Abstract

This paper explores the use of BSC as technique for assessing performance in the Nigerian banking industry. The population of the study comprised 21 banks operating in Gombe State, Nigeria. A purposive sampling technique was adopted to arrive at the sample of eleven  banks. A survey technique was used to obtain data for the study. Fifty five copies of questionnaire were distributed to the executive staff of the sampled banks (5 each to every selected bank), out of which forty three copies were duly completed and returned. Descriptive statistics and Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA was used as techniques for data analysis. The study concludes that Nigerian banks relied heavily on financial performance measures followed by customer performance measures as technique for assessing their performance. The study recommended that Nigerian banks should enhance their performance measurement systems by balancing their performance measures within the four perspectives of BSC. This will check the skewness of the CAMEL’s rating approach (C = capital adequacy, A = asset quality, M = management quality, E = earning quality and L = liquidity), which uses financial measures to assess banks performance in Nigeria.

Key words: Balanced scorecard (BSC), bank, performance, performance measurement, Nigeria.