STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS IN NIGERIA

Strategic management is important for an overall goal setting and direction of an organization and lays emphasis on long range planning in order to achieve firms set goals and objectives.Despite the presence of highly professional personnel at the top management of Nigerian banks there have been cases of increased competition, poor loan delivery, distress, and unsustainable performance growth, and has resulted in silent acquisition and mergers for survival. Perhaps, this might be as a result of poor strategic planning. This study therefore, examined the impact of strategic management on banks performance using 5 selected deposit money banks in Nigeria. The study adopted the profit-maximization theory, and used secondary data which were sourced from the audited annual reports of the selected deposit money banks from 2006-2015. Data obtained was subjected to random effect panel regression analysis using the Eviews package for data analysis (Eviews, 8). The result of this study shows that: (i) overall, there is significant relationship between strategic management and banks profitability; and (ii) non-performing loan, and the number of board members are insignificant to the profitability of banks. The study therefore recommends that: (i) banks should be mindful of the number of board members and cost attributable to the board members as few but sound professionals at the board level is likely be beneficial to the profitability of banks; and (ii) the top level management of banks should be proactive in putting in place necessary policies and measures to reduce non- performing loans to enable them improve their profitability positions. If the above recommendations are well and fully implemented it is likely to positively impact on banks profitability which will possibly result to a robust and efficient financial system