The Influence of Budget and Financial Control in Selected Government Parastatals in Nigeria

The study examined budget and financial control in selected government parastatals in Nigeria. The survey research design was adopted in the study. Primary data was obtained using a well-designed questionnaire. Data gathered in the study was analyzed using descriptive, correlation analysis, logit regression analysis and other post estimation tests. Findings obtained in the study indicated that budget preparation exerts insignificant positive impact on financial control in Nigerian government parastatals with coefficient estimate of .034178 (p=0.195> 0.05); budget implementation exerts insignificant positive impact on financial control of Nigerian government parastatals with coefficient estimate of .0082354 (p=0.750> 0.05) and budget monitoring and evacuation exert insignificant positive impact on financial control, with coefficient estimate of .0468773 (p=0.234> 0.05). Premise on these findings, the study concluded that financial control on the average tends to increase as government parastatals experience effectual budget performance, with more budget preparation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation as opposed to the usual neglect of budget after implementation. Hence, it was suggested that government should ensure improvement in budget design; government should ensure adequate budget monitoring procedure and government should ensure viable budget evaluation procedure.

Key Vulnerabilities and the Competitive Advantage among Commercial Banks in Kenya

Globalization and technological advancement have in a big way altered the business landscape, making it difficult for banks to sustain competitive advantage. The need to enhance competitiveness has forced banks to consider competitive intelligence not only as a tool to guard against threats but also as a mechanism for discovering new opportunities and trends. Competitive intelligence contributes to continuous improvement of the quality of products, services and solutions offered by banks to their clients as well as increasing a firm’s innovative capability. Key vulnerabilities have been identified as one of the strategic inputs of competitive intelligence that a firm needs to focus on in order to gain and sustain competitive advantage. This paper sought to examine the effect of identification and assessment of key organizational vulnerabilities on the competitive advantage among commercial banks in Kenya. The target population for the study were directors or managers in-charge of planning or strategy in each of the forty banks in the country. Primary data was collected using a semi structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was tested for both validity and reliability and was found to meet the required threshold. A response rate of 77.5% was achieved in the study and this was adequate for analysis. The study found that identification, assessment and hedging against key vulnerabilities had significant effect on the ability of banks to sustain competitive advantage. The study therefore concluded that key vulnerabilities should be identified, assessed and hedged against since they could inhibit a company’s strategy from succeeding in the marketplace. The study recommends that banks should raise the level of use of competitive intelligence in monitoring the competitive landscape to enable early identification and assessment of key vulnerabilities, then take steps to hedge the vulnerable areas from being exploited by rivals to the detriment of the bank. The study further recommends that managers should be continuously assessing the vulnerability of their banks with aim of hedging against attack by rivals.

Macroeconomic Pandemic Panorama of Developing Economies: A Special Case of Indian Economy

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the socio-economic and political ecosystem across the economies. The externalities can be observed in all dimensions such as in labor market, manufacturing and services, transportation, and tourism. It has been observed that the populated developing economies have been severely impacted due to spread of pandemic. The rising health expenditure, increasing debt, labor migration, increase in unemployment, prices, and the loss of output are the major factors to drag these economies into vulnerability. The present study attempts to identify the numerous adverse externalities generated due to COVID-19 pandemic in the developing economies. The macroeconomic effect of pandemic on Indian economy has been discussed in the later section of the study.

Impact of Fiscal Prudence and Financial Development on Foreign Direct Investment Inflow: Nigerian Evidence

Foreign direct investment in a globalized and information technology driven environment, as we have today in the 21st century, acted as a driver of growth. This paper provides further evidences on macroeconomic management of FDI in emergent economies especially in Africa. The paper empirically measures the effects of fiscal prudence and financial development on foreign direct investment inflow in Nigeria. It tested the importance of household consumption, domestic credit to the private sector, fixed capital formation, domestic savings, external debt, foreign reserve and financial development for the purpose of ensuring FDI inflow in Nigeria. It findings show that domestic credit to private sector, fixed capital formation, foreign reserve and financial development are statistically significant in the case of Nigeria. The econometric methodologies followed for the study are log-linear regressions and ARDL bound testing. Data was sourced from National Bureau of statistics and World Bank’s World Development Index for the period ranging from 1985 to 2018.

Relationship between Leadership Styles and Job Satisfaction in Tanzania Public Sector

Tanzania public sector has been undergoing various reforms to improve public service delivery and employee satisfaction. The government has been trying to improve employee welfare and create conducive work environment for the public servants. Despite the efforts, job satisfaction levels of staff in the Tanzania public sector are generally low and unsatisfactory. The study examined the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction in Tanzania public sector. The study intended to achieve two specific objectives. The first objective was to examine the relationship between transformational leadership style and employee job satisfaction. The second objective was to examine the relationship between transactional leadership style and employee job satisfaction. The study used Morogoro Municipal Council as a case study from which data were collected by using a close ended questionnaire from 92 respondents. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed. The study found that job satisfaction was average among the respondents with mean value of 3.04. Comparatively, transactional leadership mean value was higher (Mean=4.14) than that of transformational leadership (mean=3.28). Regression analysis showed that both transactional leadership style (β=0.585, p=0.000) and transformational leadership (β=0.032, p=0.001) were found to be significant predictors of job satisfaction. The results showed that transformational leadership style had a stronger relationship with job satisfaction than transformational leadership style.

Attachment, Rejection Sensitivity, Support, Psychological Capital and Alcohol Dependency in Students

Alcohol dependence evolves from problematic social relations hinged on attachment difficulties and fear of social rejection. This study sought to test an attachment-rejection-relationship model of the development of alcohol dependency. Emerging adults (N=762) of which 69.8%, were female, ranging in age from 18-63 years, took part in an online survey measuring adult attachment, rejection sensitivity, loneliness, social support, psychological capital, and alcohol consumption. Analysis supports the model and shows that individuals with insecure and anxious attachment, fear of social rejection, who experience loneliness and lack of social support, and whose psychological resources are less effective, are more likely to be at risk for alcohol dependency. The role of attachment, rejection and social relations in alcohol consumption point to social problem-solving interventions. Given the childhood origins of attachment problems and fear of social rejection there is a strong case for prevention using social problem-solving.

Narrating Peer Assessment in a Group Task

COVID19 interrupted many things in our life. To curb the spread of the virus, Movement Control Order (MOC) was enforced. Though face to face teaching and learning came to halt, was replaced by online learning. In the context of teaching and learning, teachers face a lot of problem in carrying out practices which were a norm before. This study intends to explore a group work, which was carried out during the pandemic. More importantly, on how to assess a group work, which was carried out online, is explored. The aim of this study is to reveal how a peer assessment, for a group task was carried out during the pandemic. Instead of students, 30 music pre-service teachers were involved in this study. They were divided into ten groups. These pre-service teachers were enrolled in a music pedagogy course. One of the tasks involves a group work. Each group is required to produce a video. The video is assessed based on three criteria i.e content of the video, creativity and group collaboration. Each pre-service teacher assessed another group’s video using these criteria. Descriptive statistics and web analysis were used to analyse the scores given by the pre-service teachers. The result revealed that the component of creativity is viewed differently by many pre-service teachers, compared to the other two.

Difficulties in Learning and Teaching Programming at Lower Secondary Level in Mauritius

The rapid evolution of technology around the world has created a rapid growth and efficient learning environments. In Mauritius, for example, the government is investing huge amount of money in the educational sector with initiation of programming at an early stage. The ideology behind this push is to strengthen the link between the younger generation and the technological growth that will continue to have an ever-increasing impact on their lives and to fuel the pace of innovation. One of the core themes of this area is that of computer programming, which has now become a mandatory subject in early years’ education. As a result of this change, many challenges are being faced by educators and students; for example, educators require more training and students need appropriate tools that suit their level of learning. Therefore, this research aimed at exploring the difficulties in learning and teaching programming at lower secondary schools in Mauritius. Consequently, it can be interpreted from the research findings that an automated teaching and learning programming system that supports the right pedagogical aspects, example, assessment-driven learning with the inclusion of game-based learning, would make the learning process more successful and enjoyable for students in early years of education. Students with higher problem-solving abilities find programming easy and they can master programming with no or little difficulties regardless of the programming environment. On the contrary, students with lower problem-solving abilities find programming difficult to understand and are often unable to master it.

Smartphone in Classroom: Yes or No?

From the 1990s onwards, several international agreements were signed with the objective of universalizing education. Such action was strengthened at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal in 2000, where 164 countries, including Brazil, signed a commitment to provide Education for all - EPT. To make this possible, it was established as one of the commitments to raise new information and communication technologies to support the effort to reach the EPT goals. Since then, numerous actions have been developed for the insertion of Information and Communication Technologies - ICT's in Education. However, this is not only a reality in Education, as nowadays we are immersed in new technologies, making us have new ways of interacting, communicating and learning. In this context, there has also been an expansion of cell phone use by the population for various purposes. Thus, bringing this instrument as an ally in the teaching-learning process becomes of great value. Thus, a literature review research was carried out, observing the use of cell phones from two perspectives: in general use by the Brazilian population and from the perspective of legislation, in order to contextualize the use of cell phones as an educational resource in contemporary times. At the end, as a result of this article, three studies are presented that demonstrate the use of cell phone applications in the school environment and finally expose four applications for the use of cell phones as an educational resource for continuing education and in the teaching-learning process.