CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ATTRIBUTES AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF LISTED PHARMACEUTICAL FIRMS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The wrong mentality of conflict of interest and having too much control or pocketing the shareholders and directors of a firm is causing serious problems in a firm and this has led to corporate failures. The board’s impairment, gender diversity and conflicting laws arising from the nature or structure of ownership are other causes of failures in corporate governance. Thus, this study investigated the effect of corporate governance attributes on financial performance of listed Pharmaceutical firms in Nigeria. Three proxy of corporate governance attributes (Board size, Board Gender Diversity and Board Meeting) and one measure of financial performance which is Return on Equity (ROE). These dimensions and measures were used to formulate three specific objectives, research questions and hypotheses. The study adopted an ex-post facto research design. The population of the study was 7 listed Pharmaceutical firms in Nigeria. Census sampling technique was used and considered all the 7 listed Pharmaceutical firms. This study employed secondary sourced which covered a period of 10 years from 2014-2023. This study adopted descriptive statistics, Unit root test, Husman Test and Multiple Regression method of data analysis. The study’s findings showed that board size has an insignificant effect on return on equity, whereas, board meeting and  board gender diversity respectively have significant effect on return on equity of listed pharmaceutical firms in Nigeria. It was suggested amongst others that listed pharmaceutical firms should examine board size from a wider perspective which in all sense capture the main essence of corporate governance in relation to the day to day performance, so as to give credence to matters that boost maximum corporate performance, without necessarily focusing on how the board is size.