Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between corporate governance structures and stakeholder and shareholder value maximization perspectives in 267 African banks from 2006 to 2011.Design/methodology/approach: The authors used the Prais–Winsten ordinary least squares and random effect regression models to explore this relationship to ensure consistency and efficiency in results. The data for this study were collected from Bankscope.Findings: The results of this study show that corporate governance structures such as CEO duality, nonexecutive members and extreme large board size lead to a reduction in both shareholder and stakeholder value maximization. However, audit independence and board size also promote both shareholder and stakeholder value maximization. Although gender diversity promotes profit maximization, it was not significant in any of the models estimated. The results further suggest that the same corporate governance structures promote and detract shareholder and stakeholder value maximization in Africa although the effect of corporate governance structures was weightier on shareholder value maximization confirming the agency theory.Practical implications: From these findings, bank management must pursue the institution of good corporate governance structures and avoid weak corporate governance structures to promote shareholder and stakeholder value maximization. Also equity holders may have to pay particular attention to corporate governance structures because they benefit the most from the institution of good corporate governance structures.Originality/value: This study explores and compares how corporate governance structures promote shareholder and stakeholder value maximization separately in African banks. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first of such studies.

In this study, we examine bank liquidity creation and the effect of ownership types on liquidity creation in Ghana for the first time. The study employs data on 26 banks obtained from Bank of Ghana between 2006 and 2016. Three panel estimation strategies including two-step GMM, Hausman-Taylor and Fixed effect models are employed to arrive at the findings. Employing the narrow liquidity creation computation approach, the results show that average bank liquidity created within the 11-year period consistently increased over the period and reported the highest liquidity created in 2016. Interestingly, when considering bank ownership types, listed, state-owned and foreign-owned banks report the highest average liquidity created compared to their unlisted, privately owned and locally owned counterparts, respectively. Employing regression models, the study finds that foreign and privately owned banks are less likely to create more liquidity compared to their locally and state-owned bank counterparts implying that state-owned and locally owned (domestic) banks create more liquidity. These results imply that while there is much room for creating more liquidity, policymakers may hasten liquidity creation through locally and state-owned banks and at the same time designing policies that entice foreign and privately owned banks to create more liquidity which is good for economic growth.