CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND PERFORMANCE OF FIRMS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: THE ROLE OF CAPITAL STRUCTURE

Return on Assets (ROA)  Earing after interest and tax divided by total assets  Return on Equity (ROE) Earnings before interest and tax divided by total equity. Leverage Ratio of total debt to total assets Audit committee size Total members of audit committee Female Director Proportion of female board directors and total directors Ownership concentration  Proportion of common stock held by the top shareholders. Audit Reputation Dummy variables where 1 is used to represent whether a firm uses one of the top four auditing firms, and zero otherwise. Board independence Proportion of outside director and total directors     Firm size (SIZE) Natural logarithm of Total Assets