Corporate Governance Mechanisms and Financial Performance of Listed Oil and Gas Firms in Nigeria: An Empirical Assessment

Abstract

Financial performance indicates how well an Oil and Gas firms have judiciously utilized the available limited resources in all its operations. In spite of this, evidence have shown that the performance of the Oil and Gas firms in Nigeria have been sliding due to poor Corporate Governance. Several researches and debates on whether Corporate Governance dimensions such as board composition, board size, board gender diversity, audit committee have any influence on the performance of the firms have been carried out but these studies appear not to focus on the effect of Corporate Governance dimensions on financial performance of listed Oil and Gas firms. Hence, this study examined the effect of Corporate Governance dimensions on the financial performance of listed Oil and Gas firms in Nigeria for ten years, 2009 to 2018. The study is underpinned by the stakeholder theory. The study adopted a content analytical approach to obtain data through the corporate website of the respective oil and gas firms and website of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. A total of 12 Oil and Gas firms were selected for the study cutting across three listing classifications of the Oil and Gas firms in Nigeria. The result of the study showed that Corporate Governance had no significant effect on return on assets (Adj.R2= 0.009; F = 0.505; p > 0.05). The result suggests that listed Oil and Gas companies in Nigeria should continue to maintain large board size provided the cost of doing so is not outrageous and ensure that the board always has a mix of persons with requisite skills, knowledge and understanding of business management and the operations of the company. The study also suggest that Oil and Gas firms should anchor on Corporate Governance dimensions for higher and better performance.