CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF THE NIGERIAN BANKS A STUDY OF 5 NIGERIAN DEPOSIT BANKS

The study examined the effect of corporate governance on the financial performance of banks in Nigeria. The study objective was to examine the relationship between board size and financial performance of the banking sector, determine the relationship between board committee and financial performance of the Nigeria banking sector and examine the relationship between audit committee meeting and financial performance of the Nigeria banking sector. The technique used to select sample for the study was purposive sampling techniques. The study used secondary data derived from the audited financial statements of the sampled banks in Nigeria between ten (10) years from 2013 -2022. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) was used to measure the effect of the predictors on the dependent variable. The analysis was done with the use of SPSS 23 software, the analysis reveals that board size has a positive but insignificant impact on banking performance. This finding indicates that a small board size can improve the efficiency of banks as the small size can make swift and appropriate choices about banks' performance as large board size tend to slow down decision making and can therefore be an barrier to effective change. The study recommends that banks should participate in strategic training for board members and senior bank executives with emphasis on corporate governance, disclosure of corporate governance, and banking ethics. They should control the size of the board that should not be too broad and should consist of extremely qualified and competent professional who is experienced with the function of supervision. There should also be in existence, a proper internal control structure and self-government regulation so as to detect early rule violations and also monitor systemic problems for early remediation and solutions.