CHAPTER ONE
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
There had been administrative control on the nation’s interest rates until July 31, 1987 when, in consonance with the spirit of the structural Adjustment programme (SAP) of the Federal Government the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a circular on interest rates bordering on the deregulation of this financial sector of the economy. As a signal to the direction, the Central Bank wanted the interest rate to go, the minimum Re-discount Rate (MRR) was raised from 11 to 15% which now peaks at 18.5%. The apex financial institution (CBN) declared that interest rates payable on deposits or chargeable on loans and advances were henceforth to be determined by the interplay of the market forces of demand and supply.
Nigerians being what they are agitative and speculative went to town some decrying the policy as the last straw that would break the back of our fragile economy, others extolled the policy as the best and boldest steps ever taken towards the revamping of the ailing economy. These divergent views of the financial experts both in the academic and in the Banking sector about the likely impact of the interest rate deregulation motivated me to appraise the impact of the deregulation on commercial banking operation. Notable among those who bemoaned the deregulation of interest rate was Abiodum (1987). According to him, Deregulation a fragile economy like ours will have the overall effect of dampening it since the high interest rate will cause slow down investment as borrowing will be curtailed. But this view was opposed by Iklude (1987) 2. he was of the view that “interest rate deregulation will not only bring relief to the financially repressed economy but will ensure a real return on deposit which has over the year been negative. What these argument boiled down to was that interest rate deregulation would lead to efficient allocation of financial market resources because interest rate will now reflect relative scarcity and relative efficiency in different uses. According to Abraham Nwankwo (1987) 3 “Bigger banks will price small ones out at the market by lending cheep to customers and paying them interest rate on their deposits”. It is in the light of the controversies that accompanied the interest rate deregulation that prompted the deregulation on commercial Bank lending operation.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS
Interest Rate deregulation, like other stringent economy measured by the present administration has far reaching consequences on the nation’s banking industry and on the borrowing public. Commercial banks that had lent huge sums of money before the deregulation of interest rate were in stormy water making their customers repay their loans at the new rate. The borrowing public complained that their banks had without prior notice unleashed high interest rate on them. They were at daggers drawn as the measure created had blood between the banks and their customers. The interest rate deregulation with its attendant high interest payable on loan and advances terribly limited the borrower’s quest for loan/advances since it was impossible for most of them to get inflationary adjusted rate of return on their borrowed fund-this has remained elusive for many borrowers.
Inspite of the deregulation, customers complain that commercial Banks pay very little interest rate for example on savings and charge borrowers/customers more than twice what they pay them on their savings accounts. This they complained was unfair as the return became negative when adjusted with the rate of inflation. The general public also complained that banks (especially commercial and merchant Banks) have been posting huge profit after tax inspite of the bitting effect of the economy. The bank’s credit ceiling was partly responsible for the state of the affairs, invoking economic Aloxim that the constant liquidity mop up on the banking sector by the apex financial institution was also responsible saying, the more illiquid a bank is, the more profitable it becomes”. A performance appraisal of the impact of the deregulation is long over due at least to shade light on the above controversies surrounding the policy three years after its introduction, thereafter, the problems are here under stated in question as follows: (i) Did commercial bank’s loans and advances deteriorate during the deregulation of interest rate? (ii) Did depositors react favorably by increasing the volume of their deposit after the deregulation? (iii) How have commercial banks been surviving the directives of deregulating the interest rate in this sector of the economy?
