ACCOUNTING FOR THE EFFECTS OF OPERATIONAL RISK MANAGNMENT PRACTICE ON DIVIDEND POLICY PAYOUT OF A CORPORATE FIRM IN NIGERIA. EVIDENCE FROM BANKS

Nigerian deposit money banks function to actively participate in the financial stimulations of the economy. It accepts deposits from customers, manages it, serves as trustee and credits it to their account on demand. This study examined the effect of operational Risk Management on Dividend policy payout of banks in Nigeria. Its specific objective is: to determine the effect of Liquidity risk ratio on earnings per share selected banks in Nigeria between 2014 and 2025. The research design adopted was ex post facto. Secondary data for the variables were obtained from audited annual reports and accounts of ten (8) deposit money banks out of the thirty-five (35) deposit money banks quoted on the Nigeria Exchange Group for the respective years. Panel regression fixed effect model adopted for data analysis using Cross-section random Hausman Test, which is crucial for determining the appropriate panel data estimation technique. The Hausman Test is used to decide between fixed effects and random effects models by evaluating whether there is a significant difference between the two models' estimates. The result indicated that liquidity risk ratio has positive but not statistically significant effect with PV = 0.0918, Coefficient = 28.28475 on Earnings per share of deposit money banks in Nigeria. The implications are that variations in Liquidity Risk may affect shareholders earnings but the effect is not substantial enough to be considered significant at conventional levels. Based on the finding, It was concluded that operational risk management through liquidity risk management ensure that earning per share of shareholders are improved. On the bases of this, it was recommended among others that banks should carefully manage their lending practices, diversify their lending opportunities and match loan growth with risk management to maximize shareholders returns. Also, it was recommended that banks should still manage their lending practices carefully. Increasing the LAR alone may not substantially affect EPS