Board size, independence, and dividend payout of consumer and industrial firms in Nigeria: The moderating role of board ownership

Corporate firms are saddled with the obligation of achieving greater profitability and maximizing equity holders’ return on investment; to protect investors interests and right through consistent dividend payout. This study therefore examined the moderating effect of board ownership on gender diversity, board size and dividend payout of industrial and consumer good firms in Nigeria. The research design adopted is ex-post facto and the adjusted population comprised of fourteen listed industrial and consumer firms in Nigeria. This study utilized census sampling and filtering technique by employing the 14 listed firms as sample size. The data covered a period of 17 years ranging from 2007 to 2023. This study used binary logistic regression technique to analyse the data using STATA 17.0. Findings reveals that both board size and gender diversity indicated a positive and significant effect on dividend payout. In addition, this study found that board ownership showed a strong and positive significant moderating effect on board size, gender diversity and dividend payout of listed consumers and industrial firms in Nigeria. Therefore, this study recommends that, Board of directors in line with CAMA 2020 and Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance 2018 should henceforth encourage firms to increase the number of female genders on the board of directors.