Impact of Technological Innovations on Bank Performance in Selected West African Countries (1997-2020)

Abstract

Purpose: Technological innovations are understood as new or improved processes, products or services, the technical characteristics of which are significantly different from the previous ones. Technological innovations in the banking sector have undoubtedly improved the functionality and performance of banks across the globe including West African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Coted’Ivoire. It has redefined the way and regime in banking operation in West Africa. It enables banks to improve the quality of service delivery to their numerous customers and makes it easy for customers to access banking services at the lowest cost possible. This study, therefore, focused on examining the impact of technological innovations on bank performance in West Africa.   Method: A set of annual time series covering the period 1997 to 2020 and a multiple regression analysis including an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, a fully modified OLS (FMOLS) model and a dynamic OLS (DOLS) model were used. Bank performance was measured using bank return on assets (ROA) and bank return on equity (ROE), while technological innovation was measured using indicators such as Internet Banking (INB), Automated Teller Machines (ATM), Mobile Banking (MBN) and Point of Sale (POS) whose control variables are inflation rate (INFR) and exchange rate (EXR).   Results and conclusion: Findings from the ARDL panel results show that both positive and negative long-term relationships exist between technological innovation and bank performance in West Africa. We thoroughly verified the results from the ARDL model with FMOLS and DOLS and the findings show that technological innovation has a positive and negative long-run relationship with bank performance in West Africa and the results were the same for Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast.   Originality/Value: This study, therefore, recommends that improving the quality of technologically innovative tools of banks such as internet banking, ATMs, POS and mobile banking with quality apparatus can lead to improved bank performance. Banks should also invest in cyber security to ensure funds deposited in banks are safe which will boost investor and customer confidence, acceptance and lead to increased bank performance.