Corporate governance reforms in banks: Lessons from Nigeria?

Abstract

In Sub-Saharan Africa, and indeed in most emerging economies, national governments have in one way or the other (in varying degrees) intervened in the running of corporations. These interventions (usually referred to as reforms) have been eliciting discourses on whether Governments should show interest, be involved in the running of corporations, and also on the effectiveness of those interventions. This paper reviews the subject of this discourse with base reference on banking reforms initiated by various administrations in Nigeria over the decades, articulates lessons from the reforms, raises questions for further research and argues that corporations and markets should be self regulated. National governments should provide operational guidelines, enabling framework and put in place a sustainable mechanism for monitoring, and intervene only when the need arises. The paper also calls for the development of new governance architecture for banks and corporations in order to address emerging corporate governance realities.