ABSTRACT

IMPACT OF CORPORATE POLICY AND STRATEGIC PLANNING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF NIGERIAN COMMERCIAL BANKS

The research is on “ Impact of Corporate Policy and Strategic Planning on the Performance of Nigerian Commercial Banks”.  The objectives of the study are, to determine the impact of corporate policy and strategic planning on goal attainment, find out if there are relationships between bank failure and corporate policy and strategic planning, find out if corporate policy and strategic planning check waste of resources, see if information technology supports corporate policy and strategic planning, determine if strategies  such as mergers, acquisitions, aggressive marketing, listing with the stock exchange and others  facilitated the recapitalization of commercial banks between 2004/2005, determine if information technology supports corporate policy and strategic planning and to find out if strategic planning in commercial banks could lead to economic growth and stability in the Nigerian commercial banks. This study employed the descriptive research design. Stratified random sampling method was used in the study. The commercial banks selected for the study included the First Bank of  Nigeria Plc., Union Bank of Nigeria Plc., Intercontinental Bank Plc., now a subsidiary of Access Bank Plc., and Afribank recently nationalized and renamed Mainstreet Bank Plc. From a population of 25200, a sample size of 392 was determined using Yamene’s formula, which was considered adequate for the study. The principal instrument for collection of primary data was the questionnaire. Secondary data were sourced from journals, books, newspapers and magazines. The questionnaire was structured in five point Likert scale. A content validity approach was adopted. The split half method was used for the reliability test. The result gave a reliability co-efficient of 0.91 which indicated a high degree of consistency.  Data collected were presented in tables using frequency and percentages. Pearson’s product moment correlation co-efficient and Chi-Square were used for hypotheses testing. Findings indicate that corporate policy making and strategic planning made impact on the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. Corporate policy and strategic planning had relationship with bank failure  Corporate policy and strategic planning helped to check waste of resources. Implemented strategies by commercial banks facilitated the recapitalization as revealed in the result. Information Technology supported corporate policy making and strategic planning. Corporate policy and strategic planning could lead to economic growth and stability within the Nigerian commercial Banks. The research made the following recommendations; Top management of commercial banks should embark on corporate policy and strategic planning to ensure that goals and objectives are achieved. Commercial banks should establish corporate policies and plan strategically to avoid failure. Field managers should avoid waste of resources to minimize operational cost. Nigerian Commercial banks should embark on different types of strategies as need arises. Commercial banks should take advantage of information technology to improve services.