EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE IMPERATIVES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SELECTED LISTED MORTGAGE BANKS IN NIGERIA

The effects of environmental, social and governance (ESG) imperatives on the performance of mortgage banks were empirically investigated using 2015 – 2020 data from audited annual reports of three listed Nigerian mortgage banks. Value added, profitability, earnings per share, productivity, and size measured performance. Social cost and stakeholder theories underpinned the research. Purposeful sampling technique was adopted based on data availability on all the studied variables within 2015 - 2020. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used in testing the three key hypotheses formulated with the aid of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The study established that:(i) environmental imperative did not have significant effect on the performance of sampled banks within the period under study while social and governance imperatives did; (ii) when environmental, social and governance imperatives are held constant; the sampled banks witnessed significant decrease in their value added, profitability, and earnings per share while the effects on productivity and size were divergent among the three banks. All the multivariate tests show that ESG aggregate performance has significant positive effect on the performance of listed mortgage banks in Nigeria within the period under study. The study quantitatively established the relevance of social cost and stakeholder theories in ESG framework; and recommends that further research be carried out on the effects of environmental, social and governance imperatives on the productivity and size of listed mortgage banks in Nigeria since the results are mixed. Practically and policy wise, the study calls on business decision makers to optimize environmental costs for the sustainability of businesses.