Sustainability Reporting Practices in Tanzania: A Case of Listed Companies in Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE)

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine sustainability reporting practices for listed companies at DSE. Specifically, the study aimed to identify the type of information reported and the level of reporting for listed companies at DSE. This study analyzes a sample of 24 companies selected to represent key sectors of the economy. The sample comprises 12 firms from the banking, finance, and investment sector; 7 from the industrial sector; 3 from commercial services; and one firm each from the oil and gas and communications sectors. To identify the nature of sustainability information disclosed by companies listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE), a content analysis approach was employed. Annual reports were used as the primary disclosure medium, with the number of sentences serving as the unit of analysis. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 framework was adopted to classify sustainability reporting themes within the annual reports. To assess the level of sustainability reporting, the number of sentences disclosed under each theme was counted. A total of 42 disclosure items were expected across all themes. The extent of reporting was categorized as low (1–14
items), average (15–28 items), and high (29 items and above). The findings showed that while human rights issues received the fewest reports from companies listed on the DSE, labor practices and decent work were the most often cited topics. Moreover, regarding the level of reporting the study discovered that thirteen (13) companies had low level of sustainability reporting while eleven (11) companies had average reporting. None of the listed companies at DSE had high reporting. The results show that there is no significance difference in the level of sustainability reporting between sampled companies.