Effect of Audit Committee Accounting Expertise and Audit Committee Chair Independence on Financial Reporting Quality: A Discretional Accruals Approach for Listed Consumer Goods Firms in Nigeria

The study examines the effect of Audit Committee accounting expertise and Audit Committee Chair Independence on the financial reporting quality of listed Consumer Goods Firms in Nigeria. Financial Reporting Quality is proxied using discretionary accruals estimated through the Jones model, covering a ten-year period from 2014 to 2023, and adopts an ex post facto research design. The population comprised 21 consumer goods companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), from which 13 firms were selected using a census sampling technique with a two-way filtering process. Data were obtained from the annual reports and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods in Stata 13. The findings show that Audit Committee Accounting Expertise has a significant negative effect (Coef -0.819, p-value 0.015) on financial reporting quality, while Audit Committee Chair independence has a significant positive effect (Coef 4.693, p-value 0.088). The fixed effects model is identified as the most appropriate for estimating these relationships. These results suggest that although audit committee expertise is critical, it may not improve reporting quality without complementary governance mechanisms. Conversely, the independence of the audit committee chair strengthens oversight and improves the credibility of financial reports. The study recommends continuous professional training in ethical financial reporting and corporate governance, and ensuring that audit committee chairs are independent.