The Effect of Credit Risk on the Performance of Commercial Banks in Nigeria

Abstract

This research work studied the effect of credit risk on commercial banks performance in Nigeria. The study is motivated by the damaging effect of classified assets on bank capitalization and would be of utmost relevance as it addresses how credit risk affects banks’ profitability using a robust sample and the findings would serve as the basis to provide policy measures to the various stakeholders on how to tackle the credit risk in order to enhance the quality of banks’ assets and reduce bank risk. Secondary data source was explored in presenting the facts of the situation. The secondary data are obtained from annual reports, relevant literatures and CBN’s statistical Bulletin publication. The result shows that the ratio of loan and advances to total deposit negatively relate to profitability though not significant at 5% and that the ratio Non-performing loan to loan & Advances negatively relate to profitability at 5% level of significant. This study shows that there is a significant relationship between bank performance (in terms of profitability) and credit risk management (in terms of loan performance). Loans and advances and non-performing loans are major variables in determining asset quality of a bank. Some of the recommendations made in this study are; management need to be cautious in setting up a credit policy that will not negatively affects profitability and also they need to know how credit policy affects the operation of their banks to ensure judicious utilization of deposits and maximization of profit. Improper credit risk management reduce the bank profitability, affects the quality of its assets and increase loan losses and non-performing loan which may eventually lead to financial distress. CBN for policy purposes should regularly assess the lending attitudes of financial institutions. One direct way is to assess the degree of credit crunch by isolating the impact of supply side of loan from the demand side taking into account the opinion of the firms about banks’ lending attitude. Finally, strengthening the securities market will have a positive impact on the overall development of the banking sector by increasing competitiveness in the financial sector.