Disclosure, Accountability and Performance: The Case of Ghanaian Banking Industry

Abstract

Emerging post-financial crisis research in Africa recently suggest a strong linkage between poor corporate governance and the non-transparency in the financial institutions involved, leading to loss of investor confidence and other ramifying effects. This has reignited the need to progressively re-examine or rethink the gaps in existing financial regulatory framework in accordance with acceptable corporate governance standards. Our study reviewed and tested the influence of four voluntary disclosure attributes namely; a percentage of family members on boards, extant of independent committee of audit, existence of more important personalities and the proportion of non-dependent directors of CG, as promulgated by the Bank of Ghana. An adjusted relative disclosure was used in this study. We noted the prevalence of a committee of auditors is positively and significantly connected to a degree of deliberate disclosure, whereas, a higher number of family members on the board attenuates effective voluntary disclosure. The outcomes give empirical proof to back Ghana’s financial regulatory authorities.

Keywords

• disclosure
• accountability
• performance
• financial sector