CHAPTER ONE

1.0     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Commercial banking in Nigeria dated back to 1892, when what emerged as the bank of British West Africa (now bank of Nigeria) was established. This was followed in 1917 by the Barclays bank now Union Bank of Nigeria.

The Nigeria banking scene was monopolized by these two banks until 1933 when the national bank of Nigeria ltd was established. The first successful indigenous commercials bank in the country was established, (though in October 1992, the national deposit insurance corporation NDIC) advised the financial firm. The bank was indebted to the NDIC for about N1bn and has a negative asset valued at N1.8bn meaning the liabilities of the bank was more than its assets. Prompted by the success of the NBN Ltd after it was established. Several Nigerians made attempts to set up commercial banking institutions between 1933 and 1951. But many failed due to mismanagement and under capitalization. This was hardly surprising since there were no regulation of any kind to end operations of the bank besides there was not central bank to supervise and assist in establishing the banking system. The banking ordinance of 1952 was the first attempt to provide a regulatory framework for the development of a sound banking industry in Nigeria. Commercial banks activities in the period (1959-1966) is the fact that the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) was established at the beginning of the period (1958)

Central bank of Nigeria main  functions are:

i.       To issue tender  currency in the country

ii.     To maintain external international value of the naira

iii.  To promote monetary stability and some  financial structure

Central bank of Nigeria is also charged with the responsibility for developing the money and capital market in Nigeria. The CBN also acts as banker and financial adviser to the federal government of Nigeria as well as banker to other banks in the country so, one can say that the establishment of the CBN led to a continuous strengthening of banking in Nigeria and also within a relatively short period (1959-1966)  today, there are more than 50 commercial banks in Nigeria with balances all over the county.

Generally, commercial banks have a great role to play and have a major impact on the economic social and political spheres of any national, carrying out its dual debts transactions.

The role of information technology in commercial banks can not be over emphasized. Banking basically involves thousands of transactions that are made daily and records may be needed for references, his as well as cross checking and records of accounts one a transaction is made it must be recorded in a stated form such transaction includes settlement of cheque , the provision of regular  debits and credit exchange transactions one case see that most of the banks transaction are computerized and processing of data and computer makes it possible for these functions to be performed accurately and fast a s computers are machines that by their design are able to accept s tore, process and retrieve information the main advantage of computer in performing these functions is its speed, accuracy and large storage capacity.

Communication is very important in banks, as the banks have to deal with their correspondents in other financial centre, because banks can not operate in isolation. It has to keep regular contact with its other associates and correspondents in Nigeria. All banks receive directives regarding their operation from the central bank communication (information) technology available includes telex, Facsimile (Fax) electronic mail station, satellites modems etc

1.2     STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Computers are increasingly becoming indispensable nowadays many tasks of home and offices that were operating manually are being automated at a very fast pace world-wide thus, it is becoming apparent that in whatever discipline of study or nature of employment computer is now an  important tool for efficiency improvement and precision of job or task execution but inspite of this very few researches have so far been  conducted into areas of applications of computer and information technology in our commercial bank.

The project intends to investigate all possible application of computer and information technology in the commercial banking industry in Nigeria. The stud intends to address the following issues:

1.     How reliable is the use of information technology in commercial banks?

2.     How effective and efficient has the use of information technology improve the exact job or task execution?

3.     What steps should be used in order to minimize paper and storage capacities of computers?

4.     The use of information technology is it so accurate and fast in operations?

1.4SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The increasing importance, which is attached to computer and information technology in this contemporary world of business accounts for the necessity of this study the evolution on of computers and its increasing effects on the way we do things nowadays is important to discuss.

i.                   This is for readers and businessmen to have insight into how far and how well humanity has gone in applying technology to our day to day living.

ii.                 It is also to advice the bank and other industries on how the nature of their operation would look like when computerized and to get a space for other banks on the importance of computers in their operations in today banking.

iii.              The study will also be valuable to both individuals for a sustainable growth and development in business and the business at large.

1.4     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The aim of this study is to appraise the utilization of computer capability in the banking industry, through the following specific objectives.

a)     To obtain information on computer development and its trend in the banking industry

b)    To examine whether there is adequate utilization or not of compute in the banks

c)     To advance policy implications and recommendations that could enhance the prospects of this computer usage in the banking  industry

d)    To obtain in formation on computer development ad its trend in the banking industry.

1.5     HYPOTHESIS

The purpose of this research is to test the hypothesis that:

Ho: The application of computer technology to commercial banks is not an important tool for efficiency improvement and precision of job.

H1: The application of computer technology to commercial banks is an important tool for efficiency improvement and precision of job.

1.6     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this work is limited to computer usage in commercial banks. Since  their emergence in Nigeria the study will be based on union bank, and it will also study the storage of information system to be able to know information is been used step by step in a commercial banks. The scope of this study will embrace all information technology used in  commercial banks.

1.7     LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

It is important for the researcher to state things that have put constraints in their efforts during research to obtain materials needed for the profit.

i.                   The researcher has to take into consideration the limited time given within the which to present the complete work.

ii.                 Due to inadequate finance, it will be difficult for researcher to personally visit all branches of union bank.

iii.              Sourcing of information from bank staff might not be so easy.

iv.              Inadequate honouring of appointment by some of the people chosen for interview i.e. some of those selected for interview do not keep to time of appointment with them.

1.8     DEFINITION OF TERMS

Computer – A computer is a machine that follows instruction to process data, solve a specific problem or accomplish a particular task.

Programme: The instruction that control a computer when it performs a task is referred to as a  programme data the term data is a symbolic representation of facts about people, objects and places etc which are raw  or undesired in their present form and need to be transformed into a refined or desired form.

Banking: the business of taking deposits and making loans.

Record: A set of related items or fields performing to a particular items, unity or entity procedure: A written description of a system flow chart: A system analysis techniques providing a graphic presentation of procedures.

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