Taofeek Sola Afolabi

In a global pandemic, there is a need for banks to improve service delivery through financial technologies. Since the fight against COVID-19 is the community responsibility, the role of banks in channeling cash to all stakeholders is essential for the contemporary human race. This study investigated the impact of the government response to COVID-19 on the resilience of banks. A multivariate Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to specify the links between the exogenous factors (government’s social and financial responses) and the endogenous variables (resilience of bank customers, employees and investors). A research survey approach was used where 543 respondents were sampled. A self-constructed online questionnaire was used to harvest responses from customers, employees and investors of the selected banks. The result of the analysis showed a significant relationship between government’s social response and the resilience of bank customers. However, such a relationship does not hold between government’s social responses and other resilience indicators (employees and investors). Furthermore, the result revealed that government’s financial responses do not affect the resilience of banks. The study concluded that the government’s social response during the COVID-19 pandemic influenced bank customers’ resilience in Nigeria. It was recommended that banks, as part of the policy, develop tools to complement government actions during the pandemic, thereby ameliorating its impact on their customers.

Acknowledgment
The authors will like to acknowledge all respondents who took part in the survey.

The study examines the influence of market orientation on the performance of mobile operators in the telecommunication industry and the moderating effect of strategic marketing on the relationship. Based on a cross-sectional survey of 286 management staff of the four largest mobile operators in Nigeria (MTN, Glo, 9Mobile, Airtel), an empirical evidence was established. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The SEM outlined the connection between the dimensions of market orientation and organizational performance. The findings revealed that inter-functional coordination (β = 0.485, t = 2.542, p = 0.013 < 0.05) and customer orientation (β = 0.245, t = 2.043, p = 0.038 < 0.05) significantly influence organizational performance, while competitor orientation (β = 0.159, t = 1.870, p = 0.065 < 0.05) has no discernible effect. It was also found that strategic marketing has a major impact on organizational performance (β = 0.466, t = 4.175, p = 0.000 < 0.05), but it has no moderating influence on the relationship between market orientation and organizational performance (β = 0.032, t = 0.445, p = 0.665 > 0.05). This implies that strategic marketing has a direct effect on organizational performance and not a moderating effect. Therefore, the study recommends that market orientation especially customer orientation and inter-functional coordination, as well as strategic marketing, should become a culture in the telecommunication industry.