Interest Rate Deregulation and Performance of Deposit Money Banks: Time Series Evidence from Nigeria

This work investigated the relationship between interest rate deregulation and performance of Nigerian deposit money banks for the period 1996-2018. Interest rate deregulation was disaggregated into prime lending rate, maximum lending rate, 3-months deposit rate and over 12-months deposit rate while return on assets (ROA) was used as a proxy for deposit money banks’ performance. Data on the above variables were sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin (2018 edition) and the World Bank data base. The data were tested for stationarity using the Dickey-Fuller (D-F) test, for long-run relationship using Bound’s co-integration test, and for reliability of ARDL results using serial correlation, heteroscedasticity and normality tests. The results of the tests revealed that all the variables were integrated of order zero or one, and that a long-run relationship exists between the variables. Consequently, ARDL model for parameter estimation process revealed that only prime lending rate was positively related to ROA of banks while none of the explanatory variables was statistically significant. The researcher then submitted that there is no significant relationship between interest rate deregulation and the performance of Nigerian deposit money banks for the period considered. Hence, deposit money banks should strive to mobilize adequate savings from surplus spenders by offering them deposit rates that are capable of inducing savers to increase their savings and boost the availability of loanable funds. Also, there is urgent need to restructure the Nigerian financial system whereby policies by the monetary authorities will achieve pre-determined goals. In essence, to make interest rate policies meaningful, there is need to curtail financial transactions that escape the banking system.

APPROXIMATELY MULTIPLICATIVE DECOMPOSITIONS OF NUCLEAR MAPS

We expand upon work from many hands on the decomposition of nuclear maps. Such maps can be characterised by their ability to be approximately written as the composition of maps to and from matrices. Under certain conditions (such as quasidiagonality), we can find a decomposition whose maps behave nicely, by preserving multiplication up to an arbitrary degree of accuracy and being constructed from order-zero maps (as in the definition of nuclear dimension). We investigate these conditions and relate them to a W*-analogue.

ON AN INTEGRAL OF -BESSEL FUNCTIONS AND ITS APPLICATION TO MAHLER MEASURE

Cogdell et al. [‘Evaluating the Mahler measure of linear forms via Kronecker limit formulas on complex projective space’, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. (2021), to appear] developed infinite series representations for the logarithmic Mahler measure of a complex linear form with four or more variables. We establish the case of three variables by bounding an integral with integrand involving the random walk probability density $a\int _0^\infty tJ_0(at) \prod _{m=0}^2 J_0(r_m t)\,dt$ , where $J_0$ is the order-zero Bessel function of the first kind and a and $r_m$ are positive real numbers. To facilitate our proof we develop an alternative description of the integral’s asymptotic behaviour at its known points of divergence. As a computational aid for numerical experiments, an algorithm to calculate these series is presented in the appendix.

STANDARDIZATION OF THE PROCESSES OF ELABORATION OF SMOKED AND NATURAL SAUSAGE AND DETERMINATION OF THE LIFE OF ANAQUEL

Objective: To determine the shelf life of sausage under the natural and smokedprocesses to standardize their manufacturing process, evaluate theirphysicochemical and microbiological quality using a mathematical model of orderzero chemical kinetics.Methodology: The sausage manufacturing process was standardized, and twocooking and preservation methods were applied: boiling and smoking in oak wood.For the shelf-life analysis, a partially staggered sampling was used. The productsamples were kept refrigerated (2 to 6 ºC, for 7 weeks), and physicochemical andmicrobiological analyses were carried out on them every week. A mathematicalmodel based on order zero chemical kinetics was used with the obtained results todetermine the shelf life of the processed products.Results: The shelf life of sausages depends on the applied preservation process;in the case of the traditional (hot water) process, the result was 33 d, andincreased to 56 d in the smoked and cooked with dry heat, due to the watercontent of each product, as well as the smoking antimicrobial action.

Effects of Some Monetary Policy Targets on Inflation and Inflation Volatility: Evidence from Nigeria

The persistent inflationary pressure despite monetary policy targets has become a phenomenon of interest among researchers. The study investigates the effects of monetary policy targets on inflation and its volatility in Nigeria using data spanning from 1985 to 2019. The ADF unit root test used confirmed that all the variables under study are integrated order zero in their level series. A Comparison of inflation volatility models (ARCH and GARCH models) with appropriate error distribution using AIC indicated that ARCH (1) is most appropriate. The results of least squares (LS) and maximum likelihood (ML) ARCH methods of estimation for the model specifications showed that measures of monetary policy targets such as narrow money supply (M1), broad money supply(M2), net domestic credit(NDC), net credit to government(NCG) and credit to private sector(CPS) have no significant effect on inflation and inflation volatility respectively except M2. However, M2 effect spurs inflation rather than curbing it. Hence, it becomes imperative for the government to make proactive policies targeted to reduce inflationary pressures so as to attain price stability in Nigeria’s economic space. Keywords: monetary policy targets, inflation, Volatility models.

An efficient 4-step block method for solution of first order initial value problems via shifted chebyshev polynomial

In this paper, we develop a four-step block method for solution of first order initial value problems of ordinary differential equations. The collocation and interpolation approach is adopted to obtain a continuous scheme for the derived method via Shifted Chebyshev Polynomials, truncated after sufficient terms. The properties of the proposed scheme such as order, zero-stability, consistency and convergence are also investigated. The derived scheme is implemented to obtain numerical solutions of some test problems, the result shows that the new scheme competes favorably with exact solution and some existing methods.

A topological approach to DNA similarity analysis from 5-dimensional representation

In this paper, we propose another topological approach for DNA similarity analysis. For each DNA sequence, we transform it into a collection of vectors in 5-dimensional space in which all nucleotides of the same type, say A, C, G, T are on the same line in this 5D space. Based on this special geometric property, we combine this representation with tools in persistent homology to obtain only zeroth persistence diagrams as a topological representation of DNA sequences. Similarities between DNA sequences are signified via how close the representing zeroth persistence diagrams of the DNA sequences are, based on the Wasserstein distance of order zero, which provides a new method for analyzing similarities between DNA sequences. We test our methods on the datasets of Human rhinovirus (HRV) and Influenza A virus.