Abstract
The central theme of this study was to investigate the determinants of commercial bank profitability in
Sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis used an unbalanced panel of 216 commercial banks drawn from 42 countries
in SSA for the period 1999 to 2006.
Using the cost efficiency model, bank profitability was estimated using panel random effects method in static
framework. The explanatory variables are growth in bank assets, growth in bank deposits, capital adequacy,
operational efficiency (inefficiency), and liquidity ratio as well as the macroeconomic variables of growth in
GDP and inflation. The findings clearly show that both bank-specific as well as macroeconomic factors explain
the variation in commercial bank profitability over the study period.
These findings demonstrate the importance of both bank level as well as macroeconomic factors in explaining
commercial bank profitability in Sub-Saharan Africa. The policy implications drawn from this paper are that if
banks are to attain profitability improvements, both bank level as well as macroeconomic factors are important.
Keywords: commercial bank, cost efficiency, profitability