Board Audit Committee Characteristics and Financial Performance of Selected Commercial Banks in Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of board audit committee characteristics on the financial performance of selected commercial banks in Ghana during the period of 2008 to 2017. The correlational design was employed. The study population was 23 commercial banks licensed under the Bank and Special Deposit Taking Institution Act with audit committee on their board and offices in Ghana as at December 2018. The sample size for the study was 13 commercial banks in Ghana. The lottery method of simple random sampling technique was used to select the 13 banks. The study made use of only secondary data. Statistical tools such as means, standard deviations, Pearson product moment correlation, and linear multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The findings of the study revealed that when banks audit committee increase the frequency of their meetings, increase the number and quality of financial qualifications of member on board and also increase the size of the audit committee members on total board membership, it will have a significant influence on the banks’ financial performance. It was recommended to Bank of Ghana (BoG) and managers of the various commercial banks to ensure that audit committee members are independent, meaningfully represented at boards of the banks, and are people with expertise in accounting/finance.