Production Improvement Function and Equity Capital of Firms in the Nigerian Manufacturing Industry

This paper investigates the extent to which Production Improvement Function, had affected the Equity Capital of firms in the Nigerian manufacturing industry. Three hypotheses were formulated and copies of questionnaire were distributed to eighty respondents in the eighty sampled manufacturing firms from the one hundred in the industry, that are quoted in the Stock Exchange(Fact Book 2009). Sixty two copies of the questionnaire were retrieved. These with the financial statements of the firms were used for the analysis. From its findings, the study revealed that production planning and control have significant impacts in enhancing the equity capital of firms in Nigerian manufacturing industry; while production scheduling has an insignificant influence on equity capital alone. This finding implies that production improvement function significantly affects the equity capital of firms and therefore provides evidence for the claims of Olusegun and Adegbuyi(2010); Olarenwaju(2010); Poterba(2006); and Ikan(2003). Based on these, the study recommends among others, that the Nigerian manufacturing industry should efficiently and effectively operationalize the all embracing production improvement function, especially in the area of production scheduling, in order to restore the industry as the base of all investment and hence development