Effect of Human Capital Expenditure on the Profitability of Quoted Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria

The study examined the effect of human capital on the profitability of quoted manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The study aimed at determining if expenditure on human has influence on the profitability of listed manufacturing companies on the Nigeria Stock Exchange. A sample of 10 listed manufacturing companies on the Nigeria Stock Exchange was used for the study. This study used data mainly from secondary sources and the analysis of data collected was done using descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics include mean, standard deviation, kurtosis, skewness while inferential statistics that was used in testing the hypotheses include panel regression and correlation. The study revealed that all the explanatory variables have positive relationship with profitability, however, expenditure on health contributed more to the profitability of the firms with a beta value of 27.8609 than expenditures on salaries and wages, training and contributory pension with beta values of 0.3107, 2.6752 and 3.4519 respectively. The study also found that that only expenditure on health can significantly predict net profit at 5% level of significance. The study concluded that human capital expenditure significantly influenced profitability of manufacturing companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and companies that place more emphasis on human capital, maintaining it and treating it as a pure asset will have motivated work force.