Purchasing and Supply Management Practices in Corporate Nigeria: An investigation into the Financial Services Industry

In view of the rising demand for effective control over spends on goods, services, contracts, and acquisition processes, originations need to adopt strategic purchasing practices. This paper explores purchasing and supply management practices in the Nigerian financial services industry. The study is based on a literature review and a questionnaire survey among senior management employees from various financial services firms in Nigeria. The respondents were randomly sampled from insurance, banks, investment firms, mortgage firms and pension management companies in Nigeria. The findings show that practices relating to marketing, financial and customer management are given higher priority than purchasing and supply management activities. The research reveals that purchasing and supply activities in the Nigerian financial services industry are not strategic but mostly transactional. While there are well-known purchasing departments in the firms industry, purchasing related tasks are currently handled but non-procurement professionals. Furthermore, the level of supplier development practices in the financial service industry is developing but not advanced. The findings will support a better understanding of purchasing and supply management practices from the financial services perspectives. This paper provides reliable baseline data for future research into the strategic role of purchasing and supply management in corporate organisations in developing countries.