Evaluation of Capital Budgeting and Investment Decisions in Nigeria
—A Study of Selected Industrial Firms in Imo State

Adolphus Ngozika Obi¹, Samuel Oluwaseun Adeyemo²

¹Bursary Department, Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, Nigeria.
²Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, Nigeria.

DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1101141                

Abstract

The study was primarily undertaken to evaluate the processes of capital budgeting and investment decision in Nigeria. Particularly, it is an evaluation of the processes of capital budgeting and investment in capital assets in some manufacturing firms operating in Imo state. This study is aimed at evaluating the processes and procedures that Nigerian manufacturing firms adopt when budgeting for their long-term investments and the organizational structures that drive capital budgeting and investment decisions in the selected manufacturing firms as well as the impact of the economic environment on their ability to budget effectively. The study involved a survey of eight (8) out of the fourteen (14) active manufacturing firms in the state. A sample size of two hundred and forty (240) respondents was drawn from the selected firms, they were administered with structured questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using tables, frequency, percentages, descriptive statistics, the t-test of population mean and the z-test of difference of means. The analysis revealed that: the firms budget for their capital investments using mainly the payback method of investment appraisal. The researcher therefore concluded that mangers tend to be overconfident in that they overestimate the precision of their information and their ability to control risk; and though the sampled firms understand the obvious advantages of the net present value and the other sophisticated investment appraisal techniques over the payback method, they still adopt the later because of the nature of their economic environment, their size, lack of sufficiently qualified personnel, paucity of funds and their weak organizational structure. The researcher recommended that firms should hire risk-averse managers to make investment decisions on their behalf because the manager’s overconfidence serves to reduce the moral hazard that his risk aversion creates. Government at all levels in Nigeria should put in place a revolving fund to meet the long-term funding needs of the manufacturing sector which most of the banks are unwilling to provide at affordable interest rates. The present heavy tax burden on manufacturing firms by the Federal, States and Local governments should be discouraged.

Keywords

Capital Budget, Business Risk, Discounted Cash Flow, Weighted Average Cost of Capital

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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