The article aims to examine the effect of ownership structure on accounting conservatism among Nigeria listed firms. Correlational research design was employed in this study and the sample size comprises of all 15 firms from the banking sector listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the years 2013 – 2017. The study employed the panel regression technique to estimate the coefficients of the variables in the model specified. The study finds that there is a positive and insignificant relationship between managerial ownership and accounting conservatism; a positive but an insignificant relationship was observed between institutional ownership and accounting conservatism. However, foreign ownership revealed a negative but not significant relationship with accounting conservatism. We recommend that financial statements to include more detailed analysis of the structure of their ownership and shareholding to provide more information for decision making for users of the accounting information such as researchers and potential investors. Also, Regulatory bodies should ensure all companies comply with the concept of conservatism by imposing strict penalty on erring companies.

This study explored the influence of the governance cost on financial service efficiency in Nigeria. The recurrent collapse of reputable companies and banks due to agency problems have motivated this investigation. The study empirically sampled 40 financial service firms from the 50 firms registered on the stock market. The study adopted an ex-post-facto research design. Data was collected using secondary sources from the firms’ annual reports to determine the influence the governance cost has on Nigeria’s financial service efficiency for nine years (2012–2020). Also, the study utilized the Panel Tobit regression to test the hypothesis. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to ascertain the aggregate governance cost, and the proxies were directors’ fees, auditors’ fees, CEO compensation, and chairman fee. At the same time, financial service analysis was derived using the Input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique under the constant return to scale (CRS) assumption. Consequently, findings from the study show a significant and positive influence of governance costs on the efficiency of financial services. The study, therefore, concludes that the current governance cost of the sampled firms drives efficiency within the sampled firms, and increasing the governance cost, based on the reviews on corporate governance structures, will not harm the efficiency of financial services. However, the consistent increase over time will harm efficiency. Thus, the study recommends an internal balance on the pay structure within the financial services. AcknowledgmentThe authors acknowledge Covenant University for solely providing the platform for this research and for fully sponsoring the publication of this research work.