BOARD INDEPENDENCE, GENDER DIVERSITY, AND FINANCIAL EXPERTISE ASDRIVERS OF FIRM PERFORMANCE IN EMERGING MARKETS: EMPIRICAL INSIGHTS FROM THE NIGERIAN MANUFACTURING SECTOR

Corporate governance remains a pivotal factor influencing firm financial performance, especially within emerging economies. This study investigates how board characteristics and audit committee expertise affectfirm profitability, proxied by return on assets (ROA), using panel data from 24 Nigerian manufacturing firms over the period 2012–2021. Employing generalized least squares (GLS) regression with interaction terms, the analysis reveals that board independence, gender diversity, and financial expertise significantly enhance ROA, while board size and meeting frequency do not show significant effects. Moreover, audit committee expertise positively moderates the impact of independent directors, gender-diverse boards, and financial literacy on firm performance, underscoring the synergistic role of governance structures. These findings validate agency theory and resource dependence theory by demonstrating that effective monitoring and resource provision through expert audit committees and diverse, skilled boards improve firm outcomes in the Nigerian manufacturing sector. Policy implications highlight the need to enforce regulatory measures promoting board independence, gender diversity, and financial competency, alongside strengthening audit committee capabilities, to enhance corporate governance quality and firm value. This study contributes novel empirical evidence for governance reforms tailored to developing economies with similar institutional contexts.