ABSTRACT

The study focused on the effect of corporate governance on the performance of manufacturing firms in Nigeria. An ex-post facto research design was adopted and data collected from secondary sources were analysed using ordinary least square techniques. From the regression result for the relationship between board size and performance, the coefficient of the model is found out to be positive (0.316). This result shows that board size and performance in terms of ROE move in the same direction. The positive relationship is also seen to be considerably important to the performance of firms. This indicates a significant negative effect of board size on the financial performance of the listed firms. The result also revealed that on the relationship between proportion of outside directors and financial performance indicates that significant negative relationship exist between the two variables. Furthermore the study revealed that the audit committee has no significant impact on performance. From analysis the study therefore that a positive relationship exist between manufacturing firm performance, board size and board composition (proportion of non-executive directors). That is, a reasonably moderate correlation exists between poor performance and subsequent increase in board size and independence. While there is no significant relationship between Audit committee and performance of manufacturing firms. Based on the findings of this research, the study provides recommendations that efforts to improve corporate governance should focus on the value of the stock ownership of board members, since it is positively related to both future operating performance and to the probability of disciplinary management turnover in poorly performing