Nigeria, a former colony of Britain gained its independence on October l, 1960. Since the country's independence, it has experienced a prolonged military rule punctuated by short democratic regimes, but since 1999 it has managed to sustain a stable democratically elected government. Nigeria is a nation blessed with vast oil and other resources but the World Bank estimates that almost 70% of the Nigerian people live below the poverty level. A great potential for growth exits in this country of about 140 million people but there seems to be a missing wire needed to spark the fires of economic development. The Nigerian economic environment has not been very conducive to foreign direct investment due to problems with corruption and other obstacles to foreign investment. It is imperative that the financial sector be developed in Nigeria to provide a catalyst for a sustainable economic development in the country. While the banking sector should not be the only focus of a country's financial system, the banking sector has always been dominant in the Nigerian financial scene and evidence suggest that this will remain so at least until a capable capital-market can be developed to support it. This thesis seeks to analyze the critical role of banking in the economic development of Nigeria.

Corporate social responsibility is presently defined by the World Business Council of Sustainable Development as persistent commitment by businesses to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while also increasing the quality of life of employees, their families, and the community. Guided by Freeman's stakeholder theory, this study examined the relationship between corporate social responsibility and the Nigerian bankers' reported satisfaction with the Nigerian banking sector. Survey data were collected from a convenience sample of 99 Nigerian bankers, including branch managers, zonal managers, tellers, marketers, and investors. A single-stage sampling procedure was used to elicit their satisfaction with the Nigerian banking sector and their perceptions of corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility was conceptualized as a composite variable, with dependent sub-variables of ethics, human rights, and employee rights. A Pearson's r correlation test indicated a significant relationship between corporate social responsibility and Nigerian banker satisfaction (p < .05). These findings suggest that a majority of Nigerian bankers are satisfied with the banking sector which they feel, overall, behaves in a socially responsible way, although they also noted concerns related to insider abuse and a lack of transparency among internal processes. Implications for positive social change include informing policy makers and regulatory agencies in Nigeria about changes to public policy and the regulatory banking environment about risks associated with insider abuse and other internal processes in the banking industry that may damage efforts to improve corporate social responsibility with the goal of enhancing economic development in Nigeria.

Work design and content is changing. Accompanying this change has been an increasing demand by workers for policy makers to factor the issue of managing workers’ work and life. Work–life balance as a concept has attracted attention for several years as a result of individuals attempting to juggle multiple demands from both work and outside the workplace. The number of multiple demands on individuals usually vary from one person to the other and can increase or decrease at different stages of the person’s life. Essentially, this study reviewed work–life balance literature as espoused from the UK and US schools of thought. The purpose of this research is to explore the extent to which work–life balance policies and practices are a reality for employees and managers in the Nigerian banking sector; to investigate the adoption and use of policies/practices in Nigerian banks and finally to examine the barriers to and reasons for their muted adoption and utilisation of work–life balance policies and practices in Nigerian banks. This research is exploratory in nature and it adopted a mixed-method research technique which allowed for in-depth information from the respondents. The methodological approach used in this study is a qualitative dominant mixed method. A mixed-method approach was used in this study following the traditions of McCarthy, Darcy and Grady (2010); Kalliath and Brough (2008); Halford, (2006) and Beauregard and Henry (2009) to ensure the validity and reliability of the study and also to offer different insights in order to make the final result of the research more robust. A questionnaire and semi structured interview technique was utilised. The study was based on 20 of the 24 banks in the Nigerian banking sector. The total sample size was three hundred and sixty nine (369), of which two hundred and fifteen (215) questionnaires were completed and one hundred and thirty four (134) semi-structured interviews conducted for the bankers while (20) semi structured interviews were conducted for the trade union officials. In order to ensure that the cross-section of relevant respondents was as representative as possible, interviewees were divided into three categories: employees, managers and trade union officials. SPSS was used to analysis the quantitative data, while qualitative data was analysed using NVivo software through the coding of the large quantity of data collected. The themes that emerged from the analysis were used to discuss the research issues in the light of prior research findings from various empirical researches. The quantitative contribution of the study revealed that age was not significant to the bankers as regards issues relating to work life balance. The qualitative findings on the other hand revealed that there is diversity in terms of how both managerial and non-managerial employees understood and experienced WLB initiatives in the Nigerian banking sector. In addition, the study showed that cultural sensitivity affects how WLB is appreciated and utilised. The research also contributes to the spill-over theory by adding age, gender, implementation and benefits of work–life balance. This research has contributed to the body of knowledge on work–life balance issues in the Nigerian banking industry. This study also contributes to the existing literature on connotations of work–life balance by utilising a mixed method approach to explore and explain the different notions of work–life balance and usage of work–life balance initiatives.

The increasing level of fraud, the collapse of banks, and the loss of confidence in the Nigerian banking industry have been attributed to poor corporate governance. The problem of this study was effective implementation of corporate governance in Nigeria where multiple regulations are in place. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to understand how corporate governance is implemented in the Nigerian banking industry in the face of a multiplicity of regulations. The research question investigated how Nigerian bank managers implement corporate governance regulations in the face of a multiplicity of regulations. The conceptual framework was grounded in stewardship theory. Data collection included document analysis and face-to-face semistructured interviews to gain an understanding of how to implement corporate governance based on the perception of 15 purposefully selected senior managers and directors of the host bank. Data were analyzed using Yin's 5-Stage data analysis approach. Findings revealed that the involvement of senior bank managers and the adoption of global best practices, training, education, and awareness creation are the prerequisites for effective implementation of corporate governance. Findings may be used to reduce corporate failure, improve compliance, and restore confidence in the banking industry through enhancing the understanding of practitioners, investors, and policymakers on how to implement corporate governance in a highly regulated banking environment and contribute to positive social change.