EFFECT OF OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE ON AUDIT QUALITY OF LISTED CONGLOMERATE COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

This study is based on examining the effect of ownership structure on Audit quality in listed conglomerate companies in Nigeria, the paper looked at how ownership structure such as the managerial ownership, the ownership concentration and institutional ownership influence audit quality in the sector chosen and secondary data was collected from the six companies in the sector for the purpose of this work, for the period ranging from 2014 to 2018, the study employed the descriptive statistic research method, data for this study was analyzed using the ordinary least squares and correlation coefficient method, with the aid of SPSS version 25, the hypothesis for the study were tested and it was discovered that managerial ownership has insignificant influence on audit quality, so was ownership concentration, however, it was revealed that institutional ownership has strong influence on audit quality because of the fact that they have beneficial potential to hire and fire and be able to replace with a better more skilled agent, it is recommended that the board of directors should contain more non-executive independent directors who has block-busters holding so as to encourage the role that an audit plays in facilitating and enhancing the quality and reliability of financial statements in the eyes of the various users.