Risk disclosures in the annual reports of firms in Ghana

Abstract

This study examines risk disclosure of firms on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) pre and post adoption of IFRS. Despite calls for the study of risk disclosure in different cultural context, the effects of IFRS adoption on risk disclosure remain an issue. Content analysis is employed to examine the annual reports of listed firms from 2004 to 2011. A paired t-test is then used to test the differences in risk disclosure pre and post IFRS adoption. To assess the reliability of the results, the study also employed a regression model to test the effect of IFRS adoption on risk disclosure. The study reveals that the amount of risk information disclosed by listed firms in Ghana is low although there have been significant improvement after the adoption of IFRS. The study contributes to the debate that the adoption of IFRS leads to improvement in financial reporting from a developing country context.