MODERATING EFECT OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY DISCLOSURE AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF LISTED COMMERCIAL BANKS

ABSTRACT The Nigeria commercial banks have been facing deteriorating financial performance than have been t inhibit their overall ranking in amongst African banks despite the advantage they have consequent to Nigeria large economy and high population. This study explored the moderating role of corporate governance on the corporate social responsibility and financial performance nexus for a period of ten years spanning 2015 -2024 using the sample of listed Nigeria commercial banks. Ex-post facto research design was deployed and a pane dataset of ten years were extracted from the annual accounts of study sample. The panel dataset of the study were analysed using the regression model estimation technique and the results evidenced that amongst the proxies for financial performance corporate governance has positive impact on return on assets of Nigeria banks. Conversely, the association between corporate governance and earnings per share and net income was negative and insignificant, while corporate governance has negative and insignificant association with didivend per share. Furthermore, the results shows that corporate social responsibility disclosure has positive and moderating influence on the association between corpotaye governance and return on assets, dividend per share, earnings per share and net income of Nigeria commercial banks. Consequently, corporate social responsibility disclosure moderates the association between corporate governance and financial performance. Therefore, the boards of Nigeria commercial banks should monitor the quantity and quality of CSRD in order to achieve high and consistent financial performance. The policy implication of that finding is that the Central Bank should prioritise policies that would ensure high quality efficiencies on bank composite assets to attain the expectation of financial sustainability