International Journal of Law and Management

Purpose – This paper aims to answer the question of whether the incorporation of corporate governance into the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) and Insurance Act enhance the effectiveness of the boards of insurance companies in Nigeria?

Design/methodology/approach – The researcher's approach is the deductive approach in which a theory and hypothesis have been developed and a research strategy to test the hypothesis.

Findings – Arguably, most of the companies implementing the code are public companies, probably because it is a listing requirement or it is fashionable to do so, but this study has shown that implementation for both private and public companies is on the upward trend albeit, at a slow pace which is the area the government and regulatory authorities need to do more work. While acknowledging the effort of regulators like the SEC and CBN (Thisday), the result is still not encouraging.

Originality/value – From the results of this study, one of the most respected provisions of the code is the audit committee requirement, of which companies in Nigeria, both private and public, ensure strict compliance because it is a provision of the law and no company will want to infringe this stringently enforced requirement. Therefore, if other provisions were to be part of the CAMA (1990) or any other statute it means such provision will enjoy the same level of compliance, assuming the same level of enforcement.