The Place of Ethics and Professionalism in Engendering Sustainable Development in the Nigerian Banking Industry

The terrain in which the banking sector operates makes it more uniquely different from the other sectors of the Nigerian economy. As the lubricant of the whole economy, this sector provides the necessary oiling of the entire Nigerian Financial System, thereby ensuring suitable bedrock for a sustainable economic development in Nigeria. To achieve this purpose, issues of Ethics and Professionalism play crucial role, in that lack of them, portend imminent danger for the entire financial system because stakeholders’ confidence would have been greatly compromised, and as a result, the nobility of the profession of banking be constantly threatened by the unethical and unprofessional conduct of erring practitioners. Bankers were seen in the past as “Kings and Queens†, much respected and highly valued for accountability and integrity, lack of which usually result into fraud, forgeries , outright theft/defalcation and general unwholesome practices in this most important sector of Nigeria’s economy. The focus of this paper therefore is to evaluate the place of ethics and professionalism in engendering sustainable development in the Nigerian Banking Industry. The methodology adopted was the survey research design and the data collected was analysed using the chi-square(X2) method of statistical analysis to test and validate stated hypotheses. The result of the findings shows that there is a significant relationship between ethics, professionalism and performance in the Banking Industry and that series of financial crises experienced by banks are a direct consequence of unethical and unprofessional banking practices. It was also revealed that ethics and professionalism are important ingredients needed for the successful operation of Nigerian banks and the requisite banking development.