigeria. However, and sadly enough, global, recent and recurring failure risks and collapses of banks which have been blamed on poor external audit qualities, are counter-productive to national economic development. Therefore, the broad objective of this study was to study the effect of audit quality on failure risks of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria between the period 2009 and 2024. This study adopted both descriptive and ex-post facto research designs. Using secondary data extracted from audited financial reports of 11 censored (from a population of 11) deposit money banks listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group, (NGX), and analyzing one hundred and seventy-six firm year observations using regression with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors analysis technique, the findings revealed that audit firm size (AUFS) significantly improve bank Z score, [coef. = 0.638 (p-value = 0.005)], audit report timeliness (ARTIME) significantly reduces bank Z score [coef. = −0.400 (p-value = audit committee diligence (ACDI) revealed a positive insignificant effect respectively on Z score of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria during the period under consideration. Based on the above findings, it was concluded that audit quality in the Nigerian banking sector is not uniformly effective, rather, its effect on bank failure risks is selective, with only specific audit mechanisms demonstrating the capacity to significantly enhance financial solvency, thereby suggesting that the effectiveness of external audit as a safeguard against bank failure risks depend not merely on its presence, but likely on factors such as depth, credibility, and functional execution of its key components. this study concluded that audit. Consequently, this study recommended among others, that listed deposit money banks in Nigeria, alongside regulators and external auditors, should prioritize substantive governance quality, auditor competence and independence, rigorous audit execution, timely financial reporting, risk-sensitive audit remuneration, coordinated assurance mechanisms, and proactive internal control systems over mere procedural compliance, in order to strengthen transparency, reinforce market confidence, and enhance long term financial stability in line with Agency theory.

GPH-International Journal of Business Management

Audit Committee Attributes and Credit Risk Management of Listed Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria

Audit Quality and Failure Risks of Listed Deposit Money Banks In Nigeria