BOARD DIVERSITY AND BANK PERFORMANCE

ABSTRACT

This study examines board diversity and bank performance in Nigeria. It seeks to determine whether any relationship exist between board diversity in respect of gender diversity, nationality diversity, ethnicity diversity with bank performance. The study adopted the longitudinal research design method, the five years (2009-2013) audited financial statements of a sample of twelve (12) banks that were selected by means of simple random sampling, from a population of twenty-one (21) quoted Nigerian banks formed the basis of this study. A descriptive statistics, correlation, panel data regression were employed to evaluate the relationship between the variables, using Microsoft excel and E-view 8.0. The findings drawn from the panel data analysis revealed that gender and nationality diversity have a positive coefficient and insignificant impact on bank performance, while ethnicity has a negative coefficient and insignificant impact on bank performance. The study recommends the increase of females and foreigners in the membership of the board of the bank since their inclusions were found to favourably affect the performance of the banks. However, consideration for ethnicity in board membership was not recommended due to its negative relationship to bank performance.