Impact of Accounting Measure of Performance on Dividend Payout Ratio of Listed Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria

This paper examined the effect of accounting measure of Performance on Dividend Payout Ratio of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Accounting measures of performance proxied by Return on Asset (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Return on Investment (ROI) and Net Profit Margin (NPM) were used as independent variables while dividend payout ratio (DPO) of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria represented dependent variable. The study adopted expost facto research design and analyzed a total of 63 manufacturing firms who were able to pay dividend within the study period. Simple random probability was employed for the selection of sample size from each group of the manufacturing subsector whereas multiple regressions was used in order to establish the nature and degree of the relationship between the variables under consideration. The study found a positively significant relationship between return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), return on investment (ROI), and net profit margin (NPM). Therefore, it was recommended among others that management of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria should try to improve their performance by ensuring that the companies invest in projects that would yield positive return in order to attract more investors. It was also recommended that policy makers should consider granting the manufacturing firms tax relief and other aids in order to improve their performance and consequently attract investments to the sector which benefit the economy in several ways.