The Impact of Corporate Governance on Voluntary Information Disclosures of Quoted Firms in Nigeria: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Through annual reports, the company provides a lot of voluntary information which is very vital to stakeholders and in corporate governance. The main objective of this study is to empirically investigate the impact of corporate governance on voluntary information disclosures of quoted companies in Nigeria using data from 385 annual reports from a sample of 35 quoted companies during 1999 – 2009. The study also adopted Pre and Post approach to study the significant difference on information disclosures during pre and post corporate governance codes era in Nigeria. A content analysis of the annual reports of sampled companies was carried out with the use of a disclosure checklist developed by the researcher. Multiple regression is employed to test the hypothesis of the study. The study reveals that corporate governance has significant impact on financial reporting of quoted firms in Nigeria and that the level of voluntary disclosure has significantly improved after the introduction of corporate governance codes in Nigeria.

Keywords: Corporate governance, voluntary information disclosures, Disclosure index, financial reporting.