Core Housing Strategy for Improved Urban Low-Cost Public Housing Delivery in Anambra State, Nigeria

Anambra state of Nigeria experiences acute housing shortage for urban low-income population owing to inefficient public housing delivery system principled on conventional full-provision house types. Insufficiency of funds for housing development is a major cause. Increased rate and scale of housing production and volume of housing stock have been stalled. Low-income households are adversely affected, being priced out of the limited stock. Core housing, a partial-provision strategy believed to require less financial resources has been neglected. This research focused on the potentials of core housing strategy in financial cost-saving and other aspects of public housing products’ performance. Components of public housing products’ performance and the measuring variables were first outlined; followed by a review of the relationship between core housing and the variables, which was apt and revealing. This study has widened knowledge and prepared grounds for empirical studies of core housing performance in Anambra State public housing sector.

An Econometrics Analysis of the Impact Exchange Rate on Economic Growth of Nigeria

The study interrogates the impact of exchange rate on the economic growth of Nigeria from 1981 to 2020 using quarterly time-series data from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the World Bank National Account. The dependent variable in the model was Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP), and the independent variables were Exchange Rate (EXCHR), inflation (INFL), Interest Rate (INTR), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Broad Money Supply (M2) and Current Account Balance of Payment (CAB). The methodology employed was the Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model which incorporates the Cointegration Bond test and Error-Correction Mechanism. The finding indicates that in the short run, EXCHR, CAB, M2 and FDI, had a positive impact on economic growth. The impact of EXCHR and CAB were significant on growth while that of M2 and FDI were insignificant to growth. However, INTR and INFL had a negative impact on economic growth with both variables being statistically significant. The bound test showed that there was a long-run relationship among the study variables, and the results from the long run reveal that the exchange rate has a positive and significant impact on economic growth. Inflation, Interest rate, FDI, Current Account Balance of Payment (CAB) and Broad Money Supply all have a positive and significant impact on economic growth. Based on the findings the study recommended that monetary authority should strictly monitor the operations of banks and other forex dealers with a view of ensuring unethical practices are adequately sanctioned to serve as a deterrent to others.

Government Expenditure and Its Effect on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria

This study examined government expenditure and its effect on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria. This was undertaken given that Nigeria is a democratic underdeveloped economy seeking sustainable development. The Millennium Development Goals, the predecessor of SDGs, did not achieve much and now there are the Sustainable Development Goals to finance in the face of a volatile mono-economy, corruption, weak budgetary system, decaying infrastructure and security challenges. The specific objective of this study is to analyze the structure and trend of government expenditure from 1986 to 2020. The study adopted an ex-post-facto research design. Secondary data was obtained from publications of the Central Bank of Nigeria, National Bureau of Statistics, Transparency International and the World Bank. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used for analysis. The findings of the study revealed that recurrent expenditure outlay is higher than capital expenditure, the economic and social service sectors expenditure is inadequate to foster any meaningful sustainable development and, corruption is rife in the country. Hence, the study concludes that there are indications that the SDGs just like its predecessors, the MDGs, is on the verge of achieving poor outcomes if urgent measures are not taken to correct this. So, the study recommends that the structure of government expenditure should be reversed and made adequate; environmental sector expenditure should be disaggregated for easy inference to ensure that the issues of environmental degradation are dealt with; and agencies such as the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigerian Police and other security agencies should be strengthened.

Governance And Sustainability of Networked MFIs: Case of the CamCCul Network in Cameroon

The objective of this study is to determine the effect of internal and external governance mechanisms on the sustainability of the microfinance institutions of the CamCCul network in Cameroon. The study is conducted on a sample of 34 MFIs of the network over the 7-year period from 2009 to 2015. The results show, on the one hand, that the MFI's adherence to the network’s Risk Management program significantly and positively affects the financial sustainability of MIFs measured by their operational self-sufficiency. On the other hand, we find that the ownership of UBC Bank shares by the MFI and the culture of the zone of activity positively and significantly affect the MIFs social sustainability measured by the number of active borrowers.

Risk Management Practices and Shareholders’ Return Using Evidence from Quoted Commercial Bank in Nigeria

This study examined the effect of risk management practices on shareholders’ return of quoted commercial banks in Nigeria. Cross sectional data were sourced from financial statements of commercial banks and Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical bulletin from various years. Shareholders return was proxied by return on equity and return on assets while risk management practices were modeled by bank risk diversification, Basel risk compliance, credit monitoring and credit appraisal. Panel data methodology was employed while the fixed effects model was used as an estimation technique at 5% level of significance. Fixed effects, random effects and pooled estimates were tested while the Hausman test was used to determine the best fit of the regression model. Panel unit root and panel co-integration analysis were conducted on the study. The study found that 60 per cent variations in return on equity of the quoted commercial banks can be traced to variations in risk management practices as formulated in the regression model. The beta coefficient of the risk management practices proved that risk diversification, Basel compliance, credit monitoring and credit appraisal methods as formulated in the regression model have positive effect on return on equity of the commercial banks. In the model II, 47.6 percent variations in return on assets of the quoted commercial banks can be traced to variations in risk management practices as formulated in the regression model. The beta coefficient of the risk management practices proved that risk diversification, Basel compliance, credit monitoring and credit appraisal methods as formulated in the regression model have positive effect on return on equity of the commercial banks. The study concludes that risk management practices have a positive effect on shareholders’ return. The study recommends that commercial banks managements should ensure that all the board members and executive managements amongst other stakeholders are trained to appreciate the functions and responsibilities of credit risk management. The study recommends also that banks should ensure that their credit exposures are adequately secured through proper scrutiny of loan processing in order to identify viable projects so as to reduce loan defaults by bank customers.

Energy Poverty, Climate Change and Economic Growth

The study objectives were to determine the short and long-run effects of energy poverty and climate change on economic growth and to theoretically describe the driving factors of household energy poverty status using the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) dataset, 2018. The Autoregressive Distributed Lagged (ARDL) model was used to estimate variables based on data from 1980 to 2018. The results indicate that energy poverty has a negative or inverse relationship with the GDP growth; energy imports contribute an average of ten percent to the value of the GDP growth. Traditional and dangerous forms of energy use are predominant in Nigerian households. This poses a threat not only to the environment but also to the health of the public. An awareness-raising campaign on using safe and environmentally friendly energy sources should be a priority in Nigeria. Likewise, energy poverty reduction interventions, probably in the form of promotion of cheap and efficient clean energy technologies in the rural sector and the northern region (most especially Northeast), should be executed to enable the households to exit the energy poverty trap. Income smoothing policy measures probably in the form of poverty reduction and safety-net programs should be directed towards the low-income earners in the country in order to ease their level of poverty, of which energy poverty is an important segment.

China and the Future of Africa Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTR): Challenges and Opportunities

The paper examines the nexus between China’s coupling and economic relations with Africa under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA). It also analyses the future of ACFTR especially with the technical support African states will be enjoying through their collaboration with China or in the absence of such support, how Africa may utilize the opportunities available and the likely challenges to encounter in the implementation of ACFTA. Using the secondary source of data, findings show that the implementation of ACFTA can lead to substantial higher bilateral trade between China and Africa. The paper concludes that both in the short and long run, China and African countries stand to benefit immensely in the implementation of ACFTA. The paper recommends that African countries should ratify and domesticate ACFTA and should collaborate with China for the purpose of harnessing the opportunities and surmounting the likely challenges that may emanate from the implementation process.

Sustainable Malaria Control Policy and Infant Mortality in an Agrarian Economy: Evidence from Nigeria

Sustainable implementation of policy to control malaria is sine qua non to reduce the infant mortality rate especially in agrarian economies like Nigeria where malaria is common. This study examined the relationship between infant mortality rate and government expenditure on malaria (GEM) (proxy for health policy as explanatory variable), per capita income, infrastructure development index (IDI), government expenditure on education and health (as control variables) using data from 1990 to 2019 obtained from the World Bank and African Development Bank database. The unit root test conducted showed that all the variables were not stationary at first difference. The co-integration test established a long run equilibrium relationship between the variables which suggested the use of the Error Correction Model. The analysis of the estimated coefficients in the model showed that IDI and GEM significantly reduce infant mortality rate at P<0.05. Improvement in government funding to control malaria and efforts to develop infrastructure especially in the rural agrarian communities is recommended.

Impact of External Debt on Economic Growth in Nigeria

This study examined external borrowing and economic growth in Nigeria covering the period 1981 – 2019. The main objective of the study is to ascertain the impact of external borrowing on economic growth in Nigeria. Times series data on GDP, external debt, exchange rate, external debt servicing payments and inflation were extracted from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin 2018 was used for the study. The method of data analysis and evaluation were the unit-root test which was used to ascertain the stationary status of the variables, the linear regression with the application of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) technique and the Granger causality analysis. The major findings of the study are that all the variables are stationary at first difference I(1), external debt has a negative and insignificant relationship with economic growth in Nigeria ( = -0004912, p-value = 0.6944 > 0.05) and there is no causality relationship existing between external debt and economic growth in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that the federal government should acquire external debt largely for economic reasons rather than social or political reasons. This would increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation.

Impact of Public Consumption on Economic Growth

Faced with the financial crisis and global economic recessions, Africa governments have rediscovered the importance of economic policy instruments. They use it to rescue the bankrupt banks, and to make more economic activity to carry back recession. But now there's a backlash demanding that the deficits used to create the stimulus must be reduced by cutting public consumption spending on a grand scale. Hence the target of this study is to explore the role of public consumption expenditure on economic process in East African geographic region. The study will use panel ordinary least square estimation technique to attain the study objective. The study has identified consumption expenditure to be negatively associated with growth. This study recommends few funds should be channeled to public consumption programmes and sectors.