The Influence of Ownership Structure on Dividend Policy in Reducing Agency Problems in Nigeria Listed Non-Financial Services Companies

This paper examines the association between ownership structure and dividend policy in Nigeria listed non-financial services sector for 10 years (2012-2021). The propensity score matching method was used in order to address endogeneity problems. As a consequence of this approach, we avoid many of the econometric pitfalls of previous studies in the literature. Out of the 112 firms actively trading on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Group, 75 companies (representing 70 percent) serve as sample because financial services firms were excluded since they come under different regulations. Empirical evidence from the present study suggests that ownership structure do not determine dividend policy in Nigeria listed non-financial services sector. Findings are consistent with facts regarding the nature of the Nigerian organised private sector. However, there are few limitations that warrant users of this paper to be concerned (i) only listed firms are considered in this study (ii) though we entered some control variables into the regression model to reduce deviations resulted from calculating the dividend policy, we were unable to consider all possible residual related variables (iii) we are incapable of estimating how ownership structure influences dividend policy, even though the regression model shows relationship. Nevertheless, regulators, creditors and potential investors would find the results of this study useful