Does corporate governance influence corporate social responsibility in developing African countries? Evidence from manufacturing companies listed in Ghana and Nigeria's Stock Exchange

The principle of corporate governance mandates comprehensive disclosure of all corporate activities in annual reports and their presentation during shareholder meetings, a practice embraced by manufacturing companies in Nigeria and Ghana, showcasing their CSR endeavours in these reports. Employing purposive sampling, it selected 14 companies from the Ghanaian Stock Exchange and 17 from the Nigerian Stock Exchange between 2011 and 2020. Utilising random effect panel binary logistic regression and the generalised method of moments (GMM), the study scrutinised board characteristics' influence on CSR disclosures in both countries. Notably, non-executive directors and board busyness significantly bolstered CSR disclosures, whereas board size, CEO duality, and female representation showed positive but statistically insignificant effects. Significantly, the study's insights serve as a valuable directive to shareholders, board members, and company managers in both countries, advocating increased CSR disclosure due to its profound impact on brand image and corporate reputation.