The Relationship between Credit Risk and Financial Performance: Evidence from Commercial Banks in Tanzania

This research study purposed to determine the relationships between credit risks and the performance of commercial banks in Tanzania. Generally, the study aimed to establish the relationship between credit risk and financial performance in Tanzanian Banks. Specifically, to determine if the long-run relationship between credit risk and performance existed and investigated if credit risk and financial performance existed with a causal relationship in Tanzanian Banks. The research collected secondary data samples of 15 commercial banks in Tanzania from 2005-2019. This study adopted an explanatory approach to fulfil the above objectives. Both fixed and random effects models were engaged to determine the relationship. Hausman Test executed to determine the appropriate model. In the model, NPLR, LLPR, CAR, and BAS were used as the credit risk proxies, while return on asset (ROA) was used as the dependent variable. The findings reveal that the credit risk has both negative and positive relationships with the proxies used. The performance was inversely significant with NPLR and negatively insignificant with LLPR, while positively significant with CAR and positively insignificant with LBAS. The study concluded that the credit risk proxies, i.e., there was a significant relationship between NPLR and CAR with the commercial banks’ performance in Tanzania. Furthermore, the researchers concluded that the long-run relationship existed on the variables in the study, while granger causality existed in all variables except LLPR, i.e., Credit risk proxies except LLPR can granger cause the performance of commercial banks while the granger causality reveals no causal relationship among independent variables themselves. The study recommended that commercial banks in Tanzania should put more emphasis on handling credit risk and management of capital adequacy so as to have better financial performance.