Ownership Structure and Financial Performance of Listed Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria: Moderating Role of Board Diversity.

The financial performance of listed Manufacturing firms in Nigeria has been deteriorated considerably. There are other issues that could lead to the poor economic performance but the researchers are explicitly interested in investigating the impact of board diversity on the relationship between ownership structure and financial performance of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria from 2013 to 2022 financial years. The ownership structure variables used in this study are foreign ownership and concentrated ownership while the financial performance used is represented by return on assets (ROA), and the moderating variable is board diversity. The sample of the study is all the fifty (50) listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria that make up the population of the study. The study uses secondary data and multiple regressions for the purpose of this study. The findings of the study reveal that foreign ownership has a positive and insignificant effect on financial performance. However, concentrated ownership has a positive and significant effect on performance. Board diversity has a positive effect on the relationship between foreign ownership, concentrated ownership and financial performance. The researchers therefore recommend that Regulatory bodies of manufacturing firms such as Standard Organization of Nigeria should ensure that board diversity in listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria is composed in such a way as to ensure diversity of experiences without compromising compatibility, integrity and independence. Should ensure that the diversity of experience without compromising compatibility, integrity and independence.