SAMUEL Ejiro Ywhejevwe-Togbolo
Department of Accounting
Dennis Osadebay Unversity, Asaba
Delta State, Nigeria
FESTUS Elugom Ubogu
Department of Accounting
Dennis Osadebay Unversity, Asaba
Delta State, Nigeria
OKWOMA A.A.
Department of Business Education
College of Education Warri
Delta State, Nigeria
ERUME F.O.
Department of Business Education
College of Education Warri
Delta State, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
Firm characteristics include firm size, leverage, liquidity, sales growth, asset growth and turnover. Others
include ownership structure, board characteristics, age of the firm, dividend pay-out, profitability, access
to capital markets and growth opportunities. The study adopted the use of discretionary accruals research
design. The population of this study consists of all quoted non-financial firms on the floor of the Nigerian
Exchange Group (NGX) There were 154 quoted firms on the NGX as at 31st December, 2022 (NGX,
2022). Out of those firms, 46 were classified as financial quoted firms while the non-financial was 108.
the statistical formula for determining sample size is used to determine the sample size with 5% being
used as the limit of tolerable error. The sample size according to Okeke, (1995), which made the sample
to be 80. The results from the panel regression estimated reveal mix findings for the firm characteristic
variables in relation to the financial reporting quality. The result showed that profitability is found to have
no significant relationship with financial reporting quality, leverage was found to have a positive
relationship with financial reporting quality. The study recommends that emphasis should not be on
structuring the financial report to show profit at all cost but rather management should prepare the
financial statement to show the true state of affairs of the firm at any point in time.
Keywords: Firm Characteristics, Reporting quality, Profitability, Leverage, Nigeria.