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Abstract

This study analyzes the effects of COVID-19 on the managerial efficiency of commercial banks in Nigeria by analyzing secondary data relating to five (5) sampled commercial banks, the stocks of which are currently traded on the country's equity market. The five banks were purposely selected, and the secondary data obtained were analyzed using descriptive and diagnostic tests, along with the structural equation model and regression technique. The results of this analysis indicate that the outbreak of COVID-19 significantly influenced the managerial efficiency of the five banks studied here. Given this result, we recommend that banks should continually develop and improve on the level of e-channel penetration by customers, as this will largely keep banking transactions from being disrupted by shocks -whether external or internal. Also, the country's apex bank and other regulatory bodies should ensure that the peculiarities of Nigeria's economy and markets are clearly understood, so that the design and implementation of policies and strategies meant to cushion the effects of perceived external threats (such as a pandemic) on banks and the economy as a whole will be purposeful and effective.Contribution/Originality: This study contributes the first empirical analysis in the Nigerian context that uses weekly stock price data, reported COVID-19 cases and the lockdown policy to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the managerial efficiency of banks. INTRODUCTIONThe banking industry in Nigeria has gone through various developmental reforms that culminated in the banking consolidation led by Soludo in 2004. Since then, the banks that survived the consolidation have continued to grow and deliver strong returns to their respective stakeholders. Various studies, including Barros and Caporale (2012), Enyi (2007), Jeroh and Okoye (2015, and Okoye, Adetiloye, Erin, and Evbuomwan (2017) have analyzed the growth banks have undergone in the post-consolidation era. However, with the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan (Hubei Province), China in December 2019 (Bahrini & Filfilan, 2020;Kotishwar, 2020) and its global spread, economies and businesses around the world have felt the impact in different ways. While some telecom and related firms, like Zoom, MTN and Google, among others, are reported to have seen sustained growth and positive performance, the same can generally not be said of banks and stock markets, as they grappled with the new