Audit Partner Tenure and Audit Quality: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

The objective of this study was to provide an evidence on the existence or otherwise of a relationship between the tenure of auditor and audit quality in Nigeria. The Binary Logit Model estimation technique was use to analyze the relationship between the tenure of an auditor and audit quality. Findings reveal that there is a negative relationship between auditor tenure and audit quality though the variable was not significant. The other explanatory variables (ROA, Board Independence, and Director Ownership and Board size) considered alongside auditor tenure were found to be inversely related to audit quality aside from Returns on Assets which exhibited a positive effect. The recommendation is that there is the need for the financial reporting council and other regulatory bodies in line with best practices to look critically into the issue of auditor tenure and the impact on audit quality in Nigeria.

Keywords: Audit quality, Audit tenure, Auditing and financial reporting