“EFFECT OF BOARD GENDER DIVERSITY ON PRODUCTIVITY IN THE NIGERIAN CONSUMER GOODS INDUSTRY”

Many corporate failures have been attributed to lack of good administration, with far-reaching effects not only on investors but on return on investment and productivity performance metrics. This study sought to establish the effect of board gender diversity on productivity in the Nigerian consumer goods industry. The objective is to determine, given the existence of corporate governance mechanism, if significant relationship exist between the board gender diversity and Total Factor productivity (TFP) variables. The secondary data were collected through published financial statements of the consumer goods companies listed in the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) from 2015 to 2024. The Panel data regression analysis using Random effects model were employed for testing of our hypothesis following the result of the diagnostic tests: Levin, Lin Chu (LLC) Unit root Test, Breusch-Pagan Lagrange Multiplier (LM) and Hausman tests which showed that the random effect is the best estimator. The random effects and fixed effects models were all estimated, and disclose that the fixed effects coefficient was not significant. The findings from the study revealed that, board gender diversity has a positive significant effect on productivity of the Nigerian consumer goods industry. The implication of this finding is that encouraging gender diversity on boards can be beneficial at the macro level, as it correlates with higher productivity across firms. Therefore, consumer goods industry in Nigeria can thrive better in terms of productivity performance by diversifying leadership and a balanced board gender diversity structure. The study contributes to knowledge by providing evidence of the effect of board gender diversity on productivity.