The Effect of Corporate Governance on Environmental Disclosure by Listed Nigerian Consumer Goods Firms

Abstract

In recent times, companies improve corporate communication with stakeholders by providing information on measures taking to protect the environment through environmental disclosures. The main objective of the study is to examine how corporate governance affects environmental disclosures listed Nigerian consumer goods firms. The ex-post facto research design was used and regression analysis was used to analyzed data derived from seventeen consumer goods firms. The findings revealed that the presence of environmental sustainability committee, number of meetings held by the board of directors, and firm size have significant positive impact on the quantity of environmental information disclosure (EDI). However, the size of the board of directors (BSIZE) and board independence have an insignificant inverse influence on the Environmental Disclosure Index (EDI) of the sampled companies. It was concluded that corporate governance affects environment disclosure. Based on the findings it was recommended that companies should constitute environmental committee on the board of directors to improve environmental disclosure.

Keywords

• board size
• corporate governance
• environmental disclosure
• firm size