MERGER AND ACQUISITION AS CONSOLIDATION INSTRUMENTS FOR CORRECTING THE DEFICIENCIES IN THE BANKING SECTOR (A Case of United Bank for Africa Plc) (Published)
Banks’ recapitalization is based on a belief that gains can accrue through expense reduction, increased market power, reduced earnings volatility, and scale and scope economies. However, whether or not merger and acquisition scheme, widely employed by banks in Nigeria during the recapitalization exercise between 2004 and 2005, actually assist in realizing the expected gains is the basis of this research work. Thus, the hypothesis that bank merger and acquisition does not affect the banks’ performance in Nigeria was tested. The Survey and content analysis method of data collection were adopted in this study. Analysis of the data, which were collected through a self-administrated questionnaire, was done using the simple percentage method, Chi-Square and goodness of fit at one per cent level of significance, while the secondary data were presented using tables and percentages. The results of the analyses showed that merger and acquisition improved banks’ efficiency in Nigeria. Some of the recommendations made in this study are that: the emergence of threat posed by mega bank should be checked, priority should be given to the quality of management of banks, good credit policy should be put in place and reviewed regularly and a functional internal control system should be established in order to prevent the incidence of fraud and other anomalies in the banking system.
Keywords: Earnings Volatility, Mega Banks, Merger and Acquisition., Recapitalization, Take-Over Bid