INTRODUCTION
Actually the banking industry has gone far into information technology management and others in the delivery of their customer’s services.
Through information technology is subsumed in the concept of information management. Hence, information technology is narrower than information management but also depends heavily on network of systems technology just like information management therefore; it is a tool for information management.
However, when we come to the issue of the effectiveness of information Technology in banking system “delivery”. It is at great effect, in the sense that information technology has powered the banking industry.
Service/system delivery are made easy, no more time wanting wasting for just a simple banking transaction, information technology is and will continue to be of positive effectiveness to both banker and their customers. Well, it have some short comings in both the area of the bankers, the customers and the Nigeria economy of large.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
When we talk about the background we are to dance down to the meaning of information technology and what is all about, since it is the center of thought.
However According to Akuwudike and Ugwu (2002), Information technology is the collection and gathering, recording, storage, processing and communication a macro – electronic based combination of computer and telecommunication technology. It is however, based on the convergence of data processing and communication techniques, the former providing the information while the latter provide the vehicle for disseminating or communicating it, hence a relatively new filled that combines the technology of the computer with that of telecommunications and therefore represent the latest form of man-machine interface.
Moreover, it has played a vital role in the newer field of experts systems and artificial intelligence.
Also information technology can be said to be a relatively new field that combines the technology of the computer with that of communication concerned with the gathering, recording, storage, processing, and dissemination of information and represents the largest form of man – machine interface such as internet services: (Armstrong 1993).
BRIEF HISTORY OF BANKING IN NIGERIA.
The Bank of British West African started the business of modern banking in Nigeria in 1892, which was to be the Standard Bank of Nigeria Limited now, First Bank of Nigeria Plc. On other hand, it is to say that the present First Bank of Nigeria Plc, succeeded that Standard Bank of Nigeria limited, which was one of the four big banks in Nigeria that survival the insolvency quake that struck almost all the banks in Nigeria in the mid. There was no legislation and there was neither a Central Bank nor a Ministry of Finance unit 1958.
Before 1952, there were all kinds of speculative investors who started mushroom banks in the Niger. These so-called banks usually operated for a while, and after collecting deposits from their customers, they disappeared with the funds. This resulted in a large section of the banking community being swindled or duped. Other reputable banks operated side by side with the mushroom banks, and notable among such reputable banks were the Bank of West African, and the Barclays Bank, presently known as Union Bank Plc, which acquired the colonial Bank and opened a branch in Lagos. The National Bank of Nigeria Limited was established in 1933, while the African continental Bank Limited (A.C.B) came into existence in 1947. The United Bank for African Plc was formerly established, at first as the British and French Bank in 1947, soon after the 2nd world war and assumed it’s present name in 1961 (Enyinnaya 1992).
The Bank of the North was established in 1961. Most of the banks operating in Nigeria of that early time were incorporated abroad and only came to do business in Nigeria. This was the position until the passing of the companies Act in 1968, which made it compulsory for all foreign companies in Nigeria to register under the act. All the other commercial and co-operative banks were established in the late sixties or early seventies and were wholly owned by Nigerian institutions and individuals. Their activities centered on commercial banking relating to the financing of exports and imports. Not much was done in the area of industrial financing (Afolobi 1991).
Merchant Bankers did not assume any recognizable shape until 1961, when an outpost of Hill and Co. a United Kingdom merchant banks were opened in Nigeria under the name of Philip Hill Limited. John Hort Limited also operated a kind of finance from in Nigeria about 1961 under the name of Nigeria Acceptances. The two companies (Philip Hill Limited and Nigeria Acceptance) later merged and adopted the name of Nigeria Acceptances in 1969. (Doyle 1992).
In August 1973, United Dominions Corporation (Nig.) Limited, a subsidiary of United Dominions Trustees limited, a hire purchase company, received approval to use hire purchase business into that of Merchant Banking, in a bid to overtune the contravention of the hire purchase regulation of 1968. Later, the first National City Bank of New York (Nig.) Limited, first National Bank limited, were established in Nigeria. Sometime in 1975, the Nigerian industrial Development Bank Limited in partnership with Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York Baring Brothers of London and National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria – transformed ICON securities limited (Merchant Bank). Following the enactment of the Nigeria Enterprises Promotion Act 1977 the City Bank of New York went into for sometime five Merchant Banks in Nigeria until recently when new ones were licensed.
Among the specialized banks established in Nigeria are the Nigeria Industrial Development Bank (1964), Nigerian Bank for Commercial and Industry (1973), Nigeria Agricultural and Cooperative Bank (1972); Federal Mortgage Bank (1977); Federal Savings Bank (1974) – this succeeded the Post Office Savings Bank, which was established under the Savings Bank ordinance of 1936 (Dandy 1991).
The former Cooperative Bank of Eastern Nigeria Limited, which later become Co-operative and Commerce Bank Nigeria Limited, was incorporated and the initiative of the cooperative societies in the then Eastern Nigeria in 1962 Kaduna.
Co-operative Bank Limited was incorporated in 1973 and licensed as a commercial bank in 1974. Kano co-operative bank limited, which main objects were to assist co-operative societies, and undertake other commercial banking activities, was incorporated in 1976.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, which is the regulating body of the banking sector in Nigeria, issues guidelines for banking operations and sets deposit limits for the establishment of banks.
Apart from the survivors of the insolvably and liquidation epidemic that interested a good number of banks in Nigeria between 1994 and 1999, notably the First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Union Bank Plc, Afri bank Plc and UBA Plc (known as the big four), very many ‘new generation’ banks that satisfied the stipulated conditions by the Central Bank of Nigeria, were licensed between 1995 and now, to carry on banking operations. What is more, to facilitate inter banking transactions, most of the new generation banks establish their branches in all the state capitals. Furthermore, the Federal Government of Nigeria created a board in the early nineties to oversee the establishment of Grant Soft Loans to peasant formers and arties.