CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND BANK PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
The importance of corporate governance in the 21st century cannot be over emphasized. The global economy has witnessed white collar fraud in the Nigerian banking sector. Which led to the fall of Oceanic Bank, Bank PHB, Spring Bank etc. this corporate fiasco may have been averted if there was the timely recapitalization and sound corporate governance. This research was set to review corporate governance and bank performance in details. Both theoretical and empirical analysis of corporate governance was carried out using the OLS regression analysis, it was found that a positive and insignificant relationship was observed to exist between bank performance and board size, a negative and insignificant relationship was observed to exist between bank performance and board composition, and a negative and insignificant relationship was observed to exist between bank performance and audit committee independence. It was however recommended that to ensure sustainable performance in the banking industry in Nigeria there is need for sound corporate governance and it is important that sound macroeconomic, sectoral and structural policies are applied to improve internal balance, ensure external sector performance and stimulate the productivity base and industrial sector of the Nigerian economy among others.
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
Background to the Study             
Statement of the Problem                
Objective of the Study            
1.4     Hypotheses of the Study                
1.5     Scope of the Study                    
1.6     Significance of the Study                
1.7    Limitation of the Study                
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1   Conceptual Review                          
2.1.1    Firm Performance                        
2.1.2 Board Size                        
2.1.3 Board Composition                    
2.1.4 Audit Committee                     
2.2    Theoretical Review                        
Empirical Review                    
    Conceptual Framework                    
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODLOGY
3.1    The Population of the Study                    
3.2    Sample Size and Sample Technique                 
Sources of Data                    
Model Specification And Analysis Plan             
Operationalization Of Variables                 
CHAPTER FOUR: EMPERICAL ANALYSIS
4.1     Introduction                            
4.2     Presentation Of Results                
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1     Introduction                        
5.2     Summary of Findings                        
5.3     Recommendations                        
5.4     Conclusion                        
    References                     
CHAPTER ONE
OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
1.1     BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Corporate governance involves a system by which organizations relate to their communities and stakeholders to improve their quality of life (Ato, 2002). It is an important concept that relates to the way and manner in which financial and human resources available to an organization are judiciously used to achieve the overall corporate objective and this keeps the organization in business by creating greater prospect for future opportunities. Therefore, corporate governance is concerned about building credibility, ensuring transparency and accountability as well as maintaining an effective channel of information disclosure that would foster good corporate performance.  The existence of good corporate governance is very crucial to business continuity; Fatimah (2012) revealed that corporate financial reporting provides fundamental information to a wide range of policy makers in both the corporate and non corporate sector of the economy. This information is a vital input in practice, specifically, dynamite and competing financial institution environments that call for improved observations, measurements and transparent disclosure of operations. The consequences of institutional failure on the real sector of the economy are costly to a developing country like Nigeria, and it affects the level of confidence the public has in various corporate establishments. The consequences of ineffective governance and system leading to corporate failure will not only affect the shareholders but also the employees, suppliers consumers and the nation as a whole.  It is therefore important that good corporate governance ensure transparency, accountability and fairness in reporting is put in place in organization.
A typical firm is characterized by numerous owners having no management role and with managers with no equity interest in firm shareholders or owners equity is generally large in number and an average shareholder controls a minute proportion of the share of the firm. This gives rise to the tendency for such a shareholder to take interest in the monitoring of managers who themselves may pursue interest different from those of the owner’s equity. The compatibility of corporate governance practices with the global standards has also become an important role of corporate success. The present study examines the impact of corporate governance on bank’s performing in Nigeria.  
1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Governments and regulators have been increasingly concerned about the corporate governance over the last couples of decade (Atkins & Bates, 2007). This is at least partly in response to a number of well-publicized corporate failures which are found to be the result of fraud, management incompetence, or a mixture of both. Significant corporate families, particularly those resulting from fraud or mismanagement, can damage the trust in the market/system as a whole and can have significant impacts on economic stability, growth and confidence in general. Consequently, the focus on corporate governance has increased significantly since the term of the millennium (Atkins & Bates, 2007), as both governments and regulators seek to establish formal standards and rules for companies to abide by. This is an attempt to minimize the risk of damage to markets and markets systems caused by significant corporate failures and fraud, and to respond to demands for greater customer and investor protect. On the foregoing this study provides answers to the following research questions:        
Does the board size has significant impact on performance of banks in Nigeria?
Does the composition of the board have significant impact of the performance of banks in Nigeria?.
1.3     OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY.
The broad objective of this study is to examine corporate governance in the banking industry. The specific objectives are to:
 examine whether board size significant impact on the performance of banks in Nigeria;
examine if the composition of the board has significant impact on the performance of the bank in Nigeria.; and
 determine whether the audit committee has a significant impact on the performance of the banks in Nigeria.
1.4     HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY
 The following hypothesis were formulated in null form and tested at 0.05 significant level:
Ho1:  The size of the board has no significant impact on the performance of the bank in Nigeria.
Ho2: The composition of the board has no significant impact on the performance of the banks in Nigeria.
Ho3: The audit committee has no significant impact on the performance of the banks in Nigeria
1.5     SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This research study to focuses on corporate governance and bank performance in Nigeria. The time for this study lasted from 2009 to 2014. The population of the study is the entire quoted banks in the Nigerian stock exchange. The sample size is restricted to ten (10) banks quoted in the Nigerian stock exchange.  
1.6     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY.
It is expected that this study would consolidate existing literature on the issues surrounding the corporate governance and bank performance in Nigeria. The study would facilitate the examination of the effects of corporate governance and bank performance and thus boost the empirical evidence from Nigeria. Furthermore given the empirical nature of the study the outcome of this study would aid policy makers and regulatory bodies in economies modeling and policy simulation with respect to selected variable examined in the study.
          The result of the study would be of benefit to investment analyst investors and corporations in examining the effectiveness of corporate governance on bank performance in Nigeria it will also be useful in stimulating public discourse given the dearth of empirical research in this area from emerging economies like Nigeria. Finally it would also add to the available literature on the area of the study while also providing a platform for other researchers who may want to further this study.
1.7    LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Smallness of sample size: it is interesting to emphasize that the findings of this empirical research are not to be generalized for all industry, since we are limited to a number of companies.
The ability of obtain a completely random sample imprecise measurement of variables.