The enforcement of corporate governance practices on Nigerian banks

In taking Nigeria’s peculiar institutional composition into careful consideration, this thesis aims at critically evaluating the Nigerian Corporate Governance Regulatory system which is enveloped with systemic corporate corruption and to analyze how regulatory policy responses can be carefully formulated to ensure sound corporate governance practices and to prevent any banking failures. This thesis will investigate the various problems to an effective corporate governance regulation in the Nigerian Banking sector with suggestions on how to ensure better corporate governance regulation and enforcement. This will involve an investigation into the role of government in the enforcement of corporate governance practices in the Nigerian Banking sector. This thesis will also investigate the corporate governance practices to understand how they could hinder the enforcement of corporate governance practices in the Nigerian Banking sector and to also develop a theoretical framework to expatiate governmental involvement in the world and relate it to the corporate governance enforcement in the Nigerian banking sector. Furthermore, this thesis will analyze the various regulatory reforms in the banking sector in Nigeria to ascertain its significance to an effective corporate governance regulation in the Nigerian Banking sector. Design/Methodology: This thesis employed exploratory research in an interpretative methodology concept to elucidate and provide a comprehensive account of the corporate governance practice and regulation in the Nigerian Banking Sector. This thesis employs the mixed method collection methods such as in-depth interviews and focus groups method to conduct a survey of corporate governance professionals in the academic sector, in practice (countries, management(banks), industries and professional accounting bodies and economic bodies) and the Nigerian banking sector. Findings: This study has provided evidence to the notion that a country’s institutional structure and arrangement has an influence on its model and style of corporate governance practice and regulation. In order words, the structure of the country in the case of Nigeria(corruption) mirrors the corporate governance regulations. It therefore suggests that the inseparable constituents of the country could either facilitate the progress of the regulatory mechanism or impede the implementation of effective corporate governance regulation. This thesis therefore argues that more governmental involvement is very much needed in the corporate governance regulation of Nigerian banks. Contributions: This thesis is adding to the limited studies on the role of government in the enforcement of corporate governance regulation within the Nigerian banking sector with a theoretical framework to illustrate the process of operation. This thesis further stresses the need for countries to fashion out corporate governance regulations that considers the peculiar challenges of the country while ensuring that they are generally in line with accepted corporate governance practices. This research analyses the Nigerian banking sector with its peculiarities with reference to its challenges that is a microcosm of its distinct socio-political and environmental settings. This research contributes to the institutional theory in government role in ensuring corporate governance. It furthers it by introducing the coercive isomorphism in showcasing how government can use a level of force to ensure that corporate governance regulations are practiced. The methodological contribution uses the exploratory form of research methodology to view the whole banking sector and therefore able to analyze and see the various facets on the Nigerian banking sector. The research has put to bed the notion of one size fits all within the international best practices in corporate governance. Therefore, the practical contribution for the Nigerian baking sector is to make corporate governance policies that considers the peculiar challenges of the sector. This thesis employed the coercive isomorphism of institutional theory to draw up a theoretical framework which is the major contribution in the research to show the role and nature by which government can be involved in the enforcement of corporate governance practices in Nigerian banks. Detailed illustration is in the theoretical framework chapter illustrating how the legitimacy authority is given and how to get regulators and banks to comply with the guidelines of the corporate governance principles.