Effectiveness of Audit Committees in Curbing Financial Fraud in Nigerian Insurance Companies in the South West

This study investigates the effectiveness of audit committees in curbing financial fraud in Nigerian insurance companies headquartered in the South West geopolitical zone. The insurance sector is uniquely vulnerable to premium fraud, claims manipulation, and misappropriation of policyholder funds, making internal governance mechanisms such as the audit committee particularly consequential. The National Insurance Commission's corporate governance guidelines establish detailed requirements for insurance company audit committees, yet fraud incidences persist, raising questions about committee effectiveness in practice. Drawing on agency theory and audit committee effectiveness literature, this study evaluates how committee independence, financial expertise, size, and meeting frequency relate to fraud incidence indicators including regulatory sanction frequency, audit exceptions, and whistleblower reports. A descriptive research design is adopted, combining secondary data from NAICOM enforcement records over five years with questionnaires administered to forty audit committee members and internal auditors across twelve insurance firms. Data are analysed using descriptive statistics and regression. The study anticipates that audit committee financial expertise and meeting frequency are the most significant predictors of reduced fraud incidences. Findings will assist insurance company boards, NAICOM, and governance training organisations in designing more effective audit committee governance frameworks. Keywords: audit committee effectiveness, financial fraud, insurance companies, corporate governance, South West Nigeria.