Global Journal of Economic and Finance Research

Business organization including banks in Africa has involved risk management committee practice due to poor credit risk management. Consequently, studies in the past have explored risk management committee variable to examine credit risk exposure of banks. However, this research observed that a comparative approach between countries in Africa has not been adequately examined on the effect of risk management committee on credit risk exposure of banks. Hence, this research filled this gap and did a comparative analysis between Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa on the effect of risk management committee (RMC) on credit risk exposure (CRE) of banks. This research covered a period of ten (10) years spanning from 2014 to 2023 and data were collected from the published financial statements of a sample size of fifteen (15) banks, five (5) banks from each of the countries, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. The data were analysed using ordinary least square regression and results were interpreted based on F-Statistics, P-Value (PV) and R-Square (R2). The finding revealed that RMC has negative and significant effect on CRE of banks in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. The finding further revealed that there is greater significant effect of RMC on CRE of banks in Nigeria (R2 = 63%) than South Africa (R2 = 55%) and Ghana (R2 = 47%), implying that banks in Nigeria has greater CRE as a result of increase in RMC, followed by South Africa and Ghana. Hence, this research concluded that the implementation of RMC is an important strategic management tool to reduce CRE of banks in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. This research recommends that, the banking regulatory bodies in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa should strictly enforce that banks totally implement the adoption of RMC in line with the corporate governance codes on the number of RMC because this will significantly reduce CRE of the banks.  

Agency Theory; Comparative Approach; Credit Risk Exposure; Nigerian, Ghanaian and South Africa Banks; Risk Management Committee.

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