Abstract

This study examines empirically the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on firm financial performance using listed firms in the West African Monetary Union (WAMU).Based on the review of existing literature, four corporate governance variables were selected namely: composition of board member, board size, CEO status and ownership concentration which served as the independent variables. The ordinary least square regression was used to estimate the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance. A total of 39 firms were selected for the study cutting across all sectors of Regional Financial Exchange. Findings from the study show that there is positive and significant relationship between composition of board member and board size as independent variables and firm performance. CEO status also has positive relationship with firm performance but insignificant at P<0.05.However, ownership concentration has negative relationships with return on asset (ROA) but positive relationship with profit margin (PM). The relationships are not significant at 5%.A high concentration of shares tends to create more pressure on managers to behave in ways that are value-maximizing.

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