Title: Corporate governance in the Nigerian banking industry: towards governmental engagement

Authors: Emmanuel Adegbite

Addresses: Durham Business School, Durham University, Queen's Campus, Stockton, University Boulevard, Thronaby, Stockton-on-Tees TS17 6BH, UK

Abstract: The recent global economic crisis has led to reduced confidence in the self-regulation of banks and has facilitated a debate on how governments across the world intend to engage with the corporate governance of banks. In providing insights into this debate, this conceptual paper discusses the sectoral peculiarities of banks' corporate governance and in particular how these shape the philosophy and configuration of corporate governance regulation in banks. It presents a case study of the Nigerian banking sector in order to bring perspectives from sub-Saharan Africa which suffers from the dearth of literature. Taking into consideration the regulatory challenges in the Nigerian banking sector, it examines the regulatory role of government and enforcement of regulations, and argues that more governmental involvement is needed in the corporate governance of banks (as opposed to other companies). This paper adds to the very limited studies on the role of government in the corporate governance.

Keywords: corporate governance; Nigeria; banking industry; corruption; government engagement; financial crisis; bank regulation; government role; sub-Saharan Africa; banks; regulatory enforcement.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBGE.2012.050039

International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 2012 Vol.7 No.3, pp.209 - 231

Published online: 25 Oct 2012 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article