BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ ATTRIBUTES AND FIRM PERFORMANCE

ABSTRACT

The study examines the impact of board of directors’ attributes on firm performance. The study used secondary data extracted from the annual reports of thirteen (13) quoted commercial banks listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) for the period 2012 to 2021. The ex-post Facto research design was adopted. The board characteristics used include board size, board independence, board gender diversity and board meetings. Multiple panel regression analysis was used to analyse the data. The result shows that board size has a positive and insignificant effect on firm performance, while board independence and board gender diversity have a negative and insignificant effect on firm performance. Also, board meetings have negative and significant effect on firm performance. Based on the findings of this study, the study, recommends that experienced and capable hands should be the focus of companies when recruiting board members and little attention should be paid to gender as this does not drive firm performance, checks should be carried out by firms to ensure that independent directors recruited on the board are free from bias, as this is in line with the Corporate Governance Code, because having a large number of nonexecutive directors increases the confidence of shareholders and other stakeholders, there is the need for firms to have larger boards, and that firms should create longer gaps between their board meetings.