This study examines the relationship between Integrated Reporting (IR) and financial performance, proxied by Tobin’s Q (TQ), with corporate governance (CG) as a mediator, using a balanced panel of 20 NGX-listed consumer goods firms from 2015 to 2024. Employing fixed-effects (FE) panel regression models, the analysis tests the direct and mediated effects of IR components (Organizational Overview and External Environment (OEE), Governance (GOV), Business Model (BM), Risks and Opportunities (RO), Strategy and Resource Allocation (SRA), Performance (PER), Outlook (OUT), and Basis of Preparation and Presentation (BPP)) on TQ. VIF, Hausman tests, and post-estimation diagnostics were conducted to ensure model robustness, with the Sobel test confirming mediation significance. The findings reveal that OEE (coefficient=0.12, p=0.00), GOV (0.15, p=0.00), RO (0.10, p=0.05), and PER (0.14, p=0.00) significantly enhance TQ, increasing it by 0.10–0.15 units, and improve CG by 1.50–2.50 units. CG partially mediates the effects of OEE, GOV, and PER (indirect effects: 0.36–0.50, p<0.01) and fully mediates RO (indirect effect: 0.30, p=0.02), indicating governance channels IR’s impact on financial performance. BM, SRA, OUT, and BPP show insignificant effects. The study concludes that IR boosts financial performance directly and through strengthened governance, recommending firms prioritize high-impact IR disclosures, enhance governance practices, and collaborate with regulators to promote IR adoption for sustainable value creation.