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Comparative Assessment of Poverty Trends and Socioeconomic Inequality in Nigerian States
Get PDFThis study undertakes a comparative assessment of poverty trends and socioeconomic inequality across the diverse landscape of Nigerian states. Utilizing robust statistical methodologies and data from various sources including national surveys, census data, and socioeconomic indicators, we present a comparative analysis of poverty levels and income disparities within and between Nigerian states over a specified period of 1999-2019. Our assessment focuses on identifying key drivers of poverty and inequality, including economic growth patterns, demographic factors, government policies, and regional disparities. By employing advanced analytical techniques such as regression analysis, Lorenz curves, and Gini coefficients, we unveil nuanced insights into the dynamics of poverty and inequality, shedding light on both persistent challenges and potential pathways for socioeconomic development. The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the multifaceted nature of poverty and inequality in Nigeria, offering valuable implications for policy formulation and targeted intervention strategies aimed at fostering inclusive growth and equitable development across the nation's diverse socioeconomic landscape.
Keywords: Economic reforms, Fourth republic, Poverty, Inequality
Effect of Bootstrapping dimensions moderated by Cost of Doing Business on Performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in South-West, Nigeria
Get PDFThe role Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) can never be overemphasised in the has economic drivers in either developed and developing countries of the world. However, contract to immense contribution of SMEs to nation economic growth, most SMEs in Nigeria struggle to survive beyond five years due to poor performance. The major challenge SMEs in Nigeria include developing creative ways of acquiring resources in non-traditional ways cum cost of doing business which to greater extent affect SMEs performance. Thus, this study investigated the effect of Bootstrapping dimension moderated by cost of doing business on the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in South-West, Nigeria. The study adopted survey research design and the population of the study comprised 14, 527 owner/managers of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) enterprises in Lagos and Oyo States. The study utilized stratified simple random sampling technique with a sample size of 750 owner/managers of SMEs determined using Cochran’s (1977) formula and data were analyzed using regression analyses. The findings revealed that cost of doing business (β = 0.003, ΔR2 = 0.021, ΔF = 14.820, p < 0.05) significantly moderated the effect of bootstrapping measure by owner’s financing, subsidy financing, delayed payment, joint utilization, and social capital on the performance of SMEs in South-West, Nigeria. The study concluded that bootstrapping improved performance of SMEs in South-West, Nigeria, cost of doing business significantly moderated effect of bootstrapping on the performance of SMEs in South-West, Nigeria. It was recommended that management of small and medium scale enterprises in South-West, Nigeria should pay more attention on subsidy financing, delayed payment, social capital with less attention on joint utilization in order to improve their performance.
Keywords: Cost of Doing Business, Delayed Payment, Joint Utilisation, Owner Financing SME Performance, Social Capital, Subsidy Financin
Moderating Role of Remittance Inflows in Testing the Validity of Ecological Footprint-Induced Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) Hypothesis in Nigeria: An ARDL bound testing approach
Get PDFThe paper tests the validity of ecological footprint induced-environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis by considering the moderating role of remittance inflows in environmental quality -economic growth nexus in the context of Nigeria from 1980 to 2022. The study employed an ARDL bound testing approach, the results of both the short and long-run revealed that the coefficients of economic growth (GDP) and economic growth squared (GDP2) is significantly positive and negative respectively. This indicates an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental degradations and economic growth thereby authenticating the validity of the EKC hypothesis in Nigeria. Furthermore, remittance inflows exert a negative and significant impact on environmental quality in the short-run but the coefficient is insignificant in the long-run. The interactive term of GDP and remittance inflows exert a positive and significant impact on environmental degradations in the short-run thereby revealing a complementary role by both the two variables in deteriorating the environment in the short-run, although the coefficient is insignificant in the long-run. The interactive between squared GDP and remittance inflows revealed a negative significant impact on environmental pollution thereby indicating a substitutability role by the two variables in improving the quality of the environment. Based on the findings, it is recommended that government should invests in research and development (R&D) on green energies and environmentally friendly technologies. personal remittances received should be channeled toward financing environmentally friendly businesses for environmental sustainability in Nigeria.
Keywords: Ecological Footprint-Induced, Environmental Kuznets Curve, and Nigeri
Assessing the Impact of Non-Interest Banking on Financial Inclusion: A Study of Selected States in Nigeria
Get PDFThis paper investigated the transformative potential of non-interest banking on financial inclusion within selected Nigerian states. Non-interest banking, grounded in Islamic principles, has garnered substantial scholarly attention across Muslim-majority nations. However, its nuanced effects on financial inclusion in Nigeria necessitated comprehensive examination. This study sought to address this gap by scrutinizing the intricate dynamics and discerning whether non-interest banking engenders heightened financial inclusion and socio-economic advancement. Interrogating the linkages between accessibility of non-interest banking services, individuals' attitudes toward non-interest banking, customer satisfaction, government support, trustworthiness of non-interest banks, and their collective impact on financial inclusion constitutes the focal point of inquiry. The study adopted a quantitative research paradigm, employing purposive random sampling to solicit responses from 380 participants encompassing Nigeria's diverse geopolitical zones. A tailored questionnaire, informed by extant scholarship, was meticulously administered, with data analysis done using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) facilitated by SmartPLS v3.2.7. The findings underscored that customer satisfaction, perceived government support, and trustworthiness of non-interest banks significantly and positively influence financial inclusion. Nevertheless, the nexus between accessibility of non-interest banking services and attitudes toward non-interest banking with financial inclusion did not attain statistical significance within this model. The research attains an R2 value of 0.704 for financial inclusion, signifying an explanatory capacity of 70.4%. This research extended valuable insights for policy formulation and decision-making, by accentuating the pivotal role of customer-centric strategies, governmental endorsement, and credibility in amplifying financial inclusion through non-interest banking channels.
Keywords: Non-interest banking, financial inclusion, Nigeria, Structural Equation Modelin
Nigeria’s Foreign Policy in a Democratic Setting: An Appraisal of the Fourth Republic
Get PDFForeign policy deals with the pursuit of a nation’s national interest in its interactions with other nation. Nigeria attained independence in 1960 and since then has continued to play active roles in the area of foreign policy decision making. The military epochs in Nigeria’s foreign policy were replete with incessant challenges which culminated in the excommunicated of the nation from the common wealth of nations. The swearing in of Obasanjo was perceived as the dawn of a new era in Nigeria’s foreign policy, however democracy has presented new challenges for leaders since the inception of the fourth republic, the study therefore examines the challenges of Nigeria’s foreign policy in a democratic setting with a focus on Obasanjo’s administration in the fourth republic. The secondary data collection was employed in the study. The descriptive and explorative research design was used in the study. Findings revealed that there were incessant challenges; however, some of these challenges were surmounted. The study therefore recommends that the foreign affairs ministers should take more proactive decisions that will uplift the national integrity of the nation when making foreign policy decisions in Nigeria.
Keywords: Foreign policy, Democratic era, Governance, decision making, international system, military regime, democratic administration
Monetary Policy Measures and Commodity Price in Nigeria: An Auto-Regressive Distributive Lag Approach
Get PDFThis study investigated the impact of monetary policy measures on commodity price in Nigeria from 1990 to 2022. Data for the study were obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria data source and the World Bank’s World Development Indicators 2022. Real interest rate, cash reserve ratio, Broad money supply, Treasury bill rate, and exchange rate are adopted to proxy monetary policy while commodity price index is employed to capture commodity price. The individual series were subjected to unit root tests using the Augmented Dickey Fuller approach and the diagnoses established mixed orders of I(0) and I(1) integrations, thereby necessitating application of the Auto-Regressive Distributive lag bounds test as well as the long-run and error correction versions. The analyzed model’s result established that real interest rate is positive but statistically insignificant with commodity price in the long-run and the most current year period of the short-run while cash reserve ratio had a positive and significant relationship with regress and in the long-run. Also, it was evident that broad money supply had a negative but significant relationship with commodity price in the current period of the short-run. Moreso, Treasury bill rate and commodity price revealed that the former had a negative but significant relationship with the latter in the current period of the short-run. Finally, the official exchange rate exerted a positive but insignificant ramification on commodity price both in the long-run and previous year period of the short-run. Hence, it is concluded that monetary policy fundamentals as captured here had significant push-up effect on commodity price in Nigeria. Thus, the need for suggesting amongst others that the monetary policy authority should attractively peg the price of federal government’s securities, moderate money supply and interest rate to enhance monetary stability for driving diversified private sector investments which if sustained will dampen commodity price in the long-run.
Keywords: Monetary Policy, Commodity Price, Real Interest Rate, Cash Reserve Ratio, Treasury Bill, Exchange Rate Broad Money Supply
Impact of Economic Recession on Funding of Business Education Programmes in Nigerian Universities: A Case Study of University of Benin
Get PDFEducation in Nigeria has been plagued by inadequate funding over the years. This has continued despite various interventions by successive administrations. The current economic recession in the country has further worsened the situation with its attendant consequences on the different sectors of the economy, which includes the university education subsector. In order to capture the challenges of economic recession, this paper undertook a historical survey of global economic recession and Nigeria and the impact on funding education especially, the university education subsector programmes with specific reference to business education programme of the Department of Vocational and Technical Education, University of Benin. It analyzes the budgetary allocation to the department in the last four years and determines the adequacy of the allocation to business education programme, in the face of inflationary trend in the recessed economy. Findings show that business education programme has been inadequately funded and that there has been neglect of infrastructure and the provision of teaching and learning facilities. The survey also unraveled the fact that budget was not allocated to training of needed manpower, as focus was on payment of salaries and purchase of consumables for the day to day running of the department. Recommendations have been made amongst which are: the need to improve internally generated revenue through entrepreneurship centres and the need for government to increase the budgetary allocation to the education sector to meet the recurrent and capital expenditure for implementation of business education programmes.
Keywords: Economic Recession, Business Education, Funding of Business Education Programmes, Nigerian Universities, University of Beni
Analysis of Working Capital Dynamics versus Oil and Gas Firms’ Financial Performance
Get PDFThis study investigates the effects of working capital management on financial performance in oil and gas firms. The longitudinal research design was used. The secondary source of data was sourced from the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) as at 31st December, 2022 for various years. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation technique method was adopted for analysis with the aid of the E-views (9.0) software. Findings obtained showed that WCFP and WCIP have positive and significant relationship with ROCE and a negative and significant relationship with ROCE The study thus concludes that only WCFP, and WCIP are good predictors of financial performance. This study thus recommends that companies should ensure that the cash conversion sequence is systematically monitored to avoid idle cash balances, occurrence of cash shortages as well as cash theft by employees.
Keywords: Capital Management, Financial Performance, Inventory, and Profitability
Relationship between Political Education Concepts in Civic Education on Students’ Knowledge and Attitude to Political Participation in Edo State
Get PDFThe study looked into how well-versed pupils were in civic education concepts and how they felt about participating in politics in Edo State. Due to Nigeria’s ongoing election irregularities and several other electoral transgressions, which give the appearance that civic education has not had a significant influence, the study became imperative. Six research questions were posed, four of which were hypothesized, to help direct the investigation. For this investigation, a descriptive survey design was used. Using the multi-stage sampling technique, 840 students were selected among 74,440 public Junior Secondary School I-III students in the Edo South Senatorial district. Two instruments were used for the study, an achievement test titled, ‘Knowledge of Political Education Test’ and a Likert scale designed to collect information from the respondents on, ’Students’ Attitude to Political Participation’. For research questions 1 and 2, data was gathered and analyzed using the mean and standard deviation. For hypotheses 1 through 4, Pearson’s “r” was used to determine significance at the 0.05 level. The study’s conclusions showed that pupils have a strong understanding of political education ideas and a favorable outlook on getting involved in politics. It also showed tha’ t“e”e is a strong correlation between students' attitudes toward voting, voter registration exercise, the rule of law, a’d “h” electoral process and political education. The study recommends amongst others that Civic Education curriculum contents be enhanced to accommodate more of political education concepts.
Keywords: Political Education, Civic Education, Students’ Knowledge, Political Participatio
Design and Implementation of an Arduino-Based MPPT Solar Charge Controller
Get PDFAn effective solar charge controller's design is essential to maximizing the energy that photovoltaic (PV) systems can capture. This paper describes the design and implementation of an Arduino microcontroller-based Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) charge controller. The purpose of this design is to improve solar energy systems' efficiency and dependability, especially in large-scale or high-current applications. The LM7815 regulator is used by the charge controller to control voltage, and high-power transistors (2SC5200) are used to boost current in order to provide a high load capacity. In order to guarantee optimal efficiency, MPPT controllers dynamically modify the solar panels' operating point to optimize the energy gathering process. The Arduino-based controller is open-source and inexpensive; it can be used in off-grid solar power systems. The technology can manage a maximum current of 60A and charge a battery bank effectively. The research analyzed the circuit design, control algorithms, and experimental findings, and real-world testing is used to assess the system's performance. The result was very impressive; the system proved to be efficient, reliable, and cost-effective, making it a viable solution for off-grid and high-power solar applications.
Keywords: MPPT, Arduino, charge controller, solar energy, photovoltaic systems, renewable energy, battery charging, Solar Power, Current Boostin