BOARD CHARACTERISTICS AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF PENSION FUND ADMINISTRATORS (PFAS) IN NIGERIA

Aresurgence of interest in corporate governance studies can be attributed to the scandals and corporate failures that have occurred recently in every part of the world. Scandals are merely the outward expressions of several underlying causes that have made corporate governance a major concern during the past twenty years. Nigeria is making progress toward financially sound pension systems that will be able to pay out enough pensions in the future. Unfortunately, because contributors are afraid about the security of their payments, the future of pension fund administrators in Nigeria becomes doubtful. This is most likely a result of accounting scandals that have been publicized in numerous economic sectors. It is in the light of this development that this study examined effect of board characteristics on the financial performance of pension fund administrators in Nigeria. This study is motivated by considering board characteristics such as board independence, board competence and institutional ownership which has not been previously used. Ordinary Least Square Regression technique analyses techniques was used via SPSS and it was concluded that board characteristics has positive and significant effect on financial performance of pension fund administrator, when individual board is considered board independence, board competence and institutional ownership have positive and significant effect. The study then recommends that a larger number of independent directors should be included in the board composition, financial expertise should be included in board composition and sufficient proportion of institutional ownership should be retained.