ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF SUSTANAILBILTY PRACTICES ON FINANCIAL STABILITY OF LISTED NON-FINANCIAL COMPANIES USING ALTMAN Z- SCORE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Abstract

The study assessed the impact of sustainability practices on financial stability of listed non- financial companies using Altman Z-score ratio in Sub-Sahara Africa countries. Ex-post facto research design was adopted in the study due to the use of secondary data. The population for the study consists of all 183 listed non-financial companies in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa as at December 31, 2020. The sample of 30 firms consists of 10 most capitalised companies for each of the countries for a period of 10 years (2011 to 2020) was selected using simple random sampling technique. Secondary data collection procedure was adopted and data analysis was carried out using ordinary least square, random effect or fixed effect regression analysis. The findings of the study showed that all the proxies of sustainability practices except SSP were found to have a positive contribution with Z-score ratio of listed non-financial companies in sub-Sahara Africa. Furthermore, study found that firm size and age moderated the effect of sustainability practices on have moderating significant effect of explanatory variables on the explained variable. It was recommended among other things that financial experts should adopt Altman Z-score to measure the impact of sustainability practices on financial stability in sub-Sahara Africa in order to enhance financial stability as one of the conditions for economic development and growth