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At the National Economic Summit that ended last week, I was fortunate to add to my literary collection a copy of the Special Edition of a publication, which featured "100 Largest Companies in Nigeria" for the year 2007. I would say fortunate because the information contained in this document, was both informative and educative, but more importantly, a confirmation of my earlier fear of an impending economic danger for Nigeria.  The key revelation of this publication is that the top ten companies in Nigeria whether by Assets, Revenue, Profit, Shareholders Fund, Number of Employees or Market Value are all banks. Ordinarily one would not have grumbled because "finance" as former British Prime Minister William Gladstone, would say "is as it were, the stomach of the country, from which all other organs take their tone". This is given that in the financial sector, funds flow from those who have surplus to those who have a shortage, either by direct, market based financing or by indirect bank-based finance. It has also been argued that a modern and efficient financial sector (which in this case includes everything from banks, stock exchanges, insurers, credit unions, micro-finance institutions to money lenders) is a powerful contributor to economic growth and development. It is also well known that England's financial system played a key role in facilitating the Industrial Revolution particularly by identifying and funding profitable businesses at the time. 
A Study by the British Department for International Development (DFID), on the 'Importance of the Financial Sector Development for Growth and Poverty Reduction', has in deed shown that the financial sector has a strong role to play in economic development by mobilizing savings for productive investment and facilitating capital inflows and remittances from abroad (thus stimulating investment in both physical and human capital and increasing productivity). Furthermore, it helps to reduce transaction costs, facilitating inward investments and making capital available for investment in better technologies (thus promoting technological progress, increasing productivity and improving resource use); and, by enabling the poor to draw down accumulated savings and / or borrow to invest in income enhancing assets (including human assets e.g. through health and education) and microenterprises thus generating employment, increased income and reducing poverty. What all of these mean is that a well-regulated and integrated financial system is sine-qua-non to economic growth and development given that without access to multiple investors, many production processes would be constrained to economically inefficient scales. 
On the other hand, there is everything wrong as is the case with Nigeria, especially following the years of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) to allow the financial sector to primarily drive economic development in an economy. Foremost economist Joseph Schumpeter equally suggests that well-functioning banks for instance spur technological innovation by identifying and funding those entrepreneurs with the best chances of successfully implementing innovative products and production processes. In other words, economic growth precedes financial success and in fact creates demand for financial instruments and not the other way round. Hence, the common saying that where enterprise leads finance follows. 
Even the ongoing global financial crisis has manifested the inadequacies of strictly allowing the financial sector to drive the growth process, while at the same time justifying the usefulness of developing the productive sectors of every economy. For instance, America is worst hit because, for the past fifteen years or more its economy had depended almost entirely on the financial sector, while production was almost totally outsourced to Asia (India, China etc). Little wonder that majority of the Asian economies remain relatively strong amidst the crisis, while life is becoming difficult in America.
A similar situation may likely play out in Nigeria unless government immediately adopts some remedial measures. That the top ten companies in the country are banks even makes Nigeria's economy vulnerable. But come to think of it, banks are supposed to make their profits from successes out of businesses they had supported. Given that Nigeria's productive sector is presently comatose and these banks are still posting huge profits is an indication that something is wrong somewhere. Only last week, we were told by an official of the Nigeria Accounting Standards Board (NASB) that all is not well within Nigeria's banking sector. This has been confirmed by the recently released Annual Report of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) for 2007. According to it, only 4 of the country's 24 banks are sound, 17 are satisfactory, 2 are marginal while 1 is unsound. Of course, it could not have been different. If I may ask, from where and how are these banks making their money? Which businesses have they supported? Let them come and tell Nigerians. 
Going forward, it is important that government draws from its reserves or possibly from the excess crude account to immediately reconstruct the country's failing infrastructure to enable businesses to thrive. Secondly, government should consider investing more in the productive sectors (Industry, Agriculture, Mining etc) especially to create wealth, generate employment and alleviate poverty. It is also imperative that government should now develop a friendlier disposition towards small businesses to enable them to access cheap funds given that they are the pillars of this economy.
I make bold to say that the looming economic crisis will soon catch up with Nigeria. The fact that at the moment the country is producing practically nothing, even as government revenue is completely dependent on the vagaries of the international market (whether with oil or the commodities),also makes Nigeria's case pathetic. It is onus on government to therefore take definite measures to reduce the country's vulnerability, especially to avert the impending danger.