Do corporate governance practices affect the performance of firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange?

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the performance of a firm matters if it has strong corporate governance practices and listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. It uses annual financial statements between 2007 and 2016 from firms that have been certified by the Security and Exchange Commission and listed firms on the Ghana Stock Exchange. By means of the random effects model, the study does not provide statistically compelling evidence that listed corporate governance variables affect the performance of firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. However, the study found weak evidence in favour of board size, leverage, firm size, growth, and asset tangibility. We find that many of the corporate governance variables used in the model have no significant impact on the performance of the firms. The relevance of the study is that it shows the relationship between policies on corporate governance and performance of firms, and governing bodies of firms informed about the type of corporate governance practices that will support business performance. Hence we recommend that policymakers take this up to embark on rigorous modification of practices on corporate governance involving listed companies in Ghana to ascertain first-hand how these firms are practising what has been documented in their annual reports