Effect of Audit Committee Attributes on Profitability of Listed Industrial Goods Firms in Nigeria

This study investigates the effect of audit committee attributes on the profitability of
listed industrial goods firms in Nigeria. The study adopted an ex post facto research
design, utilizing secondary data collected from the audited financial statements of nine
firms selected through a simple random sampling technique out of a population of 13
firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) from 2012 to 2021. Multiple
regression analysis was employed to evaluate the relationship between profitability,
measured by Return on Assets (ROA), and three audit committee attributes: size,
independence, and meeting frequency. The findings reveal that audit committee size has
a positive and significant effect on ROA, while independence has a positive but
insignificant effect, and meeting frequency exhibits a negative and insignificant effect
on profitability. The study concludes that effective audit committee attributes,
particularly size, play a crucial role in enhancing the profitability of industrial goods
firms. The study recommends that Industrial Goods firms should increase the size of
their audit committee since it is related to firm performance. Furthermore, independent
audit committee members should be well motivated so that they will not derail from
their traditional roles of evaluating authenticity of financial reports prepared by
management