CERTIFICATION

This is to certify that this project was written by Mr Oyeleye Tofunmi Jones
(Matriculation Number 14S01/025) in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the Award
of Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) Degree in Accounting at the Department of Accounting
and Finance, Faculty of Management Sciences, Ajayi Crowther University Oyo, Oyo
State, Nigeria.

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MR. A. Babalola Date

(Project Supervisor)

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Prof. A.A. Owojori Date

(Head of Department)

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External Examiner Date

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 DEDICATION

I dedicate this project to God Almighty for his love, care, affection and mercy over me,
and for seeing me through the course of my study, for giving me wisdom and
understanding to write this project and also to my parents Mr and Mrs Oyeleye for their
moral and financial support.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to acknowledge my profound gratitude to God Almighty for his guidance,

grace and strength for not only leading me through in this project, also for successfully
completing my study.

I am deeply indebted to many people for their immense contributions in diverse

ways towards the successful completion of this research work. First and foremost my
appreciation goes to my irreplaceable parent Mr. & Mrs. Oyeleye, for their relentless
effort towards ensuring the best education for me and also for their moral, financial,
spiritual, physical and psychological support in my life. May you live to eat the fruit of
your labour.

I equally acknowledge the effort of my indefatigable supervisor Mr. A. Babalola

for his constructive suggestions, understanding, motivations and useful comments.
Sincere to say that without his dedication, this project work would not have become a
reality.

My appreciation also goes to the Head of Department Prof. A.A. Owojori and the
entire staff of the Accounting and Finance Department who imbed so enormous in me
academically and morally may God bless you all.

Special thanks to my siblings Victor, Favour, Shadrach and Ayodeji for their
support may God bless you all.

I am also grateful to my wonderful friends Shola, Ife, Chizitere, King David, Dami
Atere, Adeola. I love you all.

Finally, to a great extent, I owe some unquantifiable intellectual debt to several

authors whose articles in journals and books have been useful in the project.

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 ABSTRACT

The need for corporate social responsibility and investing in corporate social
responsibility activities have grown in recent years. Increasingly, firms are adopting
corporate social responsibility initiatives as part of their business strategies to obtain the
competitive advantages that such initiatives generate. The main reason for this relates to
pressure from stakeholders who have examined reports that suggested that socially
responsible firms achieve a higher financial performance than firms that are not socially
responsible. The objectives of this study were to investigate whether Corporate Social
Responsibility can be an essential growth element and financial performance boosting
tool for firms and also to examine the extent to which banks can attain sound financial
management by engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility practices. Furthermore, the
study also intended to determine whether banks have responsibilities to shareholders,
employees and customers in attaining sound Corporate Social Responsibility practices as
well as assessing whether investments in Corporate Social Responsibility activities would
amount to mere expenditure or will ultimately bring about bigger financial fortunes to
the banks. Primary source of data was adopted and survey research method through the
use of questionnaire was employed. Up to 200 respondents were sampled and the study
made use of random sampling, stratified sampling and purposive sampling techniques.
Four hypotheses were formulated and tested using Chi square statistics, Analysis of
Variance (ANOVA), and Regression Analysis. The study revealed that Corporate Social
Responsibility is an essential growth element and financial performance boosting tool for
firms. In addition, the study also found that investments in Corporate Social
Responsibility activities will ultimately bring about bigger financial fortunes to the
banks. The recommendations proffered by this study inter alia are that firms should
adopt skill development initiatives for both the internal and external parties and they
should increase community participation in CSR activities by promoting a CSR friendly
social dialogue.

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 TABLES OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Certification i
Dedication ii
Acknowledgement iii
Abstract iv
Table of Contents v-vi

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 2
1.3 Objectives of the Study 4
1.4 Research Question 4
1.5 Research Hypotheses 5
1.6 Significance of the Study 5
1.7 Scope of the Study 5
1.8 Limitation of the Study 6
1.9 Definition of Terms 6
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL
FRAMEWORK
2.1 Conceptual Framework 8
2.2 Literature Review 11
2.3 Theoretical Framework 19
2.4 Nigerian Banking Sector 27
2.5 Sample of selected banks in Nigeria 32
2.6 Corporate Social Responsibility in Nigeria 45
2.7 Profitability Ratios 48

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction 51
3.2 Source of Data 51
3.3 Research Design 51
3.4 Study population and characteristics 51
3.5 Sample size and procedure 52
3.6 Administration of the Instrument 52
3.7 Validity and reliability of the Instrument 52

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3.8 Method of data presentation and analysis 53
3.9 Re-statement of research questions and hypotheses 53

CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

4.1 Demographic Data 54
4.2 Analysis of Data 59
4.3 Testing of Hypotheses 69

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Summary 73
5.2 Conclusion 74
5.3 Recommendations 74

REFERENCES 76
APPENDICES 84

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