Board Gender Diversity and Its Effect on Environmental Accounting Disclosures: Evidence from Nigerian Commercial Banks

This study investigates the impact of board gender diversity on environmental accounting disclosure in Nigerian commercial banks. Using a sample of 12 listed commercial banks from 2012 to 2022, the research examines how gender diversity across key governance committees—board, audit, risk, remuneration, and nomination committees—affects the level of environmental disclosure. Environmental disclosure is measured through an index that includes emissions, energy usage, water usage, and waste management disclosures. The analysis also incorporates firm size and leverage as control variables. Multiple regression results show that gender diversity in risk committees has a significant negative relationship with environmental disclosure, suggesting that risk-averse committees with greater gender diversity may be more conservative in their environmental transparency. Other proxies for gender diversity, such as in the board, audit, remuneration, and nomination committees, did not have significant effects on environmental disclosure. Firm size and leverage were both negatively associated with environmental disclosure, indicating larger and more leveraged firms are less likely to disclose environmental information. The findings provide valuable insights for corporate governance practices and regulatory bodies in Nigeria. They indicate that while gender diversity brings broader governance benefits, its influence on environmental reporting is limited and nuanced. The study fills important research gaps and highlights the underexplored effect of gender diversity in the risk, remuneration and nomination committees on corporate sustainability disclosures. Recommendations include enhancing gender diversity across boards and committees, improving risk management frameworks, enforcing stricter environmental reporting guidelines, and linking executive compensation to sustainability performance. The study also emphasizes the need for further research, including cross-sectorial comparisons, longitudinal analyses, and studies in other emerging economies, to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between gender diversity and environmental accounting disclosure. This study contributes to the growing literature on corporate governance and sustainability in emerging economies and underscores the importance of integrating environmental goals into governance practices.