Cashless Policy and Customers' Satisfaction: A Study of Commercial Banks in Ogun State, Nigeria

The advent of cashless policy into the Nigerian banking sector has brought mixed feelings to all stakeholders in the sector.  The development has brought relief to a segment dominated by the operators (bankers), while the other segment dominated by the customers has complained about the challenges associated with the operation of the policy.  Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the customers’ satisfaction of the recently introduced cashless policy in Ogun State, Nigeria with a survey of bank customers in Abeokuta.  Data was collected with a well structural questionnaire and analyzed with descriptive statistics, while hypotheses formulated for the study were tested with correlation co-efficient.The findings of the study reveal that cashless policy contributed significantly to customers’ satisfaction in Ogun State. Also, the study revealed that cashless policy contributed significantly to customers’ satisfaction through electronic channels.Finally, the study concluded that the cashless policy is customer friendly and progressive. Hence, it was therefore recommended, among others, that infrastructures should be improved upon to ensure easy operation of the policy in Ogun state. Keywords: Cashless policy, Customers’ satisfaction, Nigerian banking sector, Customers’ orientation and Banking performanc

Relationship of blood pressure status, dietary factors and serum electrolytes of in-school adolescents in Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria

Background: Globally, rising blood pressure is of public health concern as it is a major cause of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and preventable death. This study accessed the relationship of blood pressure status, dietary factors and serum electrolytes among in-school adolescents in Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 488 secondary school students (aged 10–19 years). Blood pressures were assessed using auscultatory method and questionnaires were used to obtain food frequency and 24-hour dietary recall data. Blood samples from volunteers were used for serum sodium and potassium assays. Results: The mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) increased with age, irrespective of gender. The prevalence of elevated blood pressure and hypertension among participants were 19.3% and 10.5%, respectively, with males and females having similar pattern. Dietary factors like addition of table salt to already prepared foods, higher intake of eggs, and lower intake of vegetables were associated with the development of elevated blood pressure among the adolescents. The estimated mean dietary intakes (mg/person/day) of sodium and potassium were 2289±938.7 and 1321±603.8, respectively, with majorityconsuming far higher (for sodium – 80%) or far below (for potassium – 95%) recommendations. The mean serum sodium (138.0±18.3 mmolL-1) and potassium (3.06±1.1 mmolL-1) were similar across genders. A significant (p<0.05) negative relationship exists between serum potassium and SBP. Conclusions: The blood pressure status of the adolescents studied are of great concern and are somewhat negatively influenced by poor dietary and lifestyle practices. They require prompt intervention to slow down the development of CVDs in the future. Keywords: Adolescents; dietary patterns; hypertension; table salt

How to strengthen an Infant and Young Child Feeding programme in Northern Nigeria

This four-page research summary brief highlights findings and recommendations from operations research into how to strengthen the implementation of an Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) programme and to motivate behaviour change to improve IYCF practices in northern Nigeria. The research found that the IYCF programme was viewed positively by a range of beneficiaries and stakeholders, including family members, traditional birth attendants, IYCF programme community volunteers, health workers and state government officials, because of the perceived visibility of the health benefits, including less episodes of diarrhoea, and consequent savings on health care. Recommendations for the IYCF programme include review strategies for CV training and strengthen supportive supervision, especially in relation to counselling techniques and facilitation of support groups; reinforce and strengthen the use of examples of real healthy children who have been exclusively breastfed to enhance the acceptability of the messages and adoption of the behaviour change; and adopt multiple behaviour change techniques, including food demonstrations and professionally developed mass media

How to Strengthen the CMAM programme in Northern Nigeria and reduce rates of programme defaulting

This report presents findings from the operations research (OR) study which was conducted to identify barriers to attendance of the Maternal Neonatal and Child Health Weeks programme (MNCHW), in two states of northern Nigeria – Jigawa and Zamfara States. The work was a collaborative project between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Food Basket Foundation International and Oxford Policy Management. The treatment and prevention of severe acute malnutrition via the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition programme (CMAM) is one of four outputs of the DFID-funded development project “Working to Improve Nutrition in Northern Nigeria” (WINNN). This output aims to deliver, in the five WINNN supported northern states, effective treatment for severe acute malnutrition through local health systems. WINNN is implemented by UNICEF, Action Against Hunger (ACF) and Save the Children International (SCI), in partnership with the five state governments. SCI is responsible for its implementation in Zamfara, Kebbi and Katsina states, and ACF is responsible for its implementation in Jigawa and Yobe states. The CMAM services include: (1) Community outreach, for the early identification and referral of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and later follow-up; (2) Outpatient care for children with SAM without medical complications at health facilities and at home (Outpatient Therapeutic Programme, OTP); (3) Inpatient care for children with SAM, and medical complications or no appetite (Inpatient Therapeutic Programme, ITP)

How to strengthen the Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) programme in Northern Nigeria

This report presents findings from the operations research (OR) study which was conducted to strengthen the Infant and Young Child Feeding (ITCF) programme, in northern Nigeria .The work was a collaborative project between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Food Basket Foundation International and Oxford Policy Management. The prevention of under-nutrition via the IYCF programme is one of four outputs of the DFID-funded programme “Working to Improve Nutrition in Northern Nigeria” (WINNN). This output aims to prevent under-nutrition by promoting evidence-based IYCF feeding recommendations, including exclusive breastfeeding until an infant is 6 months of age, feeding a diverse diet of nutritious foods and breastmilk from 6-23 months of age, feeding a sick child and good hand-washing practices. WINNN is implemented by UNICEF, Action Against Hunger (ACF) and Save the Children International (SCI), in partnership with five state governments. SCI is responsible for its implementation in Zamfara, Kebbi and Katsina states, and ACF is responsible for its implementation in Jigawa and Yobe states. Each of the five WINNN states implements the IYCF programme in three Local Government Areas (LGAs). The IYCF programme includes: (1) Facility-based IYCF counselling for pregnant women and mothers with an infant less than 2 years of age, facilitated by health workers (HWs); (2) Community-based IYCF counselling for pregnant women and mothers with an infant less than 2 years of age, facilitated by community volunteers (CVs); (3) Community-based meetings with fathers of infants less than 2 years of age and grandmothers, facilitated by CVs

How to strengthen a Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition programme in northern Nigeria

This summary highlights findings and recommendations from operation research on a Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programme in northern Nigeria. The study analysed the perceived benefits of CMAM; reasons for beneficiaries not defaulting from the programme; challenges of accessing CMAM services; the workloads and motivation of health workers and community volunteers; and what is required to integrate CMAM into the primary health system.UK Ai

Novel <i>IRF6 </i>mutations in families with Van Der Woude syndrome and popliteal pterygium syndrome from sub-Saharan Africa

Orofacial clefts (OFC) are complex genetic traits that are often classified as syndromic or nonsyndromic clefts. Currently, there are over 500 types of syndromic clefts in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database, of which Van der Woude syndrome (VWS) is one of the most common (accounting for 2% of all OFC). Popliteal pterygium syndrome (PPS) is considered to be a more severe form of VWS. Mutations in the IRF6 gene have been reported worldwide to cause VWS and PPS. Here, we report studies of families with VWS and PPS in sub-Saharan Africa. We screened the DNA of eight families with VWS and one family with PPS from Nigeria and Ethiopia by Sanger sequencing of the most commonly affected exons in IRF6 (exons 3, 4, 7, and 9). For the VWS families, we found a novel nonsense variant in exon 4 (p.Lys66X), a novel splice-site variant in exon 4 (p.Pro126Pro), a novel missense variant in exon 4 (p.Phe230Leu), a previously reported splice-site variant in exon 7 that changes the acceptor splice site, and a known missense variant in exon 7 (p.Leu251Pro). A previously known missense variant was found in exon 4 (p.Arg84His) in the PPS family. All the mutations segregate in the families. Our data confirm the presence of IRF6-related VWS and PPS in sub-Saharan Africa and highlights the importance of screening for novel mutations in known genes when studying diverse global populations. This is important for counseling and prenatal diagnosis for high-risk families