EFFECT OF WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT ON THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF LISTED MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN NIGERIA.

Abstract

Working Capital Management has a pivotal role to play in the performance of a business enterprise or firm. In recent years working capital management has become quite a necessity to manufacturing companies especially in Nigeria because of how it caters for both profitability and liquidity of these companies, which is actually what working capital management is all about. The study adopted a descriptive study using ex-post facto research design. The population of the study comprises of 40 listed manufacturing companies from the consumer goods sector, industrial goods sector and agricultural sector that were quoted in the Nigeria stock Exchange as at the date of the research study. A sample size of 25 manufacturing companies from the population was selected using simple random and stratified sampling technique The Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics making use of Regression analysis to test the hypothesis. The findings revealed that Inventory Conversion Period, Debtors Collection Period and Cash Conversion Cycle has a negative significant effect on the financial performance of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria with p-value of 0.006, 0.001 and 0.002 respectively. It was also discovered that Creditors Payment Period has a positive insignificant effect on financial performance of the listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria with p-value of 0.433. The study concluded that Working Capital Management has a significant effect on the financial performance of listed manufacturing firms and it was recommended that firms in the manufacturing sector should to give due relevance and attention to working capital management in order to improve their financial performance which is profitability and liquidity.