CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND NON FINANCIAL INFORMATION DISCLOSURE

ABSTRACT

The study examined the effect of corporate governance on non-financial information disclosure of listed firms in Nigeria. Voluntary disclosures are information disclosed based on the firm's free will and decision, which can be financial or non-financial, disclosed over and above the mandatory requirements. It specifically took an empirical look into the effect of board independence, CEO duality, board gender diversity and board size of firms in Nigeria. A panel data research design was adopted with extensive reliance on secondary data sourced from the annual reports of 40 companies quoted on the Nigerian Exchange Greup (NGX) for 2018-2022. Both statistical and econometric tools were employed in the analysis using data obtained from the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX). The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimate was employed in the estimation of the models. The study found that there is a negative and insignificant relationship between board independence and voluntary disclosures in Nigerian firms. There is a positive significant relationship between CEO duality (CEODU) and voluntary information disclosures. And also, board gender diversity had a positive but insignificant relationship with voluntary information disclosures. Hence, the study recommends that there is need of consistency and proper reporting of maximum information for stakeholders and improve the quality and reportirg of voluntary disclosure in their annual reports. This will enhance the confidence of their investors, satisfying their creditors and customers, improve their profitability and value of shares.