DIVERGENCE IN COMMERCIAL BANK LENDING DIMENSIONS: EMPIRICAL STUDY ON ETHIOPIA

Quite a number of studies in the past in various countries accentuated the significance of demographic variables in lending decisions of bank-officials. Do the dimensions of commercial bank lending diverge by gender, age-group, banking experience, sector of the bank, and designation held by bank-officials in Ethiopia? This is the key issue that is tried to be answered by empirical testing in this study. For the purpose of this descriptive study of cross-sectional design, data were collected by means of a pilot-tested questionnaire from bank-officials across the country between February and July 2015. The study presented a conceptual framework of various dimensions of commercial bank lending. Tested hypotheses revealed that there is a significant association: (i) between gender and every dimension of commercial bank lending; and (ii) between sector of the bank and certain dimensions. ANOVA results discovered that there is statistically significant differencebetween age-group, banking experience, designation and various dimensions of commercial bank lending. Duncan Multiple Range Test recognized significant difference across of groups of bankofficials with respect to age-group, banking experience, and designation. The dimension ‘overall loan determinants' is influenced by all the demographic and institutional profile variables that have been tested in this study