CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Right from the colonial period up to the 1970’s in Nigeria, there was little challenge to management’s prerogative in the running of corporate enterprises. This is evident as there was neither any demand for independent and off-sight supervision nor the need for transparent disclosure of information. There was also no need for intervention in matters of accountability and corporate power game and there was generally minimal interest in participating in the corporate management process (Yakasai, 2001). . However, today, the situation is entirely different. The situation is such that shareholders, employees, government agencies and regulatory bodies want are keenly interested in having detailed knowledge t the organization, especially with regards to accountability, self-regulation, policy compliance, power relations and aggregate governance.
Corporate governance concerns broadly the rules and processes by which businesses are operated, regulated and controlled, (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD],2004). According to Rwegasira (2000), the focal issues in corporate governance are the composition of the board of directors as they make key decisions in the organization, the roles of regulatory authorities as they monitor compliance of laid down rules, laws and regulations guiding all areas of business activity including banking business and the use of independent auditors that assess and endorse all financial accounts.
In every economy, banks play a facilitating role; it is in this respect that their practice of corporate governance is of prime interest to stakeholders, particularly, the government, depositors, shareholders and the public at large. While government and the public want a safe, sound and stable banking industry, shareholders (owners) are more interested in their bank’s profitability, soundness and sustainability and workers are interested in their sustained employment through the continued existence and profitability of their employer-banks (Yakasai, 2001).
Recently, corporate governance issues have come to the fore in various countries. South Africa which is the developing world’s third largest market (second to Hong Kong and Taiwan) capitalized in 1998 at about US$261m was doing much better to attract future investment than the rest partly because of its sophisticated corporate governance and highly regulated banking sector as well as its low private external debt (Siddiqi, 1998). Sagent (1997), indicates that Canada and the United Kingdom are doing well because of their diligence in the adoption of best-practice codes concerning corporate governance as part of their listing rules. Lozano (2000), notes that in 1997, the president of the Commission of the Spanish Stock Exchange proposed the drawing-up of an ethical code for good corporate governance for the financial sector. Casper and Carsten (2003) notes that in 2002, Denmark, incorporated the Danish Corporate Governance Network, an independent body assigned to provide an inter-disciplinary foundation for research in corporate governance. The need to embrace best practice has gone global with the collapse of global corporations such as Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing and Andersen a firm of international Accountants. These collapses were blamed on a lack of business ethics, shady accountancy practices and weak regulators.
The strategy for addressing the challenges of corporate governance has taken various forms at both national and international levels with the introduction of codes such as the OECD code and the Cadbury Reports. In Nigeria, the regulatory bodies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) have constituted committees on corporate governance in the banking industry. Consequently, they set up the Peterside Committee on corporate governance, the Bankers Committee also set up a sub-committee on corporate governance to make recommendations and propose a draft code for adoption by the financial institutions (Anugwom, 2006). The recommendations made by these committees cover best practices in areas such as constituting an effective board and identifying the principal responsibilities of the board, remuneration of directors, board performance assessment, audit committee, duality in the position of the chairman and the head of management, among other things. Contrary to these recommendations, Oyebode (2009) opines that more often than not, non executive directors are not totally up to the task they are supposed to perform as sentinels of corporate governance, having been largely nominated by the managing directors themselves. Chairmen are usually drafted into boards from ranks of retired civil servants, senior military officers or traditional rulers who albeit, might have high public profiles, are largely lacking in the skills or expertise required for the supervision and control of banks, thus, leading to massive fraud and manipulation of books in banks. Webb (2006) asserts that poor corporate governance is responsible for most of the ills in the banking industry.
If corporate governance practices are meant to ensure compliance to the rules governing the functioning of firms in an industry and ensure proactive prevention of fraudulent practices, Ibru (2008), wonders why then are banks facing these ills even in the face of corporate governance codes?
It is against the above stated developments in the banking industry that this study seeks to investigate the extent to which the nature and functioning of corporate governance contributes to the challenges faced in the banking industry.
| Project details | Contents |
|---|---|
| Number of Pages | 97 pages |
| Chapter one | Introduction |
| Chapter two | Literature review |
| Chapter three | methodology |
| Chapter four | Data analysis |
| Chapter five | Summary,discussion & recommendations |
| Reference | Reference |
| Questionnaire | Questionnaire |
| Appendix | Appendix |
| Chapter summary | 1 to 5 chapters |
| Available document | PDF and MS-word format |
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