With the unprecedented display of interest in the banking business in the wake of structural adjustment programme, the fear of imminent bank failures as a result of anticipated down turn in the fortunes of banks has remained lightened.
This down turn in fortunes of mainly attribute able to one factor that has always assured greatest currency in discussions of problems of banking in Nigeria, that is loan losses.
While the loan loss issue remains unassailable, the argument in most circles is that the loss profile is higher in the government owned or controlled commercial banks than in the privately owned banks.
It is against the background of these lightened developments that this study attempts in examination of the post SAP loss phenomenon and particularly make a comparative study of the private and government controlled commercial banks.
The study which used representative banks is therefore an appropriate attempts to draw some important conclusions backed up with empirical analysis. The study mainly helied on historical approach and was partially descriptive in pinpointing the present problems or issues in lending and loan management. Data was generated from the historical recors as well as the questionnair and analyzed using the statistical tool of t-distribution, chi-square and correlation analysis.
Interesting findings were made from the analysis. On a general note, the problems of diversion, excessive emphasis on security. Greater influence of internal organizational considerations (e.g) Loand policy), Lack of continuity of terme, undue pressures, lack of automated loand information system are inherent. Comparatively, it was found out that the role of loan recovery is not higher in the private banks, the rate of provision for loan losses is higher in the government. Controlled banks; the private banks do not emphasis more on security than their government controlled counterparts, the loan to total assets ratio of government controlled banks is not significantly different from the average of the commercial banking sector.