Adewale Adegoke Alawiye-Adams
Published: 2013
Total Pages: 26
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The paper empirically examined the impact of financial sector reforms on Bank growth in Nigeria and data spanning a period of thirty four years (i.e. 1971-2005) was analysed using the Panel Data Model. Earnings per Share (EPS), Returns on Capital Employed (ROCE) and Returns on Equity (ROE) were used as proxies for Bank growth (i.e. the dependent variables) while Interest Rate, Real Financial Savings and Exchange Rates were used as the proxies for financial sector reform (i.e. the independent variables).A number of diagnostic tests were also conducted on the residuals to evaluate the models; these include the Breuch-Godfrey Serial Correlation Lagrange Multiplier (LM) Test, the Ramsey REST Test of Specification Error (i.e. to test for omitted variables, incorrect functional form, correlation between exogenous variables and error term) and the Cumulative Sum (CUSUM ) tests of parametric stability, the LM test of Serial Correlation showed that there was an absence of first order serial correlation in the residuals and cumulative sum tests also showed that observations are more stable during Pre-S.A.P (Structural Adjustment Programme) period than the Post-S.A.P era.The result obtained showed that though the impact of financial sector reforms on bank growth in Nigeria for the period of study was significant, especially as measured by the proxies of Earnings per Share and Return on Equity, it was not significant enough to transform the nations' economy to the desired level.Given the foregoing therefore, the study suggests among other things that what is needed is for financial sector reform to achieve its purpose, a stable macroeconomic environment is a prerequisite and it is germane to ensure that government fiscal policies are crafted to complement monetary policies.