Credit risk management and financial performance among deposit money banks in Nigeria: A case study of Zenith Bank Plc

Risk is an intrinsic attribute that is existent in virtually all fields of human endeavour. The financial environment has turned out to be extremely precarious, unstable and unpre-dictable by dint of defective risk management practice. In giving out credit, Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) take the risk of the loan or advances (LAD) being fully or partially lost, or of the interest-income accrued not eventually materialis-ing. The review of empirical literature revealed a plethora of approaches to measuring the credit risks facing financial institutions. They showed that the management of risks has a positive impact on profitability. Concentrating on deposit money banks in Nigeria and using Zenith Bank Plc as a case study, the objective of this study is to show in simple terms that risks can be represented by the LAD and the loan loss provision (LLP) made by DMBs, just as performance can be measured by the return on equity (ROE), while total assets (TAS) are included as the control variable. Using data ex-tracted from the financial statements from 2002 to 2017 (16 years), it was established, by means of descriptive statistics and regression analysis, that loan loss provision does not exert a significant impact on profitability.