Introduction
1.1 Background Of The Study
In an evolving Nigerian banking industry, strategies are being adopted by the major players in order to achieve their long-term organizational goals- profitability and survival. In the light of this belief, much emphasis is being laid on the computerization of their banking operations. Within the last decade, the Nigerian banking industry has been at the forefront of computerization. This is with the aim of: improving their information system, delivery of efficient and high quality service to their customers. In the advent of computerization, old generation banks in the industry were force to wake up from their slumbers and face reality. The new generation banks came into the industry with innovation, research and development, in order to push these less competent old ones out of business. This revolution was aided by computerization. It’s very pertinent to state that computerization is a very powerful weapon which can be employed to annihilate competitors. The Nigerian banking industry ensures that their data base is updated as at when due. With the 2004 banking reform in Nigeria, the industry has persistently remained vibrant.
The overall aim of this sanitations effort by Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo was to achieve some macroeconomic objectives,which include the following : a. To create a world of banking groups through mergers and acquisitions aimed at avoiding bank distress. b. To consolidate Nigerian banks to manage the country’s external reserve deposited in foreign banks c. To ensure that there is zero-tolerance in the regulatory framework. According to Rob Kling (1996), “when a specialist discusses computerization and work, they often appeal to a strong implicit image about the transformation of work in the last one hundred years and the role that technology has played in some of these changes.” In view of this, it’s quite imperative to analyze this information with the Nigerian banking industry, and to take actions aimed at guiding against the problems associated with computerization.
1.2 Statement Of The Problem
The twenty-first century business-world has been marked by the rise of service job in such areas as: banking, insurance, advertising, transportation and health. Many of the earliest commercial computers were bought by large service organizations such as: banks and insurance companies. One of the basic problems of this research work is to critically look at the banking industry vis-à-vis the heavy investment made by these institutions in the acquisition of computer technology. This will be geared towards assessing the effect of this computer technology on the banking activities in general. With computerization, jobs that would have taken hours and a lot of manpower, can conveniently be done by few hands in just a jiffy.
The concomitant effect of this will inevitably be lay-off of workers. In the case study of this research workUnited Bank for Africa Plc- about 4000 workers were made redundant as a result of technological innovation. According to Shankar K. (1997) “as society becomes more dependent on computers, computer crime is becoming not only more disastrous, but also more attractive to the criminally-minded people: the disclosure threat, which is the dissemination of information to an individual for whom that information shouldn’t be seen. In the context of computer security, the disclosure threat occurs whenever some secret information that is stored in a computer is divulged to somebody who shouldn’t have seen it. Fraudulent people have devised a clever way of guessing at people’s passwords. These could take the following forms: a user’s role model, surname, best movie, spouse’s name, street name, best drink. Another major problem associated with computerization is obsolescence. Technology, which is one of the external threats in the business environment, changes very rapidly. What was impossible yesterday has been made possible today. With technological changes, huge investments made by banks in the acquisition of contemporary computer devices are lost. This has a very high cost implication on the resources of these banks.
1.3 Objective Of The Study
The objective of this study is to carry out a thorough analysis of effect of computerization on the Nigerian banking Industry. The positive side of it will be fully look at, and the problems associated with it will be brought out in details. This study is also aimed at taking a holistic view of computerized banking operations in order to help identify clearly those beneficial aspects of computerization on the Nigerian banking industry. Advantages of computerization such as: Speed, efficiency, reliability and accuracy will be thoroughly analyzed. The proper management of the computerization process aimed at cushioning its traumatic effect like job losses will also be delved into.
The use of computers in the Nigerian banking Industry has been necessitated by the large volume of bookkeeping and their multifarious scale of operations. In studying the effect of computerization in the Nigerian banking industry, efforts will be made towards analyzing issues such as: a. Computer fraud b. Job-losses c. Obsolescence of computer systems. This research is also aimed at providing an in-depth analysis of computerized banking operations which will serve as a guide for any bank that intends to computerize its operations.
1.4 Research Questions
Data analyzed should be able to answer the following questions that will be used in appraising the effect of computerization in the Nigerian banking industry:
- Has computerization increased service delivery in the Nigerian banking industry?
- Does computerization escalate the incidence of fraud in the Nigerian banking industry?
- Can job-losses be the end-product of computerization in the Nigerian banking industry
- Can computerization bring about less fatigue in the Nigerian banking industry?
- Can computerization affect the internal control system in the banking industry?
- Can data be secure in the computer systems?
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