CEO GENDER, EXPERIENCE AND FINANCIAL DISTRESS LIKELIHOOD OF NIGERIAN LISTED DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS: MODERATED BY RISK COMMITTEE GENDER

This study examines the moderating role of risk committee gender on the effect of CEO gender and experience on financial distress likelihood of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria during the periods of 2007 to 2021. In that regards, fourteen listed deposit money banks that formed the population of this study were all considered as sample of the study as census sampling technique. Acorrelational and expost factor research design is considered suitable for the study. Asecondary source data was employed where an unbalanced panel data was extracted through annual audited financial statement of the sampled banks. Alogistic regression technique was employed for measuring the dependent variable via Multi Discriminant Analysis approach of a modified Althman Z score model. Subsequently, a multiple regression model was employed as the parsimonious model for further analysis as far as the study is concern. It was discovered that CEO Gender revealed an insignificant influence on financial distress. However, CEO Experience shows a negative and significant influence on financial distress likelihood of listed DMBs in Nigeria. On the other hand, the interaction of risk committee gender on the effect of CEO gender and financial distress likelihood revealed an insignificant effect as far as the Nigerian listed DMBs are concern. However, the interaction of Risk Committee Gender on the effect of CEO experience and financial distress likelihood yields a significant positive effect. It is therefore recommended that board of the listed DMBs must give attention to years of CEO experience as very long experienced tenure of CEO can be associated with increased financial distress risk as their experience may lead to overconfidence or resistance to change particularly considering our dynamic and competitive environment.