Mediating Role of Capital Structure on the Relationship between Corporate Governance and Performance of Consumer Goods Firms in Nigeria

The main objective of this research is to examine the mediating role of capital structure on the relationship between corporate governance and performance of consumer goods firms, Nigeria for the period of 2018-2022. An ex-post facto research design was adopted, all the consumer goods firm listed on the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission were censured and filtered through applying criteria, for a company to be part of the sample, it must be listed before 2018 and secondly, the data needed can be identified in the financial statement of such firms. The application of the criteria resulted to the selection of 10 firms as a sample size of the study. The STATA v.14 was adopted to test the hypotheses developed in this study. Based on the findings of the study, corporate governance measures (i.e. board size, director ownership) has significant effect on performance of consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The study also reveals that capital structure has a strong positive effect on the performance of consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The finding of the mediating role of capital structure shows that capital structure partially mediate the relationship between corporate governance (i.e. board size) and performance of consumer goods firms in Nigeria, and fully mediate relationship between corporate governance (i.e. director ownership) and performance of consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The study concludes that the fundamental reason why corporate governance (i.e. board size, director ownership) has impact on the performance (Tobins Q) of listed consumer goods firms in Nigeria is depend on their capital structure.