Papers by Onipe A D A B E N E G E Yahaya
International Journal of Risk Management, 2026
Nigeria's public debt architecture has grown increasingly fragile over the past four decades. The... more Nigeria's public debt architecture has grown increasingly fragile over the past four decades. The convergence of high domestic borrowing costs, shortening debt maturities, declining oil revenues, and persistent fiscal deficits has elevated refinancing risk to the front rank of macroeconomic vulnerabilities. Yet scholarly attention to this particular nexus, how the structure and composition of public debt intersect with the ever-present risk of failing to roll over maturing obligations on acceptable terms, remains underdeveloped in the Nigerian context. This paper addresses that gap by examining the dynamic relationship between refinancing risk and public debt sustainability in Nigeria over the period 1986-2025. Drawing on annual time-series data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Debt Management Office (DMO), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the study employs an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing framework augmented with a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to capture both short-run dynamics and long-run equilibrium adjustments. Twelve control variables are incorporated: GDP growth rate, inflation rate, interest rate, exchange rate, debt-to-GDP ratio, debt service-to-revenue ratio, debt maturity structure, governance quality, fiscal discipline, monetary policy framework, global interest rates, and commodity prices (represented primarily by crude oil prices). The results reveal that refinancing risk exerts a statistically significant and positive long-run effect on the public debt burden, while debt maturity structure, fiscal discipline, governance quality, and oil price volatility emerge as the most consequential moderating factors. Short-run dynamics indicate that negative shocks to oil revenues and exchange rate depreciations can rapidly amplify rollover pressures, creating a procyclical feedback loop that deepens debt accumulation. The findings underscore the urgent need for Nigeria to extend the average maturity of its domestic debt portfolio, diversify its revenue base beyond petroleum, strengthen institutional governance frameworks, and align monetary and fiscal policies toward a coherent debt sustainability strategy. The study contributes a novel empirical framework to the extant literature and offers actionable policy prescriptions for low-income oil-dependent economies facing structural refinancing vulnerabilities.
International Journal of Accounting & Auditing, 2026
This study investigates the nexus between audit quality and the cost of capital among Nigerian li... more This study investigates the nexus between audit quality and the cost of capital among Nigerian listed firms over the period 2011 to 2025, using an unbalanced panel dataset comprising 148 firms drawn across twelve sectors of the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX). Audit quality is proxied through two complementary measures: Big 4 auditor affiliation and discretionary accruals estimated via the modified Jones (1991) model. The cost of capital is captured using three dependent constructs-cost of equity capital (COE), cost of debt capital (COD), and weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Control variables include firm size, leverage, profitability, growth opportunities, board independence, ownership structure, beta (market risk), debt-to-equity ratio, inflation rate, interest rate, audit firm size, and audit tenure. Employing fixed-effects panel regression with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors to account for heteroskedasticity, serial correlation, and cross-sectional dependence, the results consistently reveal that higher audit quality significantly reduces the cost of equity, debt, and overall capital. Big 4 affiliation exerts a significant negative influence on all three cost-of-capital measures. Audit tenure, by contrast, is positively associated with capital costs, suggesting that prolonged auditor-client relationships may erode audit independence over time. These findings are robust to alternative model specifications and are consistent with information asymmetry theory, agency theory, and the signalling hypothesis. The study contributes novel evidence from the largest sub-Saharan African capital market and yields actionable insights for regulators, investors, boards of directors, and standardsetters.
Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 2026
This study examines the impact of executive compensation on the risk-taking behaviour of 148 list... more This study examines the impact of executive compensation on the risk-taking behaviour of 148 listed Nigerian firms over the period 2011 to 2025. Grounded in agency theory, managerial power theory, and prospect theory, the study employs a panel regression framework, incorporating fixed effects and random effects estimators with Hausman specification tests to determine the preferred model. Executive compensation is operationalised through total executive pay, cash bonus, and equity-linked remuneration, while risk-taking is measured using return volatility (earnings volatility), asset risk (standard deviation of return on assets), and the leverage-adjusted risk index. Firm-level control variables include firm size, leverage, profitability, growth opportunities, board independence, board size, and ownership structure. Macro-level controls capture industry risk level, industry growth rate, GDP growth rate, inflation rate, and interest rate. Findings reveal that equity-based compensation exerts a statistically significant positive influence on corporate risk-taking, consistent with alignment incentive arguments, while fixed salary compensation is negatively associated with risk appetite. Cash bonuses yield heterogeneous results across model specifications. The results survive a battery of robustness checks including the system GMM estimator, alternative risk proxies, and subsample analyses. These findings carry important implications for corporate governance reform, regulatory policy, and compensation committee design in Nigeria's emerging market context.
Journal of International Business Studies , 2026
This study examines the relationship between corruption and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflo... more This study examines the relationship between corruption and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in Nigeria over the period 1986-2025, a stretch of nearly four decades that encompasses military rule, democratic transitions, oil price cycles, and recent post-pandemic economic shocks. Nigeria remains one of Africa's largest economies, yet it consistently ranks among the most corruption-afflicted nations in global governance indices, a paradox that sits at the heart of this investigation. While the country's vast natural resource endowment, demographic scale, and strategic geopolitical position should theoretically make it an FDI magnet, actual investment inflows remain volatile, sector-concentrated, and far below the nation's potential. The study employs Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS), and Dynamic OLS (DOLS) regression techniques to isolate the independent effect of corruption on FDI, while controlling for market size, inflation, exchange rate, trade openness, governance quality, regulatory framework, rule of law, infrastructure, oil reserves, and global economic trends. Using annual timeseries data primarily sourced from the World Bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Transparency International, the results consistently demonstrate that corruption exerts a statistically significant negative effect on FDI inflows. A one-unit improvement in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is associated with a 0.0401 percentage point increase in FDI as a share of GDP. Governance quality, regulatory efficiency, and rule of law emerge as equally powerful determinants, suggesting that corruption does not operate in isolation but as part of a broader institutional deficit. The study finds robust cointegration among the variables, stable model parameters, and confirms that corruption Granger-causes FDI in a unidirectional fashion. The findings have direct implications for Nigeria's industrialisation agenda, the Tinubu administration's economic reform programme, and the broader African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) investment strategy.
Journal of Infrastructure Development and Research, 2026
This study investigates the relationship between government spending on infrastructure and econom... more This study investigates the relationship between government spending on infrastructure and economic growth in Nigeria over the period 1986 to 2025. Using a robust multi-variable time series framework, the research incorporates nine control variables, inflation rate, exchange rate, oil prices, population growth rate, urbanization rate, governance quality, corruption index, private sector investment, and foreign direct investment, to isolate the independent effect of infrastructure expenditure on real GDP growth. Employing Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Dynamic OLS (DOLS), Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS), and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach, alongside rigorous post-estimation diagnostics including Johansen cointegration, CUSUM stability tests, and heteroskedasticity corrections, the study finds a statistically significant and positive long-run relationship between infrastructure spending and economic growth (coefficient: 0.528; p < 0.01). The results are robust across all estimation methods. Governance quality and private sector investment emerge as significant complementary drivers, while inflation and corruption consistently dampen the growth effect of infrastructure outlays. These findings challenge the conventional fiscal austerity narrative and provide strong empirical grounds for sustained, well-governed infrastructure investment in Nigeria. The study contributes to the literature by offering the most current and comprehensive empirical assessment for Nigeria, extending previous datasets by a decade and incorporating governance-corruption interaction dynamics that earlier studies omitted.
Journal of Behavioural Finance and Research, 2026
This study investigates the impact of behavioural biases on financial reporting quality (FRQ) amo... more This study investigates the impact of behavioural biases on financial reporting quality (FRQ) among listed firms in Nigeria over the period 2011-2025. Using an unbalanced panel dataset of 148 firms drawn from the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), the study employs pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects models (FEM), random effects models (REM), and the system generalised method of moments (Sys-GMM) estimator to account for endogeneity, heteroscedasticity, and serial correlation. The Modified Jones Model is adopted to compute the absolute value of discretionary accruals as a proxy for FRQ, while optimism bias, overconfidence, heuristic bias, and loss aversion constitute the behavioural bias constructs. Control variables include firm size, leverage, profitability, board composition, audit committee characteristics, ownership structure, regulatory oversight, IFRS compliance, market volatility, and industry norms. Results reveal that all four behavioural bias constructs exert a statistically significant and negative influence on FRQ, with overconfidence and optimism bias displaying the most pronounced effects. Governance mechanisms, particularly board independence, audit committee financial expertise, and institutional ownership, significantly moderate the bias-quality nexus. The findings survive a battery of post-estimation diagnostics and are robust across multiple model specifications. The study contributes to the nascent but growing interface of behavioural finance and financial reporting research in sub-Saharan Africa and carries important implications for regulators, auditors, investors, and corporate governance reformers.
Journal of Energy & Management Science, 2026
Nigeria's decision to remove its long-standing fuel subsidy regime-most consequentially in May 20... more Nigeria's decision to remove its long-standing fuel subsidy regime-most consequentially in May 2023triggered one of the most disruptive economic shocks in the country's post-independence history. This study empirically investigates the relationship between fuel subsidy removal and household living costs in Nigeria over the period 1986 to 2025, incorporating a rich array of control variables: inflation rate, exchange rate, GDP growth rate, income level, household size, urban/rural location, social welfare programs, alternative energy policies, international fuel prices, and transportation costs. Using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and Error Correction Model (ECM), the study establishes both short-run and long-run dynamics between subsidy policy shifts and the cost-of-living index for Nigerian households. The results confirm that fuel subsidy removal exerts a statistically significant positive effect on household living costs in both the short and long run, with the burden falling disproportionately on low-income, large-household, and rural populations. Transportation costs and exchange rate depreciation emerge as the strongest amplifying channels. Social welfare programs and alternative energy policies demonstrate modest but statistically significant buffering effects. The study contributes to the sparse empirical literature on subsidy reform in Sub-Saharan Africa and offers concrete policy recommendations for cushioning the welfare impact of subsidy removal while sustaining fiscal consolidation gains.
International Journal of Risk Management, 2026
This study investigates the relationship between Risk Management Committee (RMC) characteristics ... more This study investigates the relationship between Risk Management Committee (RMC) characteristics and financial performance among listed firms in Nigeria for the period 2011-2025. Motivated by the persistent governance weaknesses and financial instability observed in Nigeria's corporate landscape, the study adopts an ex-post facto research design, drawing on a balanced panel dataset of 148 firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX). Four RMC attributes-size, independence, financial expertise, and meeting frequency-are examined against three measures of financial performance: Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), and Tobin's Q. Employing Fixed Effects (FE) and Random Effects (RE) panel regression models, with robust standard errors corrected for heteroscedasticity and serial correlation, the study controls for firm size, profitability, leverage, growth opportunities, board composition, ownership structure, CEO tenure, CEO compensation, risk appetite, industry risk, market volatility, industry norms, GDP growth rate, inflation rate, and interest rates. Results reveal that RMC independence, expertise, and meeting frequency exert statistically significant positive effects on all three performance proxies. RMC size is positively associated with performance at conventional significance levels. These findings are robust to alternative estimation strategies and post-estimation diagnostics. The study contributes to the thin body of RMC-performance literature in an emerging African economy and carries direct implications for regulators, boards, and investors seeking to strengthen corporate governance frameworks in Nigeria.
Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 2026
This study examines the influence of managerial behavioural biases, specifically overconfidence, ... more This study examines the influence of managerial behavioural biases, specifically overconfidence, optimism, loss aversion, and herding, on dividend policy decisions among listed firms in Nigeria. Using an ex-post facto research design and an unbalanced panel dataset comprising 148 firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) over the period 2011 to 2025, we employ fixed-effects panel regression with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors to account for heteroskedasticity, autocorrelation, and cross-sectional dependence. After controlling for firm-level attributes (firm size, profitability, leverage, and growth opportunities), corporate governance characteristics (board composition, ownership structure, CEO tenure, and CEO compensation), and macroeconomic conditions (market volatility, industry norms, GDP growth rate, inflation rate, and interest rates), the findings reveal that managerial overconfidence and optimism significantly reduce dividend payout ratios, while loss aversion positively influences dividend payments. Herding behaviour yields a statistically significant but contextually nuanced effect. These results are robust across multiple model specifications and post-estimation diagnostics. The study enriches the behavioural corporate finance literature by offering frontiermarket evidence from an economy characterised by institutional frailties, concentrated ownership, and persistent macroeconomic volatility. Practically, the findings carry implications for shareholders, corporate boards, regulators, and policymakers seeking to enhance dividend transparency and minority investor protection in emerging African markets.
Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, 2025
Nigeria commands the longest coastline in the Gulf of Guinea and operates the busiest port comple... more Nigeria commands the longest coastline in the Gulf of Guinea and operates the busiest port complex in Sub-Saharan Africa, yet six decades of independence have not translated this maritime endowment into sustained, diversified economic growth. This paper investigates the long-run relationship between maritime and logistics infrastructure and Nigeria's economic growth over the period 1960-2025, using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach supplemented by Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) and Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) for robustness. Thirteen variablesencompassing port capacity, road and rail network quality, trade openness, inflation, exchange rate, foreign direct investment, purchasing power parity, trade policy, global trade growth, population growth, and urbanisation-are modelled against annual GDP growth. Results confirm statistically significant long-run cointegration. Port throughput (β = 0.387, p < 0.01), road network quality (β = 0.261, p < 0.05), rail freight (β = 0.182, p < 0.05), and FDI (β = 0.231, p < 0.01) exert significant positive effects on growth. Inflation, exchange rate depreciation, and restrictive trade policy exert significant negative effects. The findings expose a persistent infrastructure-growth nexus, underscoring the urgency of public-private investment in port modernisation, intermodal logistics corridors, and institutional reform. The study contributes a comprehensive six-decade time-series dataset, a novel composite logistics-growth model, and actionable policy recommendations for Nigeria's post-oil diversification agenda.
Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics, 2026
Nigeria, one of Africa's most biologically diverse nations, is confronting an accelerating biodiv... more Nigeria, one of Africa's most biologically diverse nations, is confronting an accelerating biodiversity crisis driven by compounding environmental stressors. This study examines the impact of three primary environmental factors-deforestation rate, pollution levels, and climate change indicators-on biodiversity in Nigeria over the period 1960-2025, while controlling for location, terrain, population density, GDP per capita, income level, invasive species presence, and natural disasters. Employing a blend of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Fixed Effects, Random Effects, Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS), and Dynamic OLS (DOLS) regression techniques, alongside robust post-estimation diagnostics, the study finds that deforestation exerts the most severe negative impact on biodiversity (β =-5.124, p < 0.001), followed by climate change indicators (β =-4.387, p < 0.001) and pollution levels (β =-0.312, p < 0.001). GDP per capita, income level, terrain elevation, and forest zone location are found to be positive moderating forces on biodiversity outcomes. The Johansen cointegration test confirms a long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables. These findings underscore the urgent need for multi-sectoral, evidence-based environmental governance in Nigeria. The study contributes to the environmental economics and conservation biology literature by offering one of the most comprehensive quantitative assessments of biodiversity determinants in Sub-Saharan Africa spanning six decades.
Journal of Sustainability Accounting and Management, 2026
This study examines whether environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures reduce stock ... more This study examines whether environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures reduce stock price crash risk among firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX). Drawing on agency theory, information asymmetry theory, and stakeholder theory, we hypothesize that greater ESG transparency attenuates managers' incentives to hoard negative information, thereby reducing the likelihood of abrupt, large-magnitude stock price declines. Using panel data from 120 non-financial firms spanning 2013 to 2023, we construct two widely adopted crash risk proxies-negative conditional skewness (NCSKEW) and down-to-up volatility (DUVOL)-and estimate fixed-effects regressions with a comprehensive set of control variables, including firm size, leverage, profitability, growth opportunities, board composition, ownership structure, market volatility, trading volume, GDP growth rate, inflation rate, and industry type. Our findings reveal that ESG disclosure quality is significantly and negatively associated with both crash risk measures, even after controlling for macroeconomic shocks and firm-level heterogeneity. The environmental and governance sub-pillars drive the strongest effects, while the social pillar exerts a more modest influence. The results are robust to alternative crash risk proxies, instrumental variable estimation to address endogeneity, and subsample analyses. This study contributes original evidence from an underexplored emerging economy context and carries direct implications for regulators, investors, and corporate boards seeking to harness ESG transparency as a tool for financial stability.
Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 2026
This study investigates the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on innovation-measured by patent ... more This study investigates the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on innovation-measured by patent filings and R&D expenditure-among 148 listed firms in Nigeria from 2011 to 2025. Using panel regression and controlling for firm size, industry type, leverage, growth opportunities, GDP growth, and regulatory environment, the analysis reveals that human capital and structural capital are positively and significantly associated with both patent filings and R&D expenditure, while relational capital shows a weaker effect. Firm size and growth opportunities amplify innovation, but high leverage and a restrictive regulatory environment dampen it. The findings contribute to the resource-based view and institutional theory, highlighting the contextual nuances of IC-driven innovation in emerging markets. The study offers actionable insights for policymakers, managers, and investors seeking to foster innovation in Nigeria's dynamic business landscape.
Journal of Development Economics Studies, 2026
Nigeria occupies a paradoxical position in global development discourse: it is Africa's largest e... more Nigeria occupies a paradoxical position in global development discourse: it is Africa's largest economy by nominal GDP, yet it simultaneously harbors one of the world's largest concentrations of extreme poverty. This paper examines the dynamic relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction in Nigeria over the period 1986-2025, incorporating seven control variables-global GDP growth, commodity prices (particularly crude oil), inflation, capital flows, investor sentiment, election cycles, and policy uncertainty-to disentangle the mechanisms that mediate or obstruct the growthpoverty nexus. Drawing on the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach within an error-correction framework, and augmented by the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) estimator for robustness, the study finds that economic growth exerts a statistically significant but quantitatively modest effect on poverty reduction, particularly when commodity price booms mask structural fragility. Inflation and policy uncertainty emerge as the most potent povertyamplifying forces, while capital flows exhibit asymmetric effects contingent on their compositionforeign direct investment reduces poverty more durably than portfolio inflows. Election cycles introduce significant short-run policy distortions that erode poverty-reducing gains. The paper provides empirical grounding for a recalibrated development strategy that prioritizes structural economic transformation, monetary discipline, institutional quality, and inclusive capital mobilization. These findings carry direct implications for policymakers, multilateral institutions, and development practitioners engaged with Nigeria and similarly resource-rich but poverty-stricken economies.
International Journal of Finance and Economics , 2026
This study investigates the role of foreign exchange reserves in reducing exchange rate volatilit... more This study investigates the role of foreign exchange reserves in reducing exchange rate volatility in Nigeria over the period 1986 to 2025. Set against a backdrop of chronic exchange rate instability, multiple currency regimes, and mounting reserve depletion episodes, the research asks a fundamental question: do larger foreign exchange reserves systematically reduce the conditional variance of the naira-dollar exchange rate? Using a GARCH(1,1) framework to generate exchange rate volatility as the dependent variable, and employing Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS), Dynamic OLS (DOLS), and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approaches, the paper finds strong and consistent evidence that foreign exchange reserves exert a statistically significant negative effect on exchange rate volatility. The estimated coefficient on reserves ranges from-0.342 to-0.401 across specifications, suggesting that a 10 percent increase in reserves is associated with a 3.4 to 4.0 percent reduction in exchange rate volatility, all else constant. Among the eight control variables-global GDP growth, commodity prices (oil), domestic GDP growth, inflation, capital flows, investor sentiment (VIX), election cycles, and policy uncertainty-inflation, adverse investor sentiment, election-year dummies, and policy uncertainty are associated with higher volatility, while commodity prices and capital flows dampen it. These findings survive a battery of post-estimation diagnostics, including serial correlation, heteroskedasticity, normality, structural stability, and functional form tests. The study contributes to an underdeveloped strand of literature on the macroeconomic effectiveness of reserve management in commodity-dependent African economies, and draws important policy lessons for the Central Bank of Nigeria and peer institutions.
Journal of Development Economics & Digital Finance,, 2026
Nigeria's telecommunications sector has emerged as one of the most dynamic in sub-Saharan Africa,... more Nigeria's telecommunications sector has emerged as one of the most dynamic in sub-Saharan Africa, yet persistent questions remain about whether the country's tax architecture suppresses the pace and depth of mobile innovation. This study investigates the relationship between taxation and mobile innovation in Nigeria over the period 2001 to 2025, employing a multi-factor time series framework that controls for regulatory environment, market structure, macroeconomic conditions, technological diffusion, demographic trends, and infrastructure quality. Using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), and standard OLS estimation, the analysis finds that both aggregate tax revenue as a percentage of GDP and sector-specific telecommunications levies exert a statistically significant negative effect on mobile innovation proxied by mobile subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. Specifically, a one percentage point increase in the tax-to-GDP ratio is associated with a reduction of approximately 4.97 subscription units per 100 people in the long run, while sector-specific taxation suppresses innovation by an additional 2.54 units. Control variables, including internet penetration, smartphone adoption, network coverage, disposable income, and urbanization, register expected positive and significant effects, while inflation and regulatory burden confirm their anticipated inhibitive roles. Cointegration is confirmed through the ARDL bounds test, and post-estimation diagnostics validate model stability, homoscedasticity, and absence of serial correlation. These findings align with optimal taxation theory and the Laffer Curve hypothesis, suggesting that Nigeria's current tax policy on the mobile sector may be operating beyond the revenue-maximizing threshold, simultaneously depressing innovation and narrowing the fiscal base. The study offers actionable policy recommendations for tax reform, regulatory harmonization, and targeted investment incentives directed at the digital economy.
Journal of Disclosure and Governance Research, 2026
This study investigates the impact of governance quality on the risk management practices of list... more This study investigates the impact of governance quality on the risk management practices of listed firms in Nigeria over the period 2011-2025. Drawing on agency theory, stakeholder theory, and enterprise risk management (ERM) frameworks, the paper argues that stronger governance mechanisms enhance the effectiveness of risk management processes, thereby reducing firm-level vulnerabilities in an emerging market characterized by institutional fragility and macroeconomic volatility. Using an ex-post facto research design and panel regression analysis on a sample of 148 listed firms on the Nigerian Exchange Group, the study examines the relationship between a composite governance quality index-capturing board independence, board diversity, audit committee effectiveness, CEO non-duality, and regulatory compliance-and a multidimensional risk management index. The analysis controls for firm size, leverage, liquidity, growth opportunities, industry type, GDP growth rate, inflation rate, interest rates, board size, ownership structure, firm age, and audit quality. The results reveal that governance quality exerts a statistically significant positive impact on risk management effectiveness. Board independence and audit committee effectiveness emerge as the most influential governance dimensions. Among the control variables, firm size, audit quality, and leverage are significant predictors of risk management outcomes, while macroeconomic controls-particularly inflation and interest rates-demonstrate meaningful moderating effects. Post-estimation diagnostics, including the Hausman test, Breusch-Pagan Lagrange Multiplier test, tests for heteroscedasticity, serial correlation, and multicollinearity, confirm the robustness of the findings. The study contributes to the governance-risk nexus literature by providing comprehensive evidence from a Sub-Saharan African context, challenging the assumption that governance codes alone guarantee effective risk oversight. The findings carry implications for regulators, corporate boards, institutional investors, and policymakers seeking to strengthen corporate resilience in Nigeria's evolving capital market.
International Journal of Accounting and Finance, 2026
This study examines the impact of asset dynamics on the financial performance of 148 listed firms... more This study examines the impact of asset dynamics on the financial performance of 148 listed firms on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) over 15 years, spanning 2011 to 2025. Asset dynamics, defined as the compositional shifts, growth trajectories, and structural reconfigurations of firm assets over time, represent a critical yet underexplored determinant of financial performance in emerging market contexts. Grounded in the Resource-Based View, Dynamic Capabilities Theory, and the Pecking Order Theory, this paper argues that the manner in which firms manage, reconfigure, and grow their asset portfolios significantly shapes profitability, market valuation, and operational efficiency. Employing an ex-post facto research design and panel regression methodology (fixed effects and random effects models, with Hausman specification tests), the study controls for firm size, leverage, liquidity, growth opportunities, industry type, GDP growth rate, inflation rate, interest rates, board size, ownership structure, firm age, and audit quality. Results from the panel regression analysis reveal that asset growth rate, asset tangibility, and asset turnover efficiency exert statistically significant effects on return on assets, return on equity, and Tobin's Q. Specifically, asset turnover efficiency demonstrates the strongest positive association with profitability metrics. In contrast, asset tangibility shows a nuanced, sector-dependent relationship with market-based performance. The control variables, particularly leverage, firm size, and macroeconomic indicators, play substantive moderating roles. Post-estimation diagnostics, including the Breusch-Pagan Lagrange Multiplier test, the Wooldridge test for serial autocorrelation, and the Modified Wald test for heteroskedasticity, confirm the robustness of the estimates. The study contributes to the literature by providing a comprehensive, multi-dimensional operationalization of asset dynamics in the Nigerian context, bridging the gap between static asset-performance analyses and the dynamic reality of corporate asset management in a volatile emerging economy. The findings hold practical implications for corporate managers, investors, regulators, and policymakers seeking to understand the asset-performance nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Journal of Business Ethics and Sustainability, 2026
The intersection of global warming and corporate sustainability has attracted increasing scholarl... more The intersection of global warming and corporate sustainability has attracted increasing scholarly and policy attention, yet empirical evidence from emerging markets-particularly Nigeria-remains thin. This study investigates the impact of global warming on corporate sustainability, specifically carbon emissions reporting and environmental disclosures, among 148 listed firms on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) over the period 2011-2025. Drawing on a balanced panel dataset of 2,220 firm-year observations, the study employs fixed-effects and random-effects panel regression models, alongside system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) estimation to address potential endogeneity. The theoretical underpinning integrates Stakeholder Theory, Legitimacy Theory, and the Resource-Based View. Control variables include firm size, leverage, industry type, GDP growth, inflation, regulatory environment, board composition, sustainability committees, and exposure to carbon-intensive sectors. Results reveal that rising average global temperatures and associated climate risk indicators are positively associated with voluntary carbon emission disclosures but negatively correlated with actual emission reduction efforts, suggesting a performative rather than substantive sustainability response among Nigerian listed firms. Larger firms and those with dedicated sustainability committees demonstrate significantly higher environmental disclosure quality. Firms operating in carbon-intensive sectors-oil and gas, cement, and power-exhibit the highest emissions but paradoxically produce more extensive, though selectively framed, disclosures. The regulatory environment, proxied by the Securities and Exchange Commission's sustainability disclosure requirements, moderates this relationship positively. These findings carry critical implications for regulators, boards, investors, and policymakers seeking to align corporate behaviour with climate imperatives in sub-Saharan Africa.
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH, 2026
Nigeria's protracted struggle to convert its vast human resource endowment into sustained economi... more Nigeria's protracted struggle to convert its vast human resource endowment into sustained economic prosperity represents one of the most consequential development puzzles on the African continent. This study examines the relationship between the Human Capital Index (HCI) and economic growth in Nigeria over the period 1986 to 2025, incorporating five control variables, institutional quality, physical capital, technological adoption, demographic factors, and macroeconomic stability, to produce a comprehensive and contextually grounded empirical analysis. Anchored in the endogenous growth framework of Lucas (1988) and Romer (1990), the study employs Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Dynamic OLS (DOLS), Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS), and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to investigate both short-run dynamics and long-run equilibrium relationships among the variables. The findings consistently establish that the HCI exerts a statistically significant and economically meaningful positive effect on GDP per capita growth in Nigeria, with an estimated long-run coefficient ranging from 7.84 to 8.43 across model specifications. Institutional quality and physical capital accumulation also emerge as robust growth drivers, while high inflation and an elevated dependency ratio exert statistically significant negative influences on output growth. Technological adoption, measured by internet and mobile penetration, contributes positively but modestly to growth, reinforcing the importance of digital infrastructure investment. Postestimation diagnostics confirm the absence of serial correlation, heteroskedasticity, and structural instability, lending credibility to the inferences drawn. The study contributes to the thin body of long-horizon empirical literature on HCI and growth in sub-Saharan Africa and offers concrete policy prescriptions for education reform, institutional strengthening, and macroeconomic stabilisation in Nigeria.