Title: Accounting Information Quality And Financial Performance Of Quoted Deposit Money Banks In Nigeria.
Authors: ALIYU, ABUBAKAR SADIQ; MSc
Volume: 8
Issue: 7
Pages: 91-104
Publication Date: 2024/07/28
Abstract:
Accounting information quality through the financial reports is a prerequisite for veritable economic decision. In most recent decades however, the integrity of accounting information quality is threatened by the opportunistic behaviour and desperately rascal actions of some managers in earnings management through audit reporting lag and total accruals to the detriments of the users of financial reports. This has consequently weakens users' confidence in yearly reports which has developed to higher agency costs, asymmetry of information and provides inadequate protection to stakeholders and consequently led to the demise of notable corporate entities in the global business space The broad objective of this study is to empirically analyze the relationship between accounting information quality and financial performance of quoted deposit money banks in Nigeria from 2019- 2023. Accruals quality, audit report lag and value relevance were proxies of accounting information quality while return on assets was the proxy of financial performance. The researchers adopted expost- facto research design for the study and the relevant secondary data used was obtained from Nigeria stock exchange and the firms' websites. The research hypotheses test and other data were analyzed by Pearson Product Moment Correlation and multivariate linear regression in econometric procedure with the aid of SPSS 27. The findings revealed that all the attributes of accounting information quality; accruals quality, audit report lag and value relevance significantly related to financial performance - return on assets of quoted deposit money banks in Nigeria in the period of this study. Thus, the study concluded that accounting information quality has the potency to reduce opportunistic practices and to make significant contribution to return on assets of quoted deposit money banks in Nigeria. The study recommended that the regulatory authorities (FRCN, CBN, SEC among others) should intensify their scrutiny over accounting flexibility and loopholes curtail deliberate accounting discretion and systematic manipulations of accounting information in financial statements in order to faithfully represent the phenomena they purport to represent and to prevent future corporate scandals of deposit money banks in Nigeria and corporate entities in the world.