Title: SOCIAL AUDITING AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PERFORMANCE OF LISTED COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

Authors: Udo, Ekubiat John, Phd, Fca and Ekpoattai, Owoidigheime, Phd

Abstract: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance is a flawed concept in Nigeria as many companies are not performing this responsibility. Really, Nigerians need corporate accountability from operating companies in Nigeria. Social auditing proxied by compliance audits, performance audits and impact audits are set out as the possible solution. Ex-post facto research design was used in the study. The population was made up of one hundred and forty-seven (147) companies from twelve actively sub-sectors listed firms in the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) with traded stocks on floor of the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) from 2018 financial year to December 31, 2024. Judgement sampling technique was used to select the sample size of ninety-two (92) companies. Annual reports and accounts of the sampled companies were the main sources of data. The data were encoded extracted, computed and reviewed for the required data. Content analysis method was deployed to extract data for the independent variables. Multiple regression model was used to test the hypotheses. Results showed that social auditing [compliance audits, performance audits and impact audits] have positive significant influence on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The findings also showed that CSR performance is low although there are slight increasing trends by the listed companies in Nigeria over the periods. It was concluded in the study that social auditing is key to excellent CSR performance and corporate accountability from operating firms in Nigeria. It was recommended that government and regulatory authority should facilitate the practices of corporate social responsibility through social auditing, ensuring mandatory reporting framework practices requirements for all operating companies in Nigeria and the best CSR performer should rewarded.

Keywords: Social auditing, Corporate social responsibility (CSR), Mandatory reporting framework practices.

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