Board Climate Expertise and Value of Listed Companies in Nigeria

Abstract This study investigates the relationship between board climate expertise (BCE) and the value of listed companies in Nigeria, covering 148 firms across 15 years (2011–2025), yielding an unbalanced panel of 2,220 firm-year observations. Drawing on agency theory, resource dependence theory, and stakeholder theory, the study argues that directors with formal climate credentials, ESG committee experience, or sustainability executive backgrounds endow boards with distinctive human capital that directly enhances market valuation and accounting performance. Using fixed-effects panel regression with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE), and robustness checks via the generalised method of moments (GMM), we find that BCE exerts a statistically significant positive effect on Tobin's Q (coefficient = 0.847, p < 0.01), return on assets (coefficient = 0.062, p < 0.01), and return on equity (coefficient = 0.143, p < 0.01). These findings hold after controlling for firm size, leverage, liquidity, asset tangibility, sales growth, firm age, earnings volatility, business segment diversification, natural risk management, industry effects, risk exposure, year dummies, GDP growth, inflation, foreign exchange exposure, political connection, and regulatory stringency. Grounded in the Nigerian institutional context—characterised by acute foreign exchange volatility, energy transition pressures, regulatory evolution at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX)—the study makes original contributions to the nascent literature on climate governance in Sub-Saharan African capital markets. The findings carry practical implications for board composition policy, institutional investor stewardship, and climate-related financial disclosure reform in developing economies.