THE LIQUIDITY AND PROFITABILITY TRADEOFF OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN NIGERIA

This study used empirical facts and assessed the trade-off of profitability versus liquidity (and vice versa) for five commercial banks in Nigeria. Multivariate research design, regression analysis, Ordinary Least Square, and correlation coefficient approaches were used to apply quantitative methodologies to data collected. Amongst the population of twenty-two banks, Zenith, First, United Bank for Africa, Guaranteed Trust and Union Banks were chosen as case studies for this study using a purposive sample approach. Secondary data was gathered from their five-year annual reports, which were published between 2015 and 2019. The correlation coefficient was employed to test the hypothesis, which revealed that there was a statistically perfect correlation (positive and negative) between LA (loans), BA (bank advances), and MDI (marketable debt instruments) against PAT (profit after tax) and ROA (return on assets). Furthermore, since banks strive to maintain their current assets, the findings revealed that efficient liquidity management is a key determinant that may boost or impair a bank’s profitability. To avoid future insolvency and bankruptcy, this study recommends that these banks use contemporary and effective liquidity management strategies amid the current post-pandemic environment. In addition, while focusing on the same topic of research, interested scholars should make significant use of a broader data coverage area.

FDI, ECONOMIC FREEDOM AND ECONOMIC GROWTH OF NIGERIA

This paper investigates Foreign Direct Investment, Economic Freedom and Economic Growth of Nigeria between 1995 and 2018. Specifically, the data on: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, Economic Freedom (Aggregate index) and the data on real gross domestic product (RGDP) were used during the analysis. Time-series data were tested for stationarity using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller Unit Root test method. Vector Autoregressive (VAR) estimation method was adopted to examine the effect of FDI, Economic Freedom on Economic growth. The interactive effect of FDI and Economic Freedom on Economic growth was determined using regression analysis while Granger Causality test method was adopted for determining the causality relationship among the variables. The result of the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) suggests that both FDI and Economic freedom do not have a significant effect on economic growth in Nigeria. The result of regression analysis shows that the joint coefficient of both FDI and EF is negative and not significant. The result of Granger Causality revealed that there is a uni-directional relationship between RGDP and FDI and between EF and FDI respectively. The research recommends that the federal government of Nigeria should adopt appropriate foreign trade strategies to enhance the impact of FDI on economic growth in Nigeria.

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN NIGERIA

Information Communication Technology has generally been acclaimed as an important tool exploited by medium and large-scale enterprises for boosting profitability and enhancing viability. Though Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) constitutes a major percentage of businesses in most countries, their ICT adoption rate is still low. This study examined the role of ICT as a tool that SMEs can deploy for the economic development of Nigeria. A questionnaire was employed and administered to a total of 175 SMEs randomly chosen from five different sectors of the Nigeria economy (educational, micro finance, transport, commerce and hospitality). Chi-square test was used to evaluate the hypothesis and the findings of the research revealed that (1) low awareness level of the benefits of ICT incorporation in the management process of most SMEs has been a major cause of its low adoption; (2) poor media transmission framework, high cost of ICT hardware, deficient government support and legislation for internet business among other factors have hindered the adoption of ICT in the management process of SMEs; (3) high cost of funds in Nigeria have also made it unprofitable for SMEs to source fund for ICT expansion and implementation. The research recommends among other measures, the investment on infrastructure and adequate incentives to promote the utilization of ICT among SMEs. Investment banks and other specialized institutions should brace up with their responsibilities and promote local industries through affordable credit schemes.

FINANCIAL LEVERAGE AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF OIL AND GAS COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

This study was carried out to determine the effect of financial leverage on the financial performance, using secondary data obtained from the annual reports of 7 quoted Oil and Gas firms in Nigeria, and the Nigerian stock exchange (NSE) daily official lists over the period 2005- 2016. Descriptive statistics such as mean, median, minimum, maximum, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, skewness and kurtosis were used in data presentation, while random effects panel estimator is applied in determining the effect of financial leverage variables as short-term debt ratio (STDR), long-term debt ratio (LTDR) and total-debt equity ratio (TDER) on the financial performance measured by the return on equity (ROE). The regression results from the random effects model (REM), the best panel estimator in this study as revealed by the F-test and the Hausman test for best model selection, indicate that STDR and LTDR have no significant effect on the financial performance, and TDER has a negative significant effect on the financial performance denoted by ROE. The study concludes that higher financial leverage in the capital structure of quoted Oil & Gas firms in Nigeria deteriorates shareholders wealth measured by ROE. The study recommends that firms in the Oil & Gas sector should substitute at least 90 per cent of debt in the capital structure with equity, through bonus issue, right issue and higher proportion of retained earnings in the capital structure. Abubakar, A. | Department of Business Management, Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, Nigeria

INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND EDUCATION ON ECONOMIC GROWTH

Developments and rapid changes in the international community, moving from traditional society to the information society, as well as changing the national economy to the global economy, require different solutions to enable economic growth and development in society. In fact, entrepreneurship, which is the concept of the discovery and exploitation of opportunities for value creation in the various sectors, is the basis for an all-round development. For this reason, to develop the countries pay special attention to the entrepreneurship is very important. So, this study is trying to investigate the effects of entrepreneurship and education on economic growth in 25 selected countries using the panel-data method in the period of 2001 to 2015. The results show that entrepreneurship and education have positive effects on economic growth, so that by increasing one percent of each variable, respectively, economic growth will increase by 0.41 and 0.21 percent. Badri, A. K. | Department of Economics, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran

IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT OF KEY POLITICAL RISK FACTORS INFLUENCING CORPORATE PERFORMANCE OF MULTINATIONAL CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES IN NORTH-EASTERN, NIGERIA

Multinational construction companies settled in African countries, especially Nigeria, to compete for infrastructural projects, in a bid to extend their services across their borders. The trans-border extension of the services offered by these multinationals exposes them to the political risk factors pertinent within the host-country. In order to survive the harsh realities of the political risk indicators operational in Nigeria, especially the North-eastern part of the country that has been plagued with civil unrest associated with the terrorist operations of Boko haram, it has become necessary to identify and manage these risk factors, to ensure the continuous survival of international construction companies in Nigeria. This paper seeks to identify and assess the prevalence of political risk factors influencing the corporate performance of international companies operating in the North-east of Nigeria. Data for the study was collected through structured questionnaires administered to 78 expatriate project managers from 6 international construction companies in 6 states in the North East of Nigeria. Collected data was analyzed using relative importance index and factor analysis. Findings revealed that terrorism, corruption, insurrections, sabotages and kidnapping were the top five risk factors with the highest frequency of occurrence. It was also revealed that terrorism, kidnappings, sabotages, corruption and change in government are the risk factors with the highest impact on operations in the region. It is therefore recommended that the federal, state and local governments should provide security for the lives, properties and investments in the region, companies should do more corporate social responsibilities and purchase political risk insurance cover to minimize their losses. Adebiyi, O. J. | Department of Quantity Surveying, University of Benin (UNIBEN), Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.

EFFECT OF THE CHALLENGES FACING USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY ON INVENTORY MANAGEMENT AMONGST BREWERIES IN NIGERIA

Information and communications technology (ICT) in recent times has become a viable strategic policy option adopted by many businesses in order to compete favorably in a competitive and dynamic ICT driven market. This strategic move by business organizations is being hindered by some challenges which has invariably reduced the benefits accruable from ICT deployment for business operations especially in the inventory management. Primary data formed the methodology of the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data obtained through the administration of structured questionnaire. It was established during the field survey that challenges facing the use of ICT had impacted negatively on the performance of inventory management in the Nigerian brewery industry during the period under study. It was also revealed that the cost of software was a major challenge in the industry and conclude that the identified challenges had significant effect on customers' satisfaction of the firms in the Nigerian brewery industry. It is recommended that management of firms in the Nigerian brewery industry should collaborate with software developers in Nigerian to develop a software that will be a replica of ERP but should be efficient, effective and affordable for inventory management and other operations in the industry. Odesola, O. T. | Registrar's Office, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria