The study critically examines the relationship between credit management, liquidity position and profitability of some selected banks in Nigeria using annual data of ten banks over the period of 2006 to 2010. Time series properties of all variables used in the estimation were examined through Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test in order to obtain reliable results. It shows that all the variables were stationary and significant at first differences. The results from Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimate found that current ratio is positively related to debt ratio and significant at 1% level. This confirms the alternative “risk absorption” hypothesis, which stipulates that efficient credit management enhances firms’ ability to create liquidity. In addition, the result shows that ROA has significant positive effect on current ratio confirming the “financial fragility – crowding out” hypothesis which stipulate that the ability of firms’ to maintain certain degree of liquidity reduces firms’ profitability enhancement. This conclusion has important policy implications for emerging countries like Nigeria as it suggests that when a company’s credit policy is favourable, liquidity is at a desirable level and lastly, the findings revealed that companies should ensure the monitoring and regular review of their credit policy and the allowance of cash discounts should be minimized as much as possible.
Keywords: Commercial Bank, Credit Management, Liquidity Position, Profitability, Regression
