In the ordinary course of lending, Banks increase bad debt, which are charged against the income generated. Indeed many banks are at the verge of collapse, because of the impact and effects of bad debt and its ineffective management.

The nature of project writing in ordinary National Diploma level demands that the source of collecting data should be secondary, hence the researcher did not use interviews and questionnaires, but the research conducted was only limited to already published materials.

The researcher discovered that problem loans do not just occur, they are caused by variety of factors, and some are controllable while others are not.

Generally, bad debt has a negative impact in the operations of banks. It is anathema to sound banking system, therefore financial analysis must work hard to control and manage it effectively.

The researcher recommended some possible solution and suggestion on the commercial bank lending techniques and also means of controlling bad debt.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

TITLE PAGE i

APPROVAL PAGE ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT iv

ABSTRACT v

TABLE OF CONTENT vi-vii

CHAPTER ONE

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 1-2

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY 2

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 3

1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS 4-5

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 6

2.1 PRINCIPLES OF GOOD LENDING 6-19

2.2 BANK AND THE ECONOMY 20-21

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 SOURCES OF DATA 22

3.2 LOCATION OF DATA 22-23

3.3 METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION 23

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 FINDINGS 24

4.1 BANK RELATED FACTORS 24-25

4.2 CUSTOMER RELATED FACTORS 25-26

4.3 UNCONTROLLABLE FACTORS 26-27

4.4 WARNING SIGNALS 27-28

4.5 EFFECTS OF BAD DEBT 28-29

4.6 LOAN RECOVERY MEASURES 29-30

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS 31-33

5.1 CONCLUSION 33-35

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

This project work on commercial banks lending practices and incidence of Bad debt in Nigeria is a study carried out by the researcher, so as to evaluate and analyze the lending principles, problems and effects of Bade Debt in the operation of banks and also to the general Economy.

A bank economic purpose is to act as a financial intermediary. It facilitates the process of challenge savings into investment and one of the avenues of realizing this objective is by lending effectively.

Loans are classified as bad debts when they cannot be repaid. But if management concentrates solely on minimizing these losses, a bank will make virtually no loan, profits will shrink and the lenders cannot completely eliminate risks, so the more loans are granted, the more losses are expected.

Therefore, one of the objectives of commercial banks is to manage losses well, since Bankers unavoidable and hence, charge it against the income generated with the obvious aftermath of depleting profit and in some severe cases, liquidates the affected banks through all business regrettably in cure bad debts but bankers whose stock in trade is money views debt incidences with dread.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

This research work is concerned with commercial bank lending practices and incidence of bad debt in Nigeria. The problems include:

(1) Bad debt results from inefficient management and also from dishonesty of customer, which might even leads to distress.

(2) This unfortunate trend in the Nigeria banking industry has caused creditors of the affected banks to loose their money and also made shareholders to loose their dividends.

(3) Bad debt leaves a negative impact on banks, since it depletes their income and makes lesser funds available for further lending which subsequently disrupts investment.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objective of this study is to assist banks confirm the multifarious causes of bad debt in their operations and to help them curtail its incidences by embarking on lending techniques and knows his customers, his project proposals, his account operation and others, his general position will be detected before granting loans to him. The researcher has objective of finding answers to the under listed questions:

(i) What is bad debt?

(ii) What are the lending principles and techniques?

(iii) What type of collaterals are acceptable to banks?

(iv) What are the causes of bad debt?

(v) What are the effect of bad debt on a commercial bank?

(vi) What are the possible solution to controlling it?

(vii) Can bad debt be totally eliminated?

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Some parts of the profits generated by banks has been sink into the yawning gap of bad and doubtful debts. This derelicting its duty to the shareholders and generally creating an unfavorable impressions on the investing public.

As a result, an investigation has been undertaken by the researcher on the lending issues of commercial banks and it is hoped that this project work will in no small measure, reduce bad debt incidences by a wide margin.

It will also help the banker to embark on the best lending portfolios, know the techniques of granting and collecting loans, the type of collaterals to collect, know how to control or manage bad debts and many others.

1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The research of this study was not all that easy.

There were some setbacks encountered in the course of carrying out this project work. It include:

(1) One of the problems which militate against the effective execution of this study was inadequacy of material since it is secondary data that is required.

(2) The staff of the bank from where reports are to be collected were not co-operative, so inadequate information and details could not be obtained.

(3) Insufficient funds to carry out more in depth research, transport to more libraries or get more information from the Net.