YAHAYA, Adamu
Department of Business Management, Faculty of Management Sciences,
Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, Nigeria
ayahaya2@fudutsinma.edu.ng
ABDULKADIR, Jamilu
Distance Learning Center, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria-Nigeria
jameelabdulqadir@gmail.com
MAHMUD, Sani Madobi
Department of Business Management, Faculty of Management Sciences,
Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, Nigeria
namadobi1@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Maintaining good capital structure help in stabilizing and improving firms’ performance. This study
examined effects of capital structure on dividend policy of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The
study adopted an ex post facto research design. Total liability, debt to asset ratio and debt to equity ratio
were used to represent capital structure while dividend policy was proxied by dividend payout ratio. The
study relied on secondary data obtained from the annual reports of 5 listed manufacturing firms for a 5year
period (2017 to 2021); while panel least square regression model was used to test the formulated hypothesis.
The study found that total liability has negative insignificant impact on dividend payout ratio; debt to asset
ratio has positive significant impact on dividend payout ratio; while debt to equity ratio has negative
insignificant impact on dividend payout ratio. The study recommends that management of listed
manufacturing firms should strive towards having optimum capital structure by increasing their equity level
and reducing dependence on debts to avoid being cash strapped and debt ridden.
Keywords: Capital structure, dividend pay-out, total liability, debt to asset ratio, debt to equity ratio