The need to communicate social and environmental effects of business operations to society has been with us for over four decades now. However, due to diverse factors the pace of introducing social and environmental reporting in developing countries has been slow. The purposes of this study are: to determine whether companies listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange and Parastatals in Botswana report on social and environmental issues in their annual reports and to what extent they disclose such information; to establish whether there is a difference in the level of reporting between listed companies and parastatals; and to determine whether size, type of industry and ownership influence the extent of disclosure. All listed companies and parastatals operating in Botswana formed the population of this study. Secondary data obtained from annual reports was reviewed and content analysis was employed to determine the extent of social and environment reporting. The extent of disclosure was measured using number of sentences describing the key themes such as human resources, environmental issues and community involvement. Regression analysis was used to find the association between dependent variable (extent of disclosure) and three independent variables namely size of the company, ownership and type of industry. The results suggest that social and environment reporting exists in Botswana entities and listed companies tend to disclose more than parastatals. The findings also show that size, type of industry and ownership are not good predictors of the level of social and environmental disclosure in Botswana entities.

The study evaluated the financial performance of three listed commercial banks in Botswana for the period 2011-2015 applying the CAMEL model. The study used the secondary data sourced from the annual reports of the listed banks. Results indicate that selected banks were highly leveraged and that their liquidity position was sound. The correlation analysis revealed that Earning per share had a significant positive correlation with liquidity ratio of total customer deposits to total assets and that leverage ratio was significantly negatively correlated to the ratio of equity capital to assets. Other CAMEL ratios were not significantly correlated to Earnings Per Share. The regression analysis showed that Capital adequacy, Asset quality, Earning ability and Managerial efficiency had no significant relationship with selected banks' performance measured in terms of Earnings per share. On the other hand, the Liquidity position of these banks was found to be significantly related to the performance of selected banks at 5% significance level. The findings also indicated that, overall, the selected banks performed well during the study period in terms of most of the parameters of CAMEL model with adequate capital and assets when compared to benchmarks. The earning capacity of the selected banks was also on the increase. The findings of this study will be helpful to the management of selected banks in making appropriate managerial decisions.

The co-operative sector plays an important role in a country's socio-economic development. This paper evaluated the financial performance of 9 selected Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies (SACCOSs) in Botswana by analysing audited financial statements of a five-year period from 2008 to 2012. The analytical techniques used include descriptive statistics of financial aggregates and ratios, correlation, regression and common size analyses. The financial aggregates analysed included all items that impact income generation as well as items that represent the financial position of the selected societies. The findings underscored that the selected SACCOSs achieved good financial results and were in strong financial position. The results also indicated a significant relationship between Net Profit ratio and Capital Employed Ratio to inform that the Net Profit Ratio was the most important explainer of Return on Capital Employed. The 5 year common size analysis also revealed a growth in income and in the financial status of the selected societies. The capital structure of these societies was characterised by substantial share of internal funds. Conclusively, maintaining an optimal balance between the interest on loans and interest on members' savings, and investing extra cash in diversified portfolio to reduce the risk levels would make the SACCOSs grow and function more productively and profitably. They would also then succeed in attracting more members and thereby significantly contribute towards poverty reduction and economic diversification drives in the country.

This paper examines the factors that hinder University accounting students from attending classes on a regular basis. A survey instrument comprising of factors that impede class attendance - adopted from prior studies and modified- was administered to the second, third and the fourth year students doing accounting courses. Descriptive statistics were computed and Independent sample T-tests were performed to measure how statistically significant different the views of students from different years of study were. The results of the study suggest that studying for other tests, uploading of lecture materials to ICT platforms, failure to do the necessary reading in advance of class, working on the project which is due on the same day of a class, lack of proper time management and failure to properly allocate time to school activities are among the ten key factors responsible for class non-attendance. Other hindrances to class attendance include having many lecturers to attend in a day, transport problems to school, lack of personal motivation and a long time lag between classes. In addition, the results reveal that majority of respondents assess their class attendance to be satisfactory; and there is no evidence to indicate that type of course, gender and accommodation status are among the causes of differences in class attendance. Also the results suggest that the higher the levels of study the more the number of factors are considered hindrances to class attendance. These results have implications to students, lecturers, tertiary institutions and sponsors who in one way or the other can devise means to mitigate the problem of class absenteeism.

This study employs the survey method to investigate the factors that cause academic differences between female and male students at the largest university in Botswana. The population of this research was the students of the last three years of the 4 year Bachelor of Accountancy degree programme at the University of Botswana. Anchored on the prior studies' indications that female students outperform their male counterparts in accounting examinations, the current study sought the views of the respondents on factors responsible for this phenomenon and their suggestions on how the gap may be bridged. This study revealed that the key factor explaining academic performance is individual's commitment and right attitude towards accounting studies. Respondents believe that female students perform better because they work harder and have better study ethics. Females attend more classes and tutorials, seek guidance on their studies from lecturers and participate more in class discussions than their male counterparts. Male students perform poorly because they lack enthusiasm towards studies and fail to balance social life and academic work while at school. The implications of this study are that male students need to re-examine their attitude towards education, class attendance and participation in academic activities in order to improve their grades. The society and the educational institutions need to become more vigilant in ensuring that males remain focused on positive learning while in school.

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