COVID-19 outbreak has had multidimensional effects on human lives. The impacts are expected to be more severe on poor households, especially in resource-constraint economies such as Ghana. The Country has a higher poverty rate [24.2%] and this is likely to upsurge in the coming years due to this pandemic. We aimed to document the pandemic-related health and socioeconomic hazards in Ghana. A content analysis of relevant literature, and a qualitative survey using a socioecological lens were conducted. Based on the Ghana Living Standard Survey report (GLSS 7), twenty interviewees were recruited from 3 most poverty-stricken regions in the country to verify the findings of the content review. The findings indicate a significant health burden and a large-scale socioeconomic negative outcome among the Ghanaian poor households. The disproportionate health access by the poor and the rural inhabitants has and will continue to exacerbate. The social hazards are mainly circumscribed relating to poor economic conditions due to job losses, lack of access to income/savings, food insecurity, and lack of welfare support. At the national level, the economy is particularly vulnerable due to low levels of economic diversification. The ultimate manifestation of the pandemic impacts are higher risk of morbidity and mortality rates, and deteriorating wellbeing and livelihoods. These highlights are beneficial to policymakers, development partners, and human rights advocates to make collaborative efforts in helping the poor households during and the post-pandemic periods.

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This study aims to provide further evidence on the effect of corporate governance on the performance of Ghanaian banks. Two performance measures were used in this study, namely: Return on Asset (ROA) and Cost-Income Ratio (CIR). Data for the analysis were sourced from 21 commercial banks from 2005 to 2015. Regression estimation techniques were employed for analysis purposes. The result revealed that large board size reduces banks’ performance. Furthermore, CEO duality and foreign ownership negatively affect the performance of banks. However, while the effect of CEO duality was significant on CIR, it was not significant in the case of ROA. On the contrary, the effect of foreign ownership was only significant on ROA.  Moreover, board independence has a significant positive effect on both CIR and ROA, while audit committee independence has no significant effect on CIR and ROA. The paper argues that for a good corporate governance practice, banks should institute a small board with more than half of the members being independent directors. Furthermore, the role of the board chair should be separated from that of the managing director/CEO. The study provides insight and further evidence to stakeholders and regulators to deal with the crisis in the Ghanaian banking sector.

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