CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY DISCLOSURES AND PERFORMANCE OF DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS IN NIGERIA

The global environmental performance index has ranked Nigeria very low in the disclosure of social related-matters. Conceivably, this has raised a stern concern on why companies in Nigeria must engage in corporate social responsibility initiatives, specifically those relating to their environment. This study investigates whether corporate social responsibility disclosures determine publicly listed companies’ performance in Nigeria. Expost facto design was used and data of ten (10) publicly listed deposit money banks were obtained from the published financial statements from 2013-2024. Corporate social responsibility disclosures used were community development; educational sponsorship and donation costs while return on equity was used as companies’ performance variable. Data obtained were validated via descriptive, regression diagnostic and panel-corrected standard error model. Results of panel-corrected standard error model revealed that all variables of corporate social responsibility disclosures (community development; educational sponsorship & donation costs) significantly determine companies’ performance (return on equity) of publicly listed deposit money banks in Nigeria.In light of the results, the study suggests that publicly listed deposit money banks should boost their support of educational sponsorship initiatives, and community development. Also, charitable contributions and other endeavours should be encouraged; these call for increased corporate social responsibility disclosures which will improve not only financial performance of publicly listed deposit money banks overall but also their corporate social disclosure policies.