Corporate Governance and Sustainable Banking Sector: Evidence from Nigeria

The issue of corporate governance assumed great importance the world over in the aftermath of the corporate financial scandals brought about by lack of transparency and accountability in governance. The collapse of high profile institutions around the world such as Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat, Barings Bank to mention just a few have demonstrated that no company can be too big to fail. Sustainable banking on the other hand is a philosophy that underpins everything about banking, a value system that says a bank’s commercial activities must not only benefit its staff and shareholders, but also its customers and the wider economy, while at the same time preventing, or at least minimizing, any undue effects on society and the natural environment. This study, therefore, investigated the significant relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and commitments to sustainable banking. It further examined whether Nigerian banks are committed to sustainability, responsibility, accountability, transparency, sustainable markets and governance. The study also assessed the significance of corporate governance to sustainable banking sector in Nigeria. The sources of data were primary in nature while analysis of variance, frequency distributions and chi-square statistics were employed to analyze the data collected. The findings revealed that the Nigerian banking sector has not been showing good commitments towards sustainable banking. The level of board responsibility, general accountability and transparency have not been too impressive either. The study recommended that the sector should institute a culture of good corporate governance that will make sustainable banking a reality in Nigeria Keywords: Corporate Governance, Responsibility, Accountability, Transparency, Disclosure, Sustainable Bankin