Victory ANONORIE

This study examined the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on the performance of listed insurance firms in Nigeria over the period 2015 to 2024. The main objective was to investigate how board independence, board diversity, board size, and CEO duality influence firm performance measured by return on assets. The study adopted an ex-post facto research design and relied on secondary data obtained from the published annual reports of ten purposively selected insurance companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group. The population comprised twenty-eight listed insurance firms as of December 2024. The study employed panel data analysis using both the Fixed Effects and Random Effects models. The Hausman specification test was conducted to determine the most appropriate model for estimation, and the test result favoured the Fixed Effects model. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were used to summarise the data and examine the relationships among the variables, while regression analysis was applied to test the study hypotheses. The findings revealed that board independence, board diversity, and board size each have a positive and statistically significant effect on firm performance, whereas CEO duality has a negative and significant effect. The results imply that firms with more independent and diverse boards and optimal board sizes perform better financially, while those combining the roles of CEO and board chair tend to underperform. The model explained approximately 61.1 percent of the variation in firm performance, indicating a strong explanatory power. The study concludes that effective corporate governance mechanisms are crucial for improving profitability and ensuring the long-term sustainability of insurance firms in Nigeria. It recommends that companies should strengthen board independence, promote gender diversity, maintain optimal board sizes, and separate leadership roles in order to enhance accountability, transparency, and performance. The study contributes to existing literature by providing empirical evidence from the Nigerian insurance industry and by demonstrating the applicability of panel data techniques in assessing governance–performance relationships in emerging markets.