The language of business is money, and money is the business of financial institutions - key participants of the financial system. The most developed segment of the Nigerian financial systeem is the banking industry. Thus, it is quite noticeable that despite the depressed economy, there has been a continuous increase in the number of banks day in day out. For many years, most especially since the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) came into being, the fad-banks did more than keeping peoples money safe. The banks turned into traders, dealers in foreign exchange and in the process rocking millions of naira as profit. Despite SAP, the banking industry become a goldmine. Everything they dabbled turned into money. The speed and manner with which same become apparently profitable raised brawls and for the fact that the deeper you dig, the more you find. One is therefore tempted to investigte the role of merchant banks in the development of the Nigerian economy, since they are one of the vital instruments for transforming the economy into a viable, productive and profitable one. The sudden upsurge in merchant banks should not come as a surprise with the structure of Nigerian economy changing so rapidly, and with the pace of industrialization gathering breath and taking momentum there is the inevitable need for wholesale banking; venture capital tax financing, equipment leasing, and for medium and long term financing activities that are outside the traditional domain of commercial banks.