Abstract:
Corporate governance has been an interesting topic in the recent years, since it has been
attached with the rise, succession and fall of various entities. This study aims at analysing the
influence of corporate governance on the performance of commercial banks in Tanzania, the
banks that are listed in the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange market namely CRDB, AKIBA, NMB,
AZANIA and KBC. Specifically, the study also aimed at determining whether the board structure,
including board size, Chief Executive Officer duality and board composition in terms of gender
have influence on performance of these Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange listed commercial
banks. The study adopted Agency Theory and Stewardship Theory to establish the relationship
between the key variables. The study used quantitative method applied over five years on
collected primary from the financial reporting and accounting department of these banks. The
data was analysed descriptively and using Levene's Test for Equality of Variances. The findings
revealed that all these banks have more than five members and more of these banks do have
Chief Executive Officer duality while only one bank do not a female board member in its board.
The study also found that there is no significant difference in the performance of banks with an
equal average number of board members. The study found out that there is no significant
difference in the performance of banks in Tanzania categorized according CEO Board Duality
status and finally there is no significant difference in the performance of banks in Tanzania
categorized according to gender representation rates and firm size. It is concluded that critical
elements of corporate governance have most likely the same results towards the performance
of commercial banks n Tanzania. The findings of this study can contribute in many areas in the
developing countries like Tanzania for standard setters, policy makers, scholars and accounting
fields like accounting standards. Further studies suggested could focus on the other elements
of corporate governance such as board meetings and others apart from board of directors. Also
focus can be kept on Africa or other underdeveloped countries.
