HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE NIGERIAN BANKING INDUSTRY (PROSPECTS AND PROBLEMS)

1.1 Introduction

Human Capital Development is essential for the growth and development of any nation. Human capital refers to investment in education and training. Recent surveys reveal that although business executives firmly believes that people are the most important asset that the organization can use to meet its goal, they are at a loss to prove that investment in people lead to improved business results. Human capital is perhaps the most dynamic of all the resources of any organization. Over the years, the Financial Sector had been plagued with scarcity of trained bankers and financial experts, which has led to employment of half fit experts who needs further training to make them suitable for the banking jobs. In spite of the resources that have been devoid to enhance economic growth by successive governments.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems tha.t led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

In recent years, human capital has been recognized as an agent of national development in all countries of the world (Isola & Alani, 2012). Human capital development in Nigeria has been an intractable problem because of the uncontrolled increase in population (Allege & Ogujiuba, 2005). This has led to the push in the cost of human resource development constantly upward thereby creating a wide gap in terms of cost of training which the government needs to fill. However, common metrics like Economic Value Added (EVA) and Return on Investment (ROI) shed little light on how organizations human assets are performing.

Among the 4M's namely: Money, Materials, Machines, and Man, what actually makes the organization thick is Man. The Nigerian Banking Industry is very vibrant and the most active in the economy. The sector is presently what makes the economy buoyant, active hence the human capital development needs to be adequate and consists of people’s skills. The right people should occupy the right places at the right time within the organization/industry. A peep into what constitutes the human capital requirement reveals that people with core competences are what most banks employ.

The number of workers employed by banks are usually small in nature but of high quality. For efficient human capital development to take place in the banking industry, the members must evolve the learning and development processes. What this means in essence is that the organization must find ways of developing and mobilizing the intelligence, knowledge and creative potential of human beings at every level of organization and become increasingly skilled in placing quality people in key places and developing their full potentials. It will also become increasingly important to recruit people who enjoy learning and relish change and to motivate employees to be intelligent, flexible and adaptive.

Therefore, in Fidelity Bank PLC where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Human Capital Development in the Nigerian Banking Industry.

1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that human capital development holds the key to success of any organization. For this to happen the Nigerian banking industry must be able to train and retrain their staff. To do this will amount to paying huge sums of money to conduct Seminars (in-house or outside). Remember that even when the fund for training is available, the employees must develop the right mental attitude for the training. The organization must also create the right environment for its employees. Human resources environment can either be internal or external in nature.

The internal environment consists of those sets of controllable factors or variables and forces within the confines of the organization e.g. The value of top management and the technology in use in the organization, for example, if the top management values people and sees them as critical Success Factor (CSF) and adequately rewards them when the need arises, the employees will be at their optimum and the banking industry will continue to grow.

Another to consider if the banking industry and its human resource capital development will grow is the technology in use. During this era of I.T. and globalization, banks should stand up to the challenge. For instance the use of ATM machine has shapen the future of human capital development in most banks who can afford it. Human Capital Development in the Nigerian Banking Industry is as important as the sector itself.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Human Capital Development in the Nigerian Banking Industry. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To ascertain the problems of human capital development in the banking sector in Nigeria.
2. To evaluate and measure how human capital development will contribute and to increased productivity in the Nigerian banking sector.
3. To evaluate the ability of the present human capital development to fit into the global market and face global competition.
4. To proffer solutions to the problems of human capital development in the banking industry (filling the existing gap).
5. To recognize the importance of human capital as panacea to success and continuous growth in the banking industry in Nigeria.

1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Will human capital development solve the problems of banking in Nigeria?
• Does time and money spent on human capital development correlate with output and returns from the employees?
• Is human capital development a panacea to performance by employees?
• Does human capital development reflect in the organization (banks) profitability?
• Is it right for the employees to be over used just in the name of making more profits?
• How does Human Capital Development assist government and monetary authorities?
• Which positive effect does it have on the shareholder, inventors and the general public?
• How best will organization prevent labour unrest turnover irrespective of development of it human resources?
• What measures should be taking by banks in terms of human capital development to usher in more profits?
• What prospects does human capital development have for the banking industry?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: Human capital development will not solve the problems of the Nigerian banking industry.
• H1: Human capital development will solve the problems of the Nigerian banking industry.

Hypothesis Two

• H0: Human capital development is not a panacea to efficiency in the Nigerian Banking industry.
• H1: Human capital development is a panacea to efficiency in the Nigerian Banking industry.

Hypothesis Three

• H0: Human capital development does not aid management in measuring performance.
• H1: Human capital development will aid management in measuring performance.

1.7 Significance of Study

The following is the significance of the research work which is stated as follows:

1. To the Banking sector, this research human capital development will contribute immensely and impressively to the growth of Nigerian banking industry.
2. It will play an important role and aid management to realize adequate returns on investment.
3. To the employees human capital development serves as veritable tools in equipping themselves in terms of skill for the present and future challenges.
4. With adequate investment in human capital development in the banking industry, the investors will be double sure of their investment being in safe hands because no matter how robust the other factors of production are without labour (human capital) will yield negative result.

This study will also, be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Human Capital Development in the Nigerian Banking Industry using Fidelity Bank PLC as a case study.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

1.10 Definition of Terms

Human Capital: Investment in education and training.