Financial Statement Management, Liability Reduction and Asset Accumulation: An Application of Goal Programming Model to a Nigerian Bank

This paper examines the management of the financial statement of UBA using goal programming (GP) technique. The data are collected from the annual financial statement of the bank to cover a period of 2007 to 2011. Six goals are identified in the bank: goal (1) (asset accumulation); goal 2 (liability reduction); goal 3 (shareholders¡¯ wealth); goal 4 (earning); goal 5 (profitability); and goal 6 (optimum management of the items in the financial statement). Applying POM-QM Version 3 software, the solution generated reveals that besides goal 2, all other goals are attainable by the bank. It is not therefore possible for the bank to reduce its liabilities, for the sake of reducing or increasing the other items of its financial statement. Based on this, it is concluded that the bank should convert its liabilities to earning assets quickly or as much as possible.