IMPACT OF BOARD CHARACTERISTICS ON FIRM PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA

This paper examined the influence of board attributes on the performance of listed companies in Nigeria, focusing especially on the board size, board independence, diversity in board gender and board expertise. The research was driven by the fact that corporate governance has increasingly been identified as an important mechanism of improving firm performance, particularly in the emerging economies like Nigeria where the weak corporate governance systems and managerial opportunism are the major causes of corporate failures. The research design was ex-post facto and based on secondary data, as the sample of the annual reports of 2015-2024 of the chosen listed firms on the Nigerian Exchange Group. Accounting-based measures that included Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), and Net Profit Margin (NPM) were the proxies of firm performance. The characteristics of the boards were taken as the total number of directors, the percentage of independent directors, the representation of females in the board, and the professionalism of the directors. The hypothesized relationships were tested with descriptive statistics, correlation, and panel regression models in order to analyze data. The results showed that the positive impact of the board size on the performance of the firm was positive and decreasing in size with a large board implying that oversized boards might result in communication and decision making inefficiencies. The independence of the board was observed to have a strong positive impact on ROA and ROE and this shows that independent directors roles are important in checking excesses by the managers. The performance was also positively associated with the board gender diversity, which proves the importance of inclusiveness and a variety of opinions in the decision-making process of the boardroom. In the same way, the expertise of boards greatly increased the firm profitability especially with better management of financial and strategic decisions. The research was able to conclude that board attributes play a critical role in the performance of a firm in Nigeria. It suggests that companies should maintain a balance in the size of boards to prevent redundancy, increase the percentage of independent directors, improve gender diversity by bringing more women directors and have people with related expertise hold board positions. The policymakers and regulators also have some incentive to enhance corporate governance codes to capture the dynamics realities of the Nigerian firms and the global best practices.