CORPORATE DIVIDEND DECISION AND FIRM VALUE IN NIGERIA

Corporate dividend decisions play a significant role in managerial decisions, and is often considered as the fulcrum of financial management decisions. While making these decisions, corporate finance is single-minded about maximizing the value of the firm. But the raging issue has been the lack of consensus on the effect of dividend policy on firm. This study therefore undertakes a comprehensive review of dividend policy theories and empirical studies on dividend policy in relation to firm value, with particular focus on Nigeria. The paper adopts the exploratory research approach using secondary data sources involving extensive review of relevant articles, theoretical and empirical studies, as well as other relevant materials. The paper established that, despite the raging theoretical controversies and contradictions of past empirical findings, there is unanimity among many researchers that corporate dividend decisions exert significant influence on firm value- a position which validates the arguments in favour of the relevance of dividends policy in determining firm value. The paper therefore recommends that finance managers of firms should aim at finding an optimal dividend policy, which is the one that maximizes the company stock price that leads to the maximization of firm value.