The paper investigates the relationships between institutional enactments and the challenges of Nigerian commercial banks survival (1980-2006) towards policy option for realizing vision 2020. The divergence between
government expectations and banks’ reality coupled with macroeconomics, and competitors’ activities could create failures in the sector. Using statistical data,
the authors elucidate the impact of re-engineered interventions on banks’ survival over the period. The empirical results, among others, indicate that the high level unemployment rate in Nigeria poses a threat to banks’ survival. The statistical output also shows that government interventions could lead to a counterproductive effect on commercial banks’ strength, if not properly guided. Thus, for commercial banks to be well positioned as the nation approaches the year 2020, efforts to reduce the level of unemployment and ensure that government policies
in the sub-sector are consistent and well articulated, would be rewarding
