Funding is essential for businesses and has been given prominence in corporate finance. It ensures financial flexibility which is fundamental and necessary for firms in Nigeria to operate. The broad objective of the study was to examine the effects of firm characteristics on the financial performance of quoted non-financial firms in Nigeria. The scope of the study spanselevenyears from 2004 to 2014. Eight hypotheses were formulated,all formulated in null form and two models were formulated using market value and return on investment as the dependent variables and firm characteristics as the independent variables. 

The research design is quantitativeand panel data and the population of study consisted of 105 non-financial equities quoted on The Nigerian Stock Exchange from 2004 to 2014. Non probability sampling technique was used for the study and using the recommended sample selection chart sizes for two different precision levels, 82 equities were used as sample for the research. The data collected was from Secondary source extracted from annual report and accounts of the sampled companies. A multiple regression analysis using STATA was used to test the hypotheses of the study. The Hausman test conducted indicated that the two models were fixed effect. The study provides empirical insights on firm characteristics and financial performance of the sampled companies. 

The result of findings showed that for model one, equity-to-total asset, and total assetshave significant effect onmarket value of quoted non-financial firms in Nigeria, and total debt-to-total assets and total fixed assets-to-total assets have no significant effect. For model two, total debt-to-total assets, equity-to-total assets, and total fixed assets-to-total assets have significant effect on return on investment, while total assets have no significant effect on return on investment of quoted non-financial firms in Nigeria.

The study concluded that equity-to-total assets andtotal assets are the determinants of market value, and total debt-to-total assets, equity-to-total assets andfixed assets-to-total assets are the determinants of return on investment and firms are encouraged to continue to make more use of these variables in their financing decisions.The study recommends that managers of quoted-non-financial companies in Nigeria should consider the outcome of this research for consideration in their financing decisions. Also policy makers, money and capital market regulators should implement policies that are favourable to the investor that would continue to ensure increased financial performance of the quoted non-financial firms in Nigeria. Further researches could be carried out using primary data so as to have information from the perspectives of managers on firm characteristics and financial performance.