Corporate Governance and Firm Performance : The Mediation Effect of Board Roles, Panel Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

The study explores the effect of corporate governance on the performance of firms in Sub-Saharan Africa by using both return on equity and return on assets as performance measures. Unique data from 252 listed firms drawn from Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya covering thirteen year period of 2006-2018 was used and analysed within the generalised least square panel data framework. Results indicate that the direction and the extent of impact of corporate governance are dependent on the performance measure being examined. Specifically, our findings show that board structural characteristics and firm performance relationship was significant and stronger with return on equity as compared to return on asset. We also find that unlike for frequency of board meetings, the results suggest that board structural characteristics are significant predictors of firm performance and that the monitoring and resource dependence roles partially mediate the relationship between board structural characteristics and firm performance.