AUDIT COMMITTEE CHARACTERISTICS AND SUSTAINABILITY DISCLOSURE: MODERATING ROLE OF BOARD GENDER DIVERSITY IN NIGERIAN BANKS

The study investigated the role of board gender diversity as a moderator on the traits of audit committee and sustainability disclosure among Nigerian deposit money banks. The increasing stakeholder pressure for transparent environmental, social, and governance disclosure, exacerbated by corporate governance inefficiencies exposed by global financial scandals, has heightened the need for an effective audit committee oversight in promoting credible sustainability disclosure. Despite rising scholarly attention, evidence on the governance mechanisms that drives sustainability disclosure in developing economies remains inconclusive. The study raised question of whether board gender diversity strengthens the nexus between size of audit committee and its tenure on sustainability disclosure in deposit money banks in Nigeria. The study extends the corporate governance and sustainability disclosure studies by looking at the moderating influence of board gender diversity on the nexus between size of audit committee, tenure and sustainability disclosure. While studies earlier conducted focused on audit committee traits direct effects, minimal documented empirical facts have explored board gender diversity contribution as a possible moderator, notably within the Nigerian banking sector environment. Leveraging on correlational research design and data driven technique, the inquiry computes panel data accessed from 14 deposit banks yearly reports spanning 2013–2024 intervals. Panel multiple regression analysis was deployed to include diagnostic and robustness tests, the robust fixed-effects approach was opted for hypothesis testing. The audit committee size confirmed positive insignificant outcome on sustainability disclosure, audit committee tenure confirmed significant positive outcome. Additionally, board gender diversity considerably moderated the nexus between size of audit committee, audit committee tenure, and sustainability disclosure. These outcomes exhibit that diverse board across gender strengthen audit committees’ efficacy in boosting sustainability disclosure. The study infers that bolstering board gender diversity in tandem with longer audit committee tenure for members potentially boost sustainability disclosure practices. The consequences offer important implications for regulators, policymakers, seeking to bolster corporate governance.