BOARD DIVERSITY AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF LISTED INSURANCE FIRMS IN NIGERIA
Ogirima, Abdulmumuni , Obaje, Folashade Olufunke and Muhammed Abdulsalam
Volume 2 Issue 2
Abstract
The study examines board diversity and financial performance of quoted insurance firms in Nigeria. The research design adopted by the study is correlational and the population comprises the 22 insurance firms quoted on the Nigeria Exchange Group as of 31st December 2021 out of which ten (10) were selected as sample size. The study adopts a secondary source of data and the data were extracted from the annual reports and accounts of the selected quoted insurance firms in Nigeria. The data covers a period of 10 years ranging from 2012-2021. The study used the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) Regression Model as the technique of analysis using STATA 13.0 software. Finding reveals that gender diversity has a significant positive impact on financial performance of quoted insurance firms, also ethnic diversity has a significant positive impact on firm performance while foreign directorship has an insignificant negative impact on financial performance. In line with the findings of the study, the study concluded that women are richly represented on the board of the quoted insurance firms and would contribute to financial performance while an increase in the number of foreign directors contributes to reducing the financial performance of insurance companies. The study, therefore, recommends that insurance firms should not be distracted by having more women on board instead capable and experienced hands should be the focus and should optimize its foreign directors by not having too many foreign directors which will create additional costs greater than the benefit of the board member. Keywords: Board diversity, Gender Diversity, Ethnic Diversity, Foreign Directorship, Return on Assets
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