CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY DISCLOSURE IN NIGERIA BANKING SECTOR
              ABSTRACT
This study examined corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria banking sector. The study specifically aimed at determining the impact of firms’ size on corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria; examining the effect of firms’ performance on corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria; determining the impact of firm’s age on corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria and finding out the effect of leverage on corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria.
The population of the study comprises of all companies listed on the first tier of the Nigerian Stock Exchange with a total of 198 companies. One hundred copies of the questionnaires were distributed to banking firms in Edo State, Nigeria in order to elicit information on corporate social responsibility.
The findings of the study reveal that there exist a negative and significant relationship between firm size and corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria, there exhibit a negative and significant relationship between firms performance and corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria, that firms’ age exhibited a negative but insignificant relationship with corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria and that financial leverage exhibit a negative and insignificant relationship with corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria.
Based on these findings, we recommended that “management should make effort to maximize the size of the organization, standard setting bodies should set policy guidelines and principles in order to improve the financial and non-financial disclosures of listed firms, and the reporting of corporate social responsibility disclosure matters should not be left to large firms only”.
The human resource department should put in place effective appraisal system that is unbiased and it should be the bases for rewards and promotion in banks.
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1    Background to the Study    -    -    -    -    -
1.2    Statement of the Research Problem    -    -    -    -
1.3     Objectives of the Study    -    -    -    -    
1.4     Statement of Research Hypotheses    -    -    -    
1.5    Scope of the Study    -    -    -    -    -    -
1.6    Significance of the study    -    -    -    -    -
1.7    Limitation of the Study    -    -    -    -    -
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction    -    -    -    -    -    -    
2.2 Concept of corporate social responsibility    -    -    -
2.3.1    Firms’ Size and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure    -    
2.3.2    Performance and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure    
2.3.3    Firms’ Age and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure    -    -
2.3.4    Financial Leverage and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure-
2.4     Empirical Review    -    -    -    -    -    
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.1    Introduction    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
3.2    Research Design    -    -    -    -    -    -    
3.3    Population    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
3.4    Sample of the Study    -    -    -    -    -    -    
3.5    Operationalization and Measurement of Variables    -    -    -
3.6    Model Specification    -    -    -    -    -    -
3.7    Source of Data    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    
3.8    Data Collection Instrument and Validation    -    -    
3.9    Method of Data Analysis    -    -    -    -    -
3.10    Limitation of the Methodology    -    -    -    -    
CHAPTER FOUR:  DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.1    Introduction    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
4.2    Descriptive Statistics    -    -    -    -    -    -    
4.3    Correlation Analysis    -    -    -    -    
4.4    Regression Analysis    -    -    -    -    -
4.4    Analysis of Diagnostic Tests    -    -    -    -    
4.4.1 Variance Inflation    -    -    -    -    -    -    
4.4.2    Mis-specification Test    -    -    -    -    -    
4.5    Test of Hypotheses    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1    Introduction    -    -    -    -    -    -
5.2    Summary of Findings    -    -    -    -    -    
5.3    Conclusion    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
5.4 Recommendations    -    -    -    -    -    -    
BIBLIOGRAPHY    -    -    -    -    -    -    
APPENDIX 1-    -    -    -    -    -    -    
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1: Operationalization and Measurement of Variables    -    -    
Table 4.3: Regression Analysis    -    -    -    -    -    
Table 4.4.1: Variance Inflation Factor    -    -    -    -    -
Table 4.4.2: Omitted Variables: Squares of fitted values    -    -    
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.3    Background to the Study
The role of businesses particularly in developing economies “has evolved over the last decades from the classical ‘profit maximizing’ approach to a socially responsible approach where businesses are not only responsible to shareholders, but also to all of its stakeholders”. “The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a very broad concept that addresses various areas that relates the business with its social community”. Therefore, for the purpose of this study, “CSR is defined as the obligation of firms to use its resources in providing benefits to the society”. “Corporate social responsibility disclosure in this vein is simply the disclosure by companies of their corporate social responsibility activities”. “It can also be defined as a social and environmental management strategy utilized by organizations to communicate with stakeholders (Setyorini & Ishak, 2012)”.
“Corporate social reporting or disclosures on corporate social issues started in the 1970s while reporting on environmental accounting was from the 1980s”. “The need for social and environmental disclosures is due to the impacts of corporate activities on the society and the problems in the natural environment such as global warming debates, the ‘Ozone Hole’, climate change, human rights abuses and violation, desertification and environmental degradation”. “In particular, the negative effects of corporate activities resulting in environmental disasters such as: the Union carbide chemical leak in Bhopal, India in 1984, the Exxon Valdez oil spill off, Alaska in 1989, Kirki oil spill off the west coast of Australia in 1991, BP oil spill in Mississippi in 2010 and the unabated oil spillage, gas flaring and environmental degradation in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria have generated a lot of public and media coverage and concerns thereby mounting intense pressures on them”. “These have led to subsequent implications for corporate activities and their reputation”. Therefore in order to repair, maintain or gain legitimacy and avoid unnecessary damage to corporate operations and reputation with their stakeholders, organizations disclose their corporate social responsibilities. Similar terms used to represent CSR reporting or disclosures include corporate sustainability reporting or disclosures, triple bottom-line reporting, corporate social and environmental disclosures and corporate social disclosure. Basically, CSR disclosures comprise disclosures on social issues (employees, products and community) and environmental issues (environment and energy).   
“Corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) has been defined in the literature as an instrument utilized to increase firms’ legitimacy in the eyes of their stakeholders and to develop positive social responsibility images to burnish their reputations (Islam, 2012)”. “It is also considered to be a set of actions and reporting to respond to the various stakeholders, in order to promote sustainable development, in three aspects; economic, environmental and social (triple bottom line)”. “In this context, corporate social disclosure can be seen as a measure of corporate social responsibility, which evaluates the impact of firms’ behaviour on society by means of a configuration of principles, processes, policies and results attained through socially responsible practices (McWilliams & Siegel, 2000)”. “Stakeholders are often drawn to brands and companies with good reputation in social responsibility related concerns (Laksmana & Yang, 2009), hence, socially responsible firms are believed to be more economically viable and less likely to have negative rare events than their counterparts (Porter & Kramer, 2006)”. “There has been increasing demand and pressure on companies and standards setters to increase the quality of corporate social and environmental disclosures (Beretta & Bozzolan, 2004)”. “Moreover, investors, customers and other stakeholders are interested in knowing the impacts that a company’s activities have on the environment where it operates”. “The need for social and environmental disclosures in Nigeria is due to the increasing environmental problems caused by the resultant impacts of man and corporate activities on the environment such as urbanization, pollution, deforestation and environmental degradation (Omofonmwan & Osa-Edoh, 2008); which has stirred up pressures on companies to begin to report on their corporate social responsibility activities”. “Although the amounts of social and environmental disclosure by companies are increasing, the extent of social and environmental disclosures in annual reports is still very low in Nigeria (Owolabi, 2009; Uwalomwa & Uadiale, 2011)”. “Academic researchers in many countries of the world have increasingly called for mandatory environmental disclosure by companies”. “Initially, voluntary environmental reporting was specifically reserved for businesses whose activities are observed to have a huge negative environmental effect in industrialized countries”. “Recently, observations have revealed that environmental reporting is assuming a common feature among non-industrial sectors and in different nations of the world”. “On this note, environmental disclosures have continued to increase in countries such as United States of America (U.S.A), Germany, United Kingdom (UK), and Japan and also industries like automobiles, electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals”. “In Nigeria, there has been an increased outrage and protest against the unnecessary destruction of the means of communication, livelihood, and survival by host communities of oil and gas industries”. “This environmental degradation and destruction have continued unabated for years running while little or nothing has been legally and environmentally done to bring the culprits to book”.
1.4    Statement of the Research Problem
“Corporate social responsibility is a perspective in which companies are seen as accountable for their actions that affect society, the community and the environment”. The actions and activities of companies have continuously impacted on the society either positively or negatively. In fact, companies’ negative externalities such as production of waste, emissions to the air, water and land, gas flaring, carbon dioxide emission, and environmental degradation are seen to exploit the society (Labatt & White, 2002). Hence Okafor, Hassan and Doyin-Hassan (2008:101) argued that due to the environmental issues, there was “need for corporate organizations to focus on corporate social responsibilities in Nigeria”.
The banking distress in Nigeria in the 1990s, corporate scandals and collapses, recent global financial crises and BP oil spillage in the USA have brought to the limelight the impacts of firm’s decisions and activities on the society. The society has realized that where companies fail to disclose adequately or engage in unethical corporate behaviour, that there are dire consequences for the social, political and security ambit of the nation. The implications of corporate environmental neglect in the Niger-Delta region are common knowledge in Nigeria. “In fact, the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has been plagued with serious oil prospecting and production related environmental hazards”. “These have resulted in the attendant protests involving armed struggle and militancy against the Nigerian state and the oil companies (Afinolan & Ojakorotu, 2009; Amnesty International, 2009)”. While the companies feel they are doing enough or their best in terms of the socially responsible investments, donations and contributing to society and environmental sustainability, the society through its persistent agitation thinks otherwise. Therefore, owing to the need to make corporations in Nigeria to be socially responsive, a bill was moved by a senator from Abia-North constituency in the National Assembly in 2008 to provide for the establishment of Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility (CCSR) to engender government and corporations to demonstrate corporate responsibilities by pursuing sound environmental and society-based policies.
“The impact of companies in society is a growing global concern”. “The expectations of consumers, employees, investors and local communities on the role of business in society are also increasing”. “Companies are increasingly asked to provide innovative solutions to deep-seated problems of human misery even as economic theory instructs managers to focus on maximizing their shareholders’ wealth (Margolis & Walsh, 2003)”. Moreover, greater attentions have been focused on corporate social and environment disclosures by firms to report their responsible practices to the society. “In response, some companies disclose voluntarily their corporate social and environmental responsibilities through the annual reports, companies’ web-sites on the internet, media, environmental reports, company’s bulletins and newsletters”. “Major corporate disasters impacting on the environment, human resources, and the community have heightened the demand for public firms to voluntarily disclose their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to stakeholders”. “As a means of comprehending and tracking CSRD impacts; through creating good dialogue with the stakeholders of a company, effective CSRD is intended to improve stakeholder-related performance”. “In effect, CSRD enhances companies’ internal decisions, enabling them to identify strengths and points of weaknesses across the entire spectrum of financial reporting (Bayoud, Kavanagh & Slaughter, 2012)”. “In addition, measuring effectiveness through CSRD enables companies to manage external relationships, attracting stakeholders who prefer to deal with socially responsible businesses (Waddock & Bodwell, 2004)”.
Various researchers around the world have investigated the determinants of CSRD, but most focused only on the quantitative aspects of CSRD; with little or no recourse to its qualitative aspects. It is based on these tenets that the study sets out to correct these anomalies. In analyzing the impact of “firms’ characteristics and corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria, the following research questions are advanced”:
1.    Does firms’ size affect “corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria”?
2.    Does firms’ performance affect corporate “social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria”?
3.    Does firms’ age affect social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria?
4.    Does companies’ financial leverage affect “corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria”?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
“The main objective of this research is to empirically investigate the impact of firms’ characteristics on corporate social responsibility disclosures in Nigeria”. “The research work attempted to achieve the following specific objectives which are to”:
1.    “determine the impact of firms’ size on corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria”;
2.    examine the effect of firms’ performance on “corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria”;
3.    determine the impact of firm’s age on “corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria” and
4.    £find out the effect of leverage on corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria”.
1.4 Statement of Research Hypotheses
“The following null hypotheses were proposed for the study”:
Ho1: “There is no significance relationship between firms’ size and corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria”.
Ho2: “There is no significance relationship between firms’ performance and corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria”.
Ho3: “There is no significance relationship between firms’ age and corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria”.
Ho4: “There is no significance relationship between financial leverage and corporate social responsibility disclosure in Nigeria”.
1.7    Scope of the Study
“The study is premised on the determinants of the qualitative and quantitative ambits of corporate social responsibility disclosures in Nigeria”. The study utilized data extracted from questionnaires admitted to respondent. “A total of 100 questionnaires will be administered to the banking firms in Edo state, Nigeria”.
1.8    Significance of the study
Extant studies on the determinants of corporate social and environmental disclosures have focused on only the quantitative aspects of CSRD. The study aimed to address this deficiency by providing additional insights into the existence and extent of the relationship between the relevant firms’ characteristics and corporate social responsibility disclosures in the Nigerian context.
“The need for a study of this kind is important in an environment like Nigeria; which is characterized by growing calls for effective corporate social responsibility mechanism, particularly for public limited liability companies”. “Moreover, by helping to promote firm performance and the protection of stakeholder interest, the findings of the research would encourage investment and stock market development”. “The recommendations of the study would also act as a guide for future research work on the subject matter”.
1.7    Limitation of the Study
“A study of this nature cannot be carried out, without some form of constraints militating against it”. “These constraints do not only make the execution of the research work difficult, but could also impair the results of the study”. “The selection of the sample despite its representativeness of the population cannot be expected to produce exactly the same results as the population without the existence of an error term”.