Do Banking Sector Reforms Drive Economic Growth in Nigeria

Abstract

Banking sector reforms is the deliberate policy measures adopted by the monetary authority to promote the safety, soundness, reliability and stability of the sector, in order to be able to deliver the expected goods by improving the economy. It is against this background the investigates that impact of bank sector reforms on Nigeria’s economics growth for the period which spanned from 1970 to 2014 using ARDL analysis. The period study was disaggregated into pre bank reforms period (1970-1985), reforms period (1986-2014) and pool period (1970-2014). Real Gross domestic product (GDP) was used as a proxy for economic growth regressed on some bank performance variables such as ratio of narrow money to broad money, loan deposit ratio, commercial bank credit to the private sector, cash reserve ratio and interest rate. The study found that the bank reformed has not impacted on the growth of the Nigerian economy. The study recommend that the government should ensure strict regulatory measures through the use of its monetary policies to regulate the banking sector and the Central Bank of Nigeria should continue with its banking sector reforms and encourage substantial credit allocation to the prioritized private sector.