The relevance of Financial Statements and Its Impact in Organizational Performance – a case study of Atwima Mpomua Rural Bank.

Abstract: The aim of the thesis is to investigate the perception of investors in a rural bank as regards the uses of financial statements. Rural banks are the main source of financial service in rural sub-Saharan Africa and their services are mostly patronized by rural folks. Illiteracy rates in developing countries are very high as compared to developed countries and most of these people are living in rural areas. Sixty percent (60%) of Ghana’s population are rural dwellers and illiteracy levels are high in these areas. Financial information from relevant literature is used purposely for the comprehension of various financial positions of a company. Financial information from studies is most understood by expects with knowledge of account and finance. Investors who don’t have knowledge of account or finance rely on expects advice when making financial decisions. The study is therefore examining what extent of knowledge the rural dwellers who are mostly illiterates, and hence might not be able to understand financial statements, have of financial performance of the bank in which they are investing. The data was collected from a sample of one hundred and eighty respondents using questionnaires and face to face interviews conducted with management staff of the bank and used for analysis. Analyses were presented in a statistical format using mean score, vein diagrams and ratio calculation. Majority of investors in the bank were found to have tertiary level education making them literate, and they could understand and interpret financial statements. They preferred to have more access to financial statements and perceived service delivery a priority. Managers of the bank use profitability and liquidity ratios calculated from the various financial statements of the bank to determine their performance. The research was conducted on just one of the many rural banks in Ghana and as such could lead to results which might be not representative of what patens in rest of the many rural banks scattered across the country. The present study adds to the existing literature by examine the issue of user perception of financial statements in sub-Saharan Africa i.e. a developing economy and the issue of illiterates knowledge of financial performance. This seeks to determine their understanding of the bank’s performance measures.