ABSTRACT

There have been cases of-working capital managementproblem in some Nigerian corporatefirms especially in the manufacturing sector, which have resulted in corporate distress. This brought to the fore need to provide empirical evidence on the effect ofworking capital management on the performance of Nigerian listed manufacturing firms. Four manufacturing firms listed in the Nigerian stock market were selectedfor this study using the purposive sampling technique. Data for the study were secondary sources extracted from the audited annual reports ofthe selected firms for the ten (10) years covering 2009-2018 financial years. Preliminary analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, meanwhile, the main analysis was carried out using simple regression equation on the E-Views 10. Thefindingfrom the review ofrelated literature and data analysis reveal that there is a negative correlation between working capital management andprofitability ofthe firms using cash conversion cycle also there is a negative but insignificant effect on the profitability ofthefirms using debtors collectionperiod. It was recommended to the management ofthe firms to manage the balance between its collection period and maintain a restrictive credit policy and entrenched sound practices on their overall operation.