Following the recent corporate scandals and turbulences in the Ghanaian financial sector,

a fierce debate on banks and corporate performance nexus has emerged. While literature

on banks-corporate performance subject remain highly contested, evidence within the

Ghanaian contest is sparse. This paucity of literature has motivated this study to examine

the effect of corporate governance practices on commercial banks’ performances within

the Ghanaian contest drawing evidence from the Ghana Stock Exchange market for the

period 2009-2019. Correlational analysis and fixed effect and random effect regression

estimator have been employed as the main estimation techniques. Results show that board

with higher risks. As a sequel, policy should aim at enhancing corporate governance

practices while females should be given a fair representation on board committees. The

study again advises that independent directors should be included in the board to achieve

greater firm results. The arrangement of company ownership should be assessed and

controlled. Concentrated ownership structure in specific should be promoted and banks

should strive to increase the size of the Independent Board to improve results.

Keywords: corporate governance; performance; listed banks

2011; Appiah et al., 2015; Sarkar et al., 2018). Profitability and performance of the bank

are determined by their ability to effectively and efficiently carry out their strategic

goals (Atta Mills & Amowine, 2013; Oteng-Abayie et al., 2018)

are peremptorily having better grounds to resist negative shocks within the economy

which might obstruct their performance. However, rural banks and community banks,

unlike the commercial bank’s performance are not stable due to their low earnings

capacity (Oteng-Abayie et al., 2018).

environment (Bagh et al., 2017) . To begin with, it has made obtaining the necessary sum

of funds from the stock market more challenging; even those who are better qualified to

bear firm losses must still meet obligations. It is also true that the banking sector serves

aftermath of the global financial crisis highlights the continuing need to focus on good

corporate governance as an integral part of bank management and growth (Dzigba, 2015).

the recent global recession, which has sparked interest in business and higher education,

and which has been exacerbated in part by poor corporate governance in a number of

organizations around the world (Agyemang & Castellini, 2015). The financial

institutions' devastating losses, which nearly brought the financial system to its knees and

caused a significant global downturn, illustrate the importance of corporate governance

(Lang & Jagtiani, 2010). Modern financial sector instabilities in Ghana have sparked

debate about the importance of adhering to corporate governance norms, as well as the

microcredit firms, and savings and loans companies, due to a lack of adherence to sound

liquidity management and corporate governance standards. As a result, customers and the

rest of Ghana's unbanked population are prevented from investing in financial markets

(Trombetta et al., 2017). Corporate governance is a mechanism for managing and

governing a company with the aim of maximizing long-term shareholder value while also

considering other stakeholders' interests, business stability, and accountability

(Agyemang & Castellini, 2015).

Association of Corporate Governance (CAGG) and through the efforts of certain

stakeholders including the Ghana Institute of Directors. Other initiatives to address the

Ghana shows three issues to be concerned about. To begin with, it can greatly benefit

banks by inculcating better liquidity management practices and expanding opportunities

for growth and performance optimization. Second, large proportion of empirical studies

in the field have concentrated on the effects of corporate governance on the performance

of small and medium-sized companies (Abor, 2007; Dzigba, 2015), corruption, and the

impact of ownership arrangements on firm assessment (Dzigba, 2015). The current

fluctuations in Ghana's financial sector have sparked a debate on corporate governance

and sound liquidity management in the region, in order to avoid insolvency. Finally, prior

studies favored corporate governance, especially among small and medium-sized

businesses, at the detriment of Musah & Adutwumwaa, 2021) banks, which are supposed

to follow good corporate governance practices. For instance examined the effect of

likely about their distinctiveness, behaviors, beliefs, or prior experiences. In order to

describe, predict and monitor phenomena, the quantitative approach is used to answer

questions about the relationships of measured variables. The benefit of this approach is

that research issues are very specific, subjectivity are eliminated or decreased in decision-

making and the original set of research goals are adhered to. The study's participants are

all Ghanaian banks. All GSE-listed banks are open to the general public. On the GSE,

there are currently twenty-three banks listed. The GSE was chosen for its ability to

contribute to Ghana's economy. The use of publicly traded companies is attributed to data

availability and reliability, since they are mandated by law to provide financial statements

at the end of the year.

(Adams & Mehran, 2012).

performance relationships;

of unknown parameters and is the error term. Z refers to the corporate governance (board

size, independence, board diversity, etc) and X is a vector of bank characteristics that

affect the performance level of bank.”

of unknown parameters and is the error term. Z refers to the corporate governance (board

size, independence, board diversity, etc) and X is a vector of bank characteristics that

affect the performance level of bank.”

the board is the same as the CEO. That is one person is assigned both portfolios

the values 1 if there are females on the board and 0 otherwise.

members of the board.

dummy variable with values 1 if the firm has large share holders (highly concentrated)

results.

Descriptive Statistics

with descriptive statistics, then moves on to correlation analysis results, which display the

degree of association between the explanatory variables used in the regression model.

Following that, the results of diagnostic tests as well as the fixed and random effect panel

regression models are addressed.

age of companies surveyed is ten and a half years, with the minimum and maximum years

board independence, Ownertype refers to ownership type and CeoDual refers CEO

Duality”

external and external Board membership directors, is 1,00 and implies that at least one-

third of the total Board membership is a relationship between external and internal

directors. 1 and 0 are respectively the highest and the lowest values.

and results in Tables 4 and 5. Table 4 provides a correlation matrix for a bank's return on

assets (ROA) and corporate governance practices, while Table 5 shows the case for EPS.

As shown in Table 4, there is a direct connection between the ROA of a bank and its

corporate governance. Table 5 indicates a positive connection to corporate governance

practices between a bank's EPS earnings per share. The research examines the causal

effect between corporate governance practices and the performance of a bank, since

correlations do not imply cause.

Diagnostics Tests

The result is presented in Table 2.

have p-value greater than 0.05. It was concluded that the model with only the ROA, EPS,

and independent factors (board diversity, ownership type, board size, firm age, and firm

hypothesis of normal distribution and concluded that inferences made about coefficient

estimates were good.

Multicollinearity Test

Autocorrelation test

shown that focused firms are not linked to better operational performance or a higher firm

valuation according to existing literature (Chen et al., 2006; Gunasekarage et al., 2007;

Gursoy & Aydogan, 2002). The negative link between concentrated ownership and firm

performance may be caused by the strong wish of majority shareholders to transfer the

company's control and shareholding to future generations (Bhaumik & Gregoriou, 2010).

Power clusters (e.g. families) often use the majority holding of large companies to

produce "non-specious profit" in the new developing economies, including "the right to

capital according to one's wishes" (Demsetz,1985). Most major shareholders are in a

position to have key positions to supervise the management and executive structure of

enterprises and may conduct actions in their favour, nevertheless, it may be detrimental

banks’ performance using data from Chinese banks from 2003 to 2010. They found that

the scale and effect of the board on bank performance is substantial and negative, as ROA

and ROE assessed.

relationship between executive and bank output. Banks with smaller directors' boards are

more successful according to their results. The size and output of the board is unrelated

to the Turkish economy (Bektas & Kaymak, 2009). Aygün et al. (2010) and Doan and

Yldz (2013) discuss the effect of the Board Size on bank results for the years 2006-2008

and 2005-2010. The findings show that the size of the board is largely adversely linked

to bank profitability based on data from 12 BIST banks.

divided boards more efficient than firms on the duality of the CEO.

the stock market performs better if both roles are segregated. The effect of CEO duality

on company performance for 347 Malaysian publicly traded enterprises was investigated

by Haniffa and Hudaib (2016). They state it would lead to better financial results if the

two posts were separated. Chahine and Tohme (2009) have examined the connections

between initial under-pricing and the CEO duality in a study of 127 initial public bids

(IPOs), using a sample from Middle East and North Africa, to conclude that firms that

combine two positions are more likely to have under-pricing. These observations agree

with the position of the Agency that the separation of the board members will allow them

existed (Boone et al., 2007). They indicated that a company's age is a strong indicator of

prospects for future growth. For example, Claessens et al. (2002) noticed that more liquid

trading, more transparency, more investor exposure and more varied operations were

presented to older and larger firms and led to lower risks of financial distress but fewer

opportunity for development. On the other hand, younger and smaller companies can have

better prospects of growth but become more susceptible to conditions of the sector. Older

firms are unable to respond rapidly to climate change (Borghesi et al., 2007).

less profit than older ones because they are less familiar with their businesses and are

trying to establish their own presence. On the other hand, older companies are

approaching the end of the life cycle. The older companies are more likely to have their

high-crowding era, according to Black et al (2006), whereas younger companies are

have more chance of generating and collecting funds internally and accessing foreign

capital than smaller businesses, according to Joh (2003). Larger businesses will also

benefit from creating entry barriers that increase their profitability by making economies

of scale. As the size of a company is growing, it is more volatile according to Boone et

al. (2007). This means that the company's inherent instability will become more severe.

bigger organizations have more complex practices to carry out business plans more

efficiently. Serrasqueiro and Nunes (2008) state that larger businesses are advantageous

for production. This is because large corporations have greater resources and diversified

strategies to collect money. It has also a wide variety of management of information.

corporations are less effective than smaller companies because they have less leverage

over strategic and organizational operations as the company's size increases.

by 24.4 and 34.1 per cent respectively. This suggests that the concentration of a bank's

ownership affects its performance adversely. Various studies in other countries have

found that companies with focused ownership are not associated with improved

operational performance or a greater company evaluation in accordance with developed

literature (Chen et al. 2006, Gunasekarage et al. 2007; Gursoy & Aydogan 2002). The

negative effect of concentrated ownership on firm performance may be attributed to the

strong desire of the largest shareholders to pass on their power and majority ownership to