Ownership Structure and Dividend Policy of Listed Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria

This study examines the impact of ownership structure on dividend policy of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria from 2009 to 2019. It explores the impact of different investor types on dividend policy of deposit money banks. Dividend policy is measured as dividend yield. As a result, the study predicts dividend behaviour based on ownership structure which is useful since ownership structure has been changing over time. Questions arise whether or not dividend should be paid and to what extent should dividend be paid? The sample is made up of 11 banks.  Secondary data were collected from the annual reports of the banks. Robust Tobit Regression was employed in analysing the data. The findings of the study showed that institutional shareholdings, ownership concentration and foreign shareholdings have positive and significant impacts, while managerial shareholdings have negative and significant impact on dividend policy. It was concluded that managerial shareholding will discourage the policy of dividend payment of deposit money banks listed in Nigeria while institutional shareholdings improves the policy of paying dividend in deposit money banks listed in Nigeria. The recommendation of the study among others is that investors in listed DMBs in Nigeria seeking for capital gain to watch out firms with more directors ownership. They may invest in such companies that offer more short-term benefits or gains in capital from the perspective of the investor and also if investors are looking for high short-term dividends, they ought to put into consideration companies who have recently make payment for dividends and look after companies with large institutional investors, because they are more dividend payable. Limitation of the study shows the inability to generalize results to other sectors.