Moderating Effect of Financial Leverage on CEO Remuneration, Employee Turnover, and Financial Performance of Listed Non-Financial Firms in Nigeria (Iconic Research and Engineering Journals)

Summary

• The study uses annual reports of 71 purposively selected firms from a population of 103 listed non-financial firms on the Nigerian Exchange Group as at 31 December 2025.p.1
• It covers the period from 2013 to 2025 and measures financial performance by Return on Asset Growth (ROAGR), with financial leverage as the moderating variable.p.1
• BUA Foods Plc's profit after tax rose from ₦265.99 billion in 2024 to ₦507.73 billion in 2025.p.4
• The descriptive statistics are based on 923 observations.p.14
• Employee turnover disclosure had a positive and statistically significant effect on ROA growth (β = 1.417435, p = 0.0251).p.21
• CEO remuneration disclosure had a negative but statistically insignificant effect on ROA growth (p = 0.5528).p.21
• The interaction of employee turnover disclosure and financial leverage was positive and significant (β = 0.493906, p = 0.0000), so leverage moderated the relationship.p.23

Key insights

1. Nigerian non-financial firms face persistent volatility, with capacity utilisation stagnating at 30–50%.p.2
2. Nestle Nigeria Plc moved from a loss after tax of ₦164.6 billion in 2024 to a profit after tax of ₦105.0 billion in 2025.p.4
3. The study introduces Return on Asset Growth as a dynamic performance measure and builds disclosure indices based on GRI standards.p.4
4. Financial leverage is measured as total debt divided by total shareholders' equity.p.7
5. A fixed effects model was judged more appropriate than pooled OLS for both the pre- and post-moderation models.p.19
6. Employee turnover disclosure significantly improved ROA growth in the pre-moderation model (β = 1.417435, p = 0.0251).p.23
7. The pre-moderation model explained approximately 53.28% of the variation in ROA growth.p.21
8. Regulators should make employee turnover disclosure a mandatory, standardised and enforceable requirement.p.24