A Study on the effect of Environmental Social and Governance adoption and bank characteristics on the financial performance of commercial banks in Uganda
Date
2023
Authors
Awuor, L.
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Recent changes to corporate external reporting have sparked discussions around the need to evolve the practice. Reports by influential organizations suggest a need to incorporate forward-looking, nonfinancial, and soft information in financial reports for the benefit of all stakeholders, hence the emergence of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure requirements. In Uganda, the law does not require institutions to disclose ESG matters; this has, however, not deterred its voluntary adoption by players in the commercial banking sector. Most banks are, however, likely to face hurdles in compliance, and the lack of guidance on ESG disclosures makes it difficult for stakeholders to compare results across early-adopting organizations. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of ESG adoption and bank characteristics on financial performance in Uganda. Data from published financials and structured questionnaires was used to collect data from all the licensed commercial banks between 2012-2021. By employing a multivariate regression analysis, the study established that ESG has a slightly positive effect on ROE and a slightly negative effort on ROA. However, both relationships are not statistically significant. Therefore, this study has not approved or disapproved of any of the theoretical expectations of the two hypotheses that ESG positively or negatively affects financial performance. The relationship with bank characteristics has also shown that profitability positively and significantly affects ROE and ROA. Finally, the findings indicate that having ESG adoption enforced by regulatory bodies (both financial sector regulators and accounting bodies) would be the most effective way to ensure that banks in Uganda observe sustainable practices. Future studies could extend the investigations to longer periods to establish whether the current findings hold over time. Future research could also examine specific ESG factors in isolation, say environmental, social, and governance, to investigate their individual effects on the financial performance of Ugandan commercial banks.
Keywords: Environmental, social, ESG reporting, sustainability disclosure, sustainability reporting, bank-specific characteristics, and financial performance.
Description
Full- text thesis
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Citation
Awuor, L. (2023). A Study on the effect of Environmental Social and Governance adoption and bank characteristics on the financial performance of commercial banks in Uganda [Strathmore University]. http://hdl.handle.net/11071/13365