Sustainable Banking in Nigeria: Empirical Perspective

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue VII, July 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Sustainable Banking in Nigeria: Empirical Perspective

Obiekwe, Chinelo Jenevive (Ph. D), Njoku, Ben .O (Ph.D), Okoro, Okoro Kelechi
Department of Banking and Finance, College of Management Sciences, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria

Abstract: – The quest to increase the share of green sectors to the GDP as well as invest in products and services that reduce climate change has led to adoption of sustainable banking in different countries. This study examined sustainable banking in Nigeria with emphasis on determining whether ATM usage, POS usage and commercial banks’ credit to the agricultural sector, as instruments of sustainable banking, had contributed to the Nigeria economy. Quarterly data collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the period 2012-2018 was adopted for the study and the data was analyzed using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method. Findings revealed that ATM usage, POS usage and commercial banks’ credit to agricultural sector had led to increase in Nigeria’s economy. However, the effect of these instruments on the Nigerian economy had not been significant. The implication of this is that although sustainable banking had increased economic growth in Nigeria, but its effect on Nigeria’s economy had not been significant. The study recommended that the Central Bank of Nigeria should make policies that would eliminate frivolous charges on ATM and POS usage as a way of increasing ATM and POS usage which would reduce the use of paper and ensure clean environment in Nigeria.

Keywords: Sustainable banking, Green economy, agricultural sector

I. INTRODUCTION

In recent years, firms have been encouraged to engage in ‘green’ practices and policies in their operations. Such ‘green’ practices and policies are expected to increase the share of green sectors to the GDP, decouple economic growth from resource use and environmental impacts, increase private and public investments channeled into green sectors and change composition of aggregate consumption so that the share of environmentally friendly products and services are increased (Oyegunle & Weber, 2015). To key into the global trend in ‘green’ practices and policies, the banking system had been made to embrace and invest in products and services that would eliminate climate change. It is in the light of the above scenario that the Sustainable Banking Principles (SBPs) was introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Nigeria in 2012 for Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Discount Houses (DH) and Development Financial Institutions (DHIs) and the first full Sustainable Banking Report was laid on the 31st December, 2014.

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