HUMAN CAPITAL ACCOUNTING AND MARKET SHARE PRICE OF OIL AND GAS COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The increasing global emphasis on human capital accounting stems from corporate failures that exposed weaknesses in traditional financial reporting. Within Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, where human expertise is central to operations, the omission of human capital from financial reports limit investor’s ability to assess the value of firms. This research was carried out to examine the influence of human capital accounting on market share price of oil and gas companies in Nigeria. With a population of all the oil and gas companies in Nigeria, a sample size of eight oil and gas companies on the Nigerian Exchange Group as at 31st December, 2025 was selected using purposive sampling techniques. An ex-post facto research design was adopted and data were generated from the annual reports of the selected companies. The study period was from 2016 to 2025 financial year. The actual values of human capital accounting components were generated. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics specifically through multiple regression techniques. Human capital accounting was proxy by scholarship and sponsorship cost and welfare cost while market share price of oil and gas companies was proxy by market price per share. Results revealed that, scholarship and sponsorship cost have a significant positive influence while welfare cost have a negligible negative influence on market value per share. The result was evidenced by a beta coefficient of 0.228 and -0.059 for scholarship and sponsorship cost and welfare cost with a probability value of 0.04 and 0.595 respectively. It was recommended that, oil and gas companies should invest more in the area of human resources, especially by engaging the directors and employees with generous scholarship and sponsorship vis-a-vis welfare programmes and retirement benefits.