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IMPACT OF FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA 1994 – 2013
ABSTRACT
One of the activities of financial institutions (banks) involves intermediating between the surplus and deficit units of the economy. Banks as financial intermediaries emerge to lower the cost of reaching potential investments, exerting corporate controls, managing risks, mobilizing savings and conducting exchanges. In Nigeria, banks dominate the financial sector and there is detailed information about Nigerian banking history but little information is available on the activities of the financial industry and how they affect the economy where they operate. Therefore, this study explored in the light of past trends, the extent to which financial intermediation impacted on the economic growth of Nigeria between the period 1994 – 2013. The study adopted the ex-post facto research design. Time series data for the twenty years period 1994 – 2013 were collated from secondary sources and the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression technique was used to estimate the hypotheses formulated in line with the objectives of the study. Real Gross Domestic Product per capita, proxy for economic growth was adopted as the dependent variable while the independent variables included bank deposits, bank credits and bank liquid reserves. The empirical results of this study show that bank deposits, bank credits and bank liquid reserves exert a positive and significant impact on the economic growth of Nigeria for the period 1994 – 2013. This paper recommended amongst others that banks should adopt and engage in aggressive marketing of their services in order to help increase their deposit base and as well ensure that a major part of their credit is channeled to the productive sectors of the economy such as agriculture, industry and power to encourage growth of the economy. It further recommended that banks should shore up their liquid reserves to further enhance stability of their operations.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
One of the activities of financial institutions (banks) involves intermediating between the surplus and deficit sectors of the economy. According to Bencivenga and Smith (1991), the basic activities of banks are acceptance of deposits and lending to a large number of agents, holding of liquid reserves against predictable withdrawal demand, issuing of liabilities that are more liquid than their primary assets and eliminating or reducing the need for self financing of investments. In particular, by providing liquidity, banks permit risk averse savers to hold bank deposits rather than liquid (but unproductive) assets. The funds obtained are then made available for investment in productive capital.
Moreover, by exploiting the fact that banks have large number of depositors and hence predictable withdrawal demand, they can economize on liquid reserves holdings that do not contribute to capital accumulation. Again, Bencivenga and Smith (1991), further argued that by eliminating self-financed capital investment, banks also prevent the unnecessary liquidation of such investment by entrepreneurs who find that they need liquidity. In short, an intermediation industry permits an economy to reduce the fraction of savings held in the form of unproductive liquid assets, and to prevent misallocation of invested capital due to liquidity needs (Bencivenga and Smith, 1991). Schumpeter in Kings and Levine (1991), argued that the services provided by financial intermediaries–mobilizing savings, evaluating projects, managing risks, monitoring managers and facilitating transactions, are essential for technological innovation and economic growth and development.
Levine et al (2000), posits that financial intermediaries emerge to lower the costs of reaching potential investments, exerting corporation, controls, managing risks, mobilizing savings and conducting exchanges. Financial intermediaries by providing these services to the economy, influence savings and allocation decisions in ways that may alter long-run growth rates. Banks play an effective role in the economic growth and development of a country. This role they perform excellently by helping to mobilize idle savings of the Surplus Unit (SUs) for onward lending to the Deficit Units (DUs), thus helping in the capital formation of a nation (Ujah and Amaechi, 2005). It is in realization of the importance of bank’s role in financial intermediation that successive governments in Nigeria have been allocating deliberate roles to them in various National Development Plans.
Afolabi (1998), states that with financial intermediation, the transfer of funds from the surplus sector to the deficit sector becomes very simple. The intermediary will act as a pool, collecting deposits of millions of savers and can create forums, e.g. interest-yielding accounts. The intermediary matches the deposit requirements of the saver with the investment requirements of the borrower. He acts as a pool, collecting savings of different sizes from different categories of savers and meeting the investment needs of the various types of investors. The surplus sector therefore gains by placing his money with the intermediary since the income to be earned does not depend on whether or not the intermediary has in fact lent the money out or whether or not the money was profitably lent. The overall economic effect according to Afolabi (1988) is that financial intermediation leads to a better aggregation of savings and therefore helps in capital formation and investment in the economy.
The banks are mainly involved in financial intermediation, which involves channeling funds from the surplus units to the deficit units of the economy, thus transforming bank deposits into loans or credits. The role of credit on economic growth has been recognized as credits are obtained by various economic agents to enable them meet operating expenses (Bencivenga and Smith, 1991). For instance, business firms obtain credit to buy machinery equipment. Farmers obtain credit to purchase seeds, fertilizers, erect various kinds of farm buildings. According to Nwanyanwu (2010), the provision of credit with sufficient consideration for the sector’s volume and price system is a way to generate self-employment opportunities. This is because credit helps to create and maintain a reasonable business size as it is used to establish and/or expand the business to take advantage of economies of scale. It can also be used to improve informal activity and increase its efficiency. This is achievable through resource substitution, which is facilitated by the availability of credit, while highlighting the role of credit. Nwanyanwu (2010), further explained that credit can be used to prevent an economic activity from total collapse in the event of natural disaster, such as flood, drought, disease or fire. Credit can be generated to revive such an economic activity that suffered the set back.
The banking sector helps to make these credits available by mobilizing funds from savers who have no immediate needs of such funds and thus channel such funds in form of credits to investors who have brilliant ideas on how to create additional wealth in the economy but lack the necessary capital to execute the ideas. It is instructive to note that the banking sector has stood out in the financial sector as of prime importance, because in many developing countries of the world, the sector is virtually the only financial means of attracting private savings in a large scale to enhance economic growth (Afolabi, 1998).
Banks all over the world as we have earlier noted, provide a wide range of services including financial intermediation to suit the needs of their customers, be they individuals, corporate or government customers. In developing nations as ours, the majority of the people are poor, capital for investments are in short supply, means of transport are underdeveloped as well as basic infrastructures. Banks through their intermediation role and other services, aim at overcoming these obstacles and thus, promote economic growth of the nation. Economic growth is often measured in terms of the level of production within the economy, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well as the rate of physical capital accumulation among other possible measures (Zakaria, 2008). Majority of scholars accept economic growth as an increase in the level of national income and output in a country. According to Nnanna (2004), it implies an increase in the net national product in a given period of time. He explained that economic growth is generally referred to as a quantitative change in economic variables, normally persisting over successive periods. He added that the determinants of economic growth are availability of natural resources, rate of capital formation, capital output ratio, technological progress, dynamic entrepreneurship and other factors.
Oluitan (2010) sees economic growth as a steady process by which the productive capacity of the economy is increased over time to bring about rising levels of national output and income. Jhingan (2006) viewed economic growth as an increase in output. He explained further that it is related to a quantitative sustained increase in the country’s per capita income or output accompanied by expansion in its labour force, consumption, capital and volume of trade. The major characteristics of economic growth are high rate of productivity, high rate of structural transformation, international flows of labour, goods and capital. From the synthesizing insights of these definitions, economic growth in this work is defined as a sustained increase in national income or output of a nation. Thus, an economy is said to be growing if there is a sustained increase in the actual output of goods and services per head.
According to Greenwood and Jovanovich (1990), the dependence on domestic sources of capital, therefore, requires a wide range of independent well-organized and adapted financial institution, which has to mobilize internal resources for the purpose of capital formation and allow the capital to be invested conveniently and freely into desired developmental ventures.
Deposit Money Banks, the basic component of financial institutions should be thus the major relevant and important institutions, which encourage and mobilize savings and channel them into productive investments because of their network of offices, their generally numerous clientele and the relative ease with which people transact business with them. Thus, they are the dominant institutions of financial intermediation. It is therefore expected that effective financial intermediation will exert a positive impact on economy.
The importance of banks in generating growth within an economy has been widely discussed by various scholars. Many economists believe that financial intermediaries play important roles in economic growth. Studies by Beck, Levine and Loayza (2000a) and Levine, Loayza and Beck (2000) confirm that well-functioning banks accelerate economic growth. Furthermore, a seminal study conducted by King and Levine (1993) on seventy seven countries made up of developed and developing economies showed that finance not only follow growth; finance seems important to lead economic growth. Greenwood and Jovanovich (1990) also observed that financial institutions produce better information, improve resource allocation and thereby induce growth. These studies further buttress the assertion that financial intermediation stimulate economic growth. Despite the above views, some scholars believe that finance is a relatively unimportant factor in economic growth. They postulate that economic growth is a causal factor for financial development. Gurley and Shaw (1967) as cited in Oluitan (2010) argue that as the real sector grows, the increasing demand for financial services stimulate the financial sector. Lucas (1988) in Kings and Levine (1993) believed that economists have badly over-stressed the role of financial factors in economic growth. Robbinson (1952) as cited in King and Levine (1993) contends that financial development simply follows economic growth and that the engine of growth must be sought elsewhere.
Nigeria is the most populous African country with a population of over 160 million people. It is also one of the world’s top producers of crude oil and despite this, the country is among the poor economies in the world. Banks dominate the financial sector in Nigeria and therefore, given the mixed results of empirical finding as shown above, it is important to examine whether such postulations hold for the Nigerian economy. Again, there is detailed information about Nigerian banking history, but little information is available on the activities of the financial industry and how they affect the economy where they operate. Similarly, factors which motivate or drive growth within the economy relative to the industry are largely under researched. All these stimulate and motivate the researcher towards carrying out this study to fill this gap.
It is therefore against this background and given the intermediary role of deposit money banks in economic growth and development that this study aims at exploring in the light of past trends, the extent to which financial intermediation impacts on the economic growth of Nigeria.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The role of deposit money banks in financial intermediation cannot be over-emphasized as they help in mobilizing the idle – savings of the surplus units (SUs) for onward lending to the deficit units (DUs), thus solving most of the problems standing between the lender and the borrower. However, certain issues or factors have continued to pose problems to the success of financial intermediation on the economic growth of the Nigerian economy.
Financial repression is one factor that affects and constitutes a great problem to financial intermediation by banks. Afolabi (1998) identified that the sources of repression are government legislations and policies such as legal restrictions on activities and interest rate policies that distort the full operation of the market mechanism in fixing prices for financial resources. There is also the issue of poor banking habit among Nigerians. Most of them prefer to keep and save their monies in boxes, under their mattresses or in holes in their houses, to having any business to do with the deposit money banks. According to Ngwu (2006), this may be as a result of illiteracy on their part and also as a result of the losses these people have sustained in the past due to bank failures and distresses.
It is very crucial to ensure that financial institutions exert the desired effects on the economy in which they operate. An efficient and highly intermediation system is essential in a healthy economy. Its primary role is to facilitate the channeling or transfer of funds from the surplus units to the deficit units. Thus, the activity of financial intermediation affects every citizen within the economy. Uremadu (2000) posits that large-scale production and a high degree of specialization of labour can only function if an efficient and highly developed financial system exists for paying for goods and services, whether they are needed in production or are offered for sale. Business organizations can obtain the money or capital they need to purchase capital goods, such as machinery and equipment only if the necessary institutions, instruments and procedures have been established for making savings available for such investments. Bencivenga and Smith (1991) opine that in the absence of banks, too much investment is self-financed which results to the slow cycle of production. This may further result to the problems of long delays between investment expenditures and receipts of profit from capital. Thus, an intermediation industry is expected to permit an economy to reduce the fraction of its savings held in the form of unproductive liquid assets and to prevent misallocations of invested capital due to liquidity needs. Thus, it is very imperative to investigate and confirm the extent to which financial intermediation by deposit money banks impact on the Nigerian economy.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The general objective of this work is to determine the impact of financial intermediation on economic growth in Nigeria. The specific objectives of this study are as follows:
- To determine the impact of deposit mobilization on economic growth of Nigeria.
- To determine the impact of bank credit on the growth of the Nigerian economy.
- To determine the impact of liquid reserves of banks on the economic growth of the nation.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In this study, the following research questions are pertinent to the realization of the stated objectives of the study:
- To what extent does deposit mobilization impact on Nigeria’s economic growth?
- To what extent has bank credit impacted on the growth of the Nigerian economy?
- To what degree has liquid reserves impacted on the economic growth in Nigeria?
- HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY
The study is guided by the following statement of hypotheses formulated based on the objectives of the study:
Ho1: There is no positive and significant impact of the bank deposits on economic growth in Nigeria.
Ho2: There is no positive and significant impact of bank credits on the growth of
the Nigerian economy.
Ho3: There is no positive and significant impact of bank liquid reserves on the
economic growth of Nigeria.
- SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study focused on the impact of financial intermediation on Nigeria’s economic growth using variables such as deposit mobilization, bank credit and liquid reserves. This study focused on Nigeria and covers the period 1994 to 2013. The reason for choosing this period is that the post-consolidation era when Nigerian banks were adduced to be strong as well as the pre-consolidation era, characterized by a lot of instability in the Nigerian banking sector were captured or taken into consideration.
1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will lend support both to the financial intermediation literature as well as the economic growth literature. There is detailed information about the Nigerian banking industry, but little information is available on the activities of the financial industry and how they affect the economy where they operate. In other words, factors which drive growth in the economy, relative to the financial industry are largely under researched. Hence, this research will attempt to fill this gap. In addition, it will be of immense benefits to the following parties:
- The Government
This study is expected to benefit the government and its agencies in understanding the impact of financial intermediation on economic growth. The outcome of this study will help in the formulating and implementation of policies regarding the operation of banks in the area of financial intermediation and in line with the aspirations of the economy.
- Money Market Regulations
The outcome of this study will be of immense benefit to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Designing and formulating appropriate regulations to guide the operations of banks will require a good understanding of the impact of financial intermediation on economic growth.
- Academicians
The outcome of this study will add to the body of existing literature on financial intermediation and economic growth. It will serve as a basis for further researches in this very important area of study and as well as in related issues in Nigeria. It will also serve as a document or body of knowledge which can be consulted from time to time by researchers studying on related topics.
- The Public
To economic watchers and the interested public, this study will provide some insight into the impact of financial intermediation on the growth of the Nigerian economy.
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