This article examines the relationship between strategic risk management practices and the profitability of Nigerian deposit money banks. The study is derived from a time-series research design and focuses on four risk-management indicators—non-performing loan ratio (NPLR), liquidity ratio (LIQR), cost-to-income ratio (CIR), and capital adequacy ratio (CAR)—and two measures of profitability, return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). The source study covers Nigerian deposit money banks over the period 1981–2017 and relies on secondary information drawn from annual reports and accounts and banking-sector financial information. The analytical strategy proposed in the source document combines descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, unit-root testing, cointegration analysis, error-correction modelling, Granger causality and multiple regression. The conceptual and a-priori position of the study is that higher non-performing loans, liquidity holdings and cost-to-income ratios are expected to be associated with weaker profitability, while stronger capital adequacy is expected to support profitability. The literature reviewed in the study generally supports the importance of prudent credit, liquidity and capital management, although prior empirical findings are mixed across countries and specifications. The manuscript consolidates and reframes the original research into a journal-oriented structure, sharpening the research gap, theoretical logic, variable operationalisation and implications for banking policy and management. Importantly, the supplied source document does not contain the numerical Chapter Four regression, unit-root, cointegration or causality output. Accordingly, this article does not invent coefficients, test statistics or p-values; instead, it reports the relationships explicitly supported by the source and identifies the missing statistical output as a transparency limitation that should be resolved before journal submission.

Keywords: risk management; credit risk; liquidity risk; capital adequacy; bank profitability; Nigerian deposit money banks; ROA; ROE.