Corporate Governance and the Performance of Consumer Goods Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

The study focused on corporate governance and the performance of consumer goods firms in Nigeria. For corporate organization to achieve its goal, there should be effective corporate governance such as adequate board size, independent board members, and effective audit committee members. In other words, effective corporate governance is paramount to the growth and performance of business organization. To achieve the objective of this study expost facto research design was adopted. The sample size of the study is made up of ten selected consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The selection is based on availability of data used in this study. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation matrix, multiple regression analysis and histogram analysis was used as the post estimation test to check the present of autocorrelation and multincollinerity. The correlation result revealed that there is positive relationship between corporate governance mechanisms (board size, board independence, CEO duality and audit committee size) and firm performance (return on asset). The regression analysis results revealed that board size and board independence have significant effect on firm’s return on asset. However, CEO duality and audit committee size have positive but do not have significant effect on firm’s performance. The histogram normality test showed that the variables meet normality assumption. Based on the findings the study concludes that the performance of consumer goods firms can be affected by their corporate governance mechanisms. Therefore, the study recommends that consumer goods firms ought to ensure the independence of their boards in order to advance effective corporate governance and foster company success. Consumer goods firms should also make sure that they abide by the corporate code of conduct with reference to board size. If the board has the required number of members or is the right size, their performance will improve. To increase the relevance of the company's principles and improve firm performance, consumer goods firms should increase the number of non-executive (independent) directors and make sure that the audit committee and board of directors are composed of independent, highly ethical individuals.