Angela Osarumen AGBIBOA

This study investigated the relationship between board attributes and financial reporting quality among listed consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The board attributes examined include board independence, board gender diversity, board meeting frequency, board size, and multiple committee membership. Discretionary accruals were employed as proxy for financial reporting quality, while firm-specific characteristics such as profitability, firm size, and audit fees were included as control variables. The study adopted an ex-post facto research design. The sample consists of a census of all twenty (20) consumer goods companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) over a 12-year period (2013–2024), resulting in a final sample of 232 unbalanced firm-year observations. The study adopted a fixed effect panel regression technique, with model selection justified using the Hausman specification test. The empirical results revealed that board independence, board gender diversity, and board meeting frequency have insignificant relationship with financial reporting quality. Bboard size exhibits a positive and significant relationship with discretionary accruals, suggesting that larger boards are associated with lower financial reporting quality. Multiple committee membership is found to have a negative and significant relationship with discretionary accruals, indicating that overlapping committee membership enhances financial reporting quality. Among the control variables, profitability and firm size are negatively and significantly related to discretionary accruals, while audit fees show a positive and significant relationship. The study suggests that board members serve on more than one committee to ensure effective oversight function, but caution should be exercised to avoid overwhelming a board member with work load.