ABSTRACT

The study focused on audit committee attributes and financial performance of listed commercial banks in Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was adopted. Data were collected through secondary means from annual financial reports and accounts of the selected commercial banks. The population of the study is made up of all the commercial banks listed on Nigeria Stock Exchange, while the sample size is made up of 10 listed commercial banks after adopting judgmental sampling. Panel data were to analyzed regression analysis. The findings revealed that audit committee attributes have insignificant effect on return on asset and return on equity of listed commercial banks in Nigeria. The findings also revealed that audit committee attributes have a significant effect on earnings per share and profit after tax of listed commercial banks in Nigeria. Based on the findings, the study recommends that commercial banks should ensure that all the relevant audit committee attributes (such as independence, size and meetings) are maintained to avoid any form of mismanagement that could be attributable to inadequate audit committee attributes. This will in turn improve the return on asset of commercial banks. The study also recommends that the return on equity of commercial banks should be improved by maintaining quality audit members who will be independent, ensure that they are up to six in number and ensure that they hold meeting at least four (4) times in a year.