In recent years, financial institutions especially universal/commercial banks across Africa have been faced with forceful mergers and acquisitions. These occurrences impede the level of financial inclusion and reduces public confidence in the financial system as a whole. This study assessed the effect of credit and operational risk on the financial performance of universal banks in the context of the structural equation model (SEM). Data were collected from all the 24 universal banks in Ghana without missing variables and using the PLS-SEM, the results showed that credit risk influences financial performance negatively contrary to the empirical study but in line with the information asymmetry tenant of the lemon theory. It was also found that operational risk influences the financial performance of the universal banks in Ghana negatively. Furthermore, the study indicated that bank specific variables measured by (asset quality, bank leverage, cost to income ratio and liquidity) significantly influence credit risk, operational risk as well as the financial performance of the universal banks positively. We recommend that banks be encouraged to cut-down their lending rates in other to decrease credit risk and subsequently boost profitability. Regarding operational risk, banks should reduce leverage and have their portfolio more concentrated on liquid investment income so as to boost profitability.

The phenomenon of tax education, fear-appealing, and the convenience of tax has become vital in contemporary tax revenue discourse as it is believed that non-compliance of tax has adverse implications on the revenue generation capacity, especially in developing countries. This study departs from the traditional studies on tax compliance by examining the relationship between tax education, committed tax compliance, and capitulative tax compliance among the self-employed in the context of a hierarchical regression. The research design was cross-sectional and correlational using a sample of 400 respondents from a population of 28,355. The results show that albeit tax education and the convenience of tax compliance act as grease in the wheels of committed tax compliance, with both establishing a significant positive relationship with committed tax compliance while fear-appealing messages act as sand in the wheels of committed tax compliance. Also, convenience tax compliance positively influences committed tax compliance while general tax knowledge, fear-appealing messages, and convenience compliance have a unique contribution to capitulative tax compliance. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the revenue authorities should make tax laws less complex to reduce the cost of compliance and enhance tax convenience. Also, regulators of the education sector in conjunction with the revenue authorities should introduce basic tax education as a compulsory course into the school curriculum to boost general tax knowledge because it enhances tax compliance.

It is an established fact that the Covid-19 pandemic had a persistent economic uncertainty effect than health uncertainty. In this study, the researchers examined the effects of expanding sales online on the financial resilience of enterprises in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) during the economic downturn. The researchers measured financial resilience by the extent of sales and cash-flows decline during the pandemic. The researchers collected 4751 unweighted data from the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey and it Covid-19 follow-up survey. Findings from the bivariate probit model and the predictive margin probabilities showed that most enterprises in SSA adopted or expanded proportion of sales online during the pandemic. Increasing the proportion of online sales exerted a decreasing effect on sales and cash-flow declines and thus improved financial resilience at a threshold of 40% during the pandemic. Large enterprises were observed to be more resilient than small and medium enterprises, yet domestic and foreign enterprises had the same level of financial resilience during the pandemic. For enterprises in Africa to realise the 40% threshold of online sales, the researchers encourage enterprises to invest in advertisement for product legitimacy.

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of monetary policy on key macroeconomic indicators in Ghana. The study used annual time series data from 2002 to 2017, which was sourced from the World Development Indicator (WDI) and the Bank of Ghana (BOG). The data were converted to Quarterly data between 2002Q1 and 2017Q4, which covers a sample period of sixteen years. The study employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lagged Model (ARDL) for analyzing the data. Unit root test was conducted using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) tests, and the results of the analysis exhibited a cointegration realtionship among the variables of order one (1). Monetary policy changes affected lending rates by (0.32%) compared to the other variables. Overall, the results suggests that monetary policy affects macro economic indicators performance in Ghana. Based on the foregoing, the paper recommends that, in efforts to enhance the effectiveness of monetary policy, the need for policy intervention in determining the stance of fiscal policies, develop financial markets, and liberalize controlled interest rates.

Over the years, Ghana’s macroeconomic frameworks have led to slow economic growth. This necessitates the revision of policies for macroeconomic control and the pursuit of pragmatic policies that enhance economic growth, which policymakers should prioritize when framing economic plans.This paper aims to explore the impact of key economic growth factors, such as tax revenue on economic growth in Ghana and the interactive effect of inflation on economic growth.We have used the methods of explanatory research and quantitative approaches to analyze the historical economic data for Ghana. This study examines the nexus between tax revenue and economic growth. In addition, it examines the multiplicative role of inflation in the relationship between tax revenue and economic growth in Ghana. The study uses secondary time series data collected for 19 years from 2005–2023 and employs the autoregressive distributed lag testing to cointegration estimation technique to analyze tax revenue growth, economic growth, foreign direct investment, policy rate, inflation, and government expenditure.The results showed that the tax revenue growth rate has a statistically significant positive relationship with economic growth in both the short and long run. In addition, the study revealed a statistically significant negative moderating effect of inflation in the relationship between tax revenue growth and economic growth in both the interim period and the long run. It was revealed that the impact of tax revenue on economic growth is more intense in the short run than in the long run.The key conclusion of the paper is that a rise in tax revenue facilitates economic growth more in the short run than in the long run in Ghana. Additionally, the rising cost of goods and services dampens economic growth, and inflation diminishes the enhancing effect of tax revenue on economic growth.