EFFECTS OF AUDIT COMMITTEE ATTRIBUTES ON FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF LISTED OIL AND GAS COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

This study examines the effect of audit committee attributes on financial performance listed oil and gas companies in Nigeria. The study adopts ex-post facto and causal research designs using cross sectional data of nine years from 2010-2018 to examine the effects of independent variables (Audit committee independence, Audit committee size and Audit committee frequency of meeting) on the dependent variable (financial performance proxy with return on asset ROA). The population of the study comprised of twelve (12) listed oil and gas companies in Nigeria as at 2018. This study used filtering process to arrive at sample size of eight (8) listed oil and gas companies in Nigeria. Secondary Data was used and data were sourced from the audited annual report of the sample oil and gas companies. Ordinary least square regression technique was used to analysed the data and the result reveals that, audit committee independence has negative and significant effect on financial performance of listed oil and gas companies in Nigeria. While audit committee size and audit committee frequency of meetings has positive effect on financial performance of listed oil and gas companies in Nigeria. The study recommends that Audit committee should ensure that their members are independent as this is likely to enhance financial performance.