Corporate Governance and Voluntary Disclosures in Annual Reports of Ghanaian Listed Banks

The collapse of Unique Bank and Capital Bank in 2017 was attributed to poor corporate governance mechanisms and frameworks for transparency anddisclosure. The Bank of Ghana and other regulators have actively reviewed and enhanced corporate governance and transparency mechanisms. Corporate disclosure enhances that confidence is assured for stakeholders and investors. Users of financial information have high expectations of mandatory and voluntary disclosures since its purpose is to meet their needs. Since management discretion underpins voluntary disclosures, assessing whether corporate governance significantly impacts voluntary disclosure is critical. This study investigated the relationship between corporate governance and voluntary disclosures of listed banks in Ghana. Bank financial reports were analyzed as secondary data in the study. The voluntary disclosure levels were established using a 118-item checklist that included strategic, non-financial, and financial information. Using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, and OLS regression, the study examined eight (8) banks from 2017 to 2021. With a voluntary disclosure score of 63.59% (average), voluntary disclosure had advanced steadily. According to the study, there was a high level of disclosure of foreign currency details, stock price details, director details, and corporate strategic details. The least disclosed information, however, was regarding employees, future prospects, segments, research and development, and financial reviews. In addition, the study found a statistically significant positive relationship between voluntary disclosure and female directors, profitability, leverage, and bank size. However, non-executive directors and board size tend to negatively impact voluntary disclosure. At the same time, there was no connection between using "Big 4" audit firms and voluntary disclosure.