CREDIT MANAGEMENT AND PROFITABILITY OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN NIGERIA

The study examined the impact of credit management on the profitability of commercial banks in Nigeria. The study covered the period from 2010 to 2023. The study adopted export facto research design. The Panel data was sourced from the annual financial report of the selected banks. In analyzing the panel data collected, panel data regression analysis was employed, conducting the Hausman test to ascertain the appropriate model. Furthermore, a model with five variables was used. With emphasis on the fixed effect models finding from the study revealed that non-performing loans ratio has negative and significant effect on earnings per share commercial banks in Nigeria, loan loss provision has negative and insignificant effect on earnings per share of commercial banks in Nigeria while loans and advances, and capital adequacy ratio have positive and significant effect on earnings per share of commercial banks in Nigeria. It was recommended that Central Bank of Nigeria should monitor commercial banks closely to ensure that commercial banks comply with the corporate governance codes when it comes to issuing of loan to customers and Commercial banks should regularly review their credit policies from time to time to reduce the incidence of non-performing loans experienced in the banking sector.