Abstract

This study examined Inventory Management and Financial Performance of quoted manufacturing firms in Nigeria for the period 2000 to 2023. The major problem that necessitated this study is that there is lack of consensus in the findings of previous studies on this subject matter as most inventory managers have failed to painstakingly evaluate and take advantage of modern economical inventory management strategies which have marred their performance in one way or the other. The study is a quasi-experimental research design which developed an econometric model using Profit after Tax (PAT) as the dependent variable and the four independent variables of inventory management are the cost of raw materials (CRM), cost of work-in-progress (CWIP), cost of finished goods (CFG), cost of maintenance, repairing and operating supplies (CMRO) of quoted manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The study randomly selected fifteen manufacturing firms and secondary data were obtained from the audited annual financial statements of these firms published in the exchange group. Panel data analysis was adopted in this study and the result showed a mixed relationship among the variables based on which, it was recommended that firms should not treat inventory management as a clerical function but as a strategic role requiring specialized knowledge hence businesses should prioritize hiring and training skilled personnel who understand the principles of demand forecasting, stock categorization, and inventory accounting.