Compliance with Corporate Governance Code and Shareholders' Perception of the Effectiveness of Quoted Companies' Board in Nigeria

Drawing upon the established notion that the internal governance of organizations determines their readiness to direct internal resources towards desired goal attainment, this paper examines the extent to which quoted firms in Nigeria comply with the code of corporate conduct issued by the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission. Indeed research has also shown that disciplined compliance often determines the quality of internal mechanisms that support sustainable performance of organisations and vice versa. For the purpose of this study, a descriptive research design was employed, and the financial statements of 84 corporations were content analysed to provide evidence for making informed conclusions from the research findings. Overall, the study found that on the average, these firms were in compliance with the code of practice across four dimensions: (i) standard on board size, (ii) frequency of meetings, (iii) board independence, and (iv) audit committee size. Despite these, stakeholders' perception of Board and Audit Committee effectiveness were not consistent with the Board's compliance to relevant codes. This suggests that mere compliance may not necessarily translate into effective and efficient corporate governance - thus prompting the need for further research enquiry.