Private Sponsorship of Rural Development Broadcasts on Radio in Southwest Nigeria

The study explored the private sponsorship prospects of rural development broadcasts (RDBs) on radio in Southwest Nigeria. Forty private sponsors of programmes were randomly selected for the study. Questionnaire was used to collect data on private sponsorship status of RDBs, reasons for broadcasts’ sponsorship, factors hindering RDBs sponsorship and willingness to sponsor RDBs. Frequency counts and binomial logit were used to analyse the resulting data. There was a low sponsorship status (26.7%) of RDBs among the sponsors. Inadequate knowledge of benefits derivable from sponsorship of RDBs (30%) hindered sponsorship of RDBs while increased sensitisation on these benefits (40%) would enhance their sponsorship status. Increased brand awareness was the most important reason (46.7%) that propelled sponsors to support broadcasts. Most sponsors (66.7%) would be willing to support RDBs on radio. Sponsors’ characteristics were not significantly related to their willingness to sponsor RDBs. Stakeholders in rural development broadcasting should therefore step up their sensitisation campaigns among prospective sponsors to intimate them of the listenership strength of RDBs in the area in order to improve the sponsorship situation.Keywords: Willingness, broadcast, sponsorshi

Safety Assessment of Donkwa – An Indigenous Maize-Peanut Street- Vended Snack

Donkwa is a maize-peanut based street-vended snack commonly consumed in Nigeria and other West African countries. Donkwa is produced from the mixture of roasted-ground peanut and maize with or without addition of pepper, which is then moulded into small shapes. The safety of the street-vended donkwa, which was randomly procured from eight vendors in Southwest, Nigeria was assessed through physical, chemical and microbiological hazard analysis. Hazard analysis was also used to assess the safety of samples obtained along the different processing stages of donkwa obtained from four main processors. The results showed that the street-vended samples were contaminated with sand while the fungi, Staphylococcus spp and Bacillus spp counts ranged from 0.13 to 0.80, 0.50 to 2.50 and 0.25 to 4.75 x 104Cfu/g, respectively. Lead, arsenic and cadbium were respectively present in 7.14, 42.86 and 96.42% of the samples obtained from the processors while the cadbium levels among the positive samples ranged from 0.12 – 10.77 mg/kg which was higher than the permissible level of 0.1mg/kg stipulated by CODEX. The presence of hazards in the samples constitutes a food safety issue and control measures should be enacted to include educating processors and vendors on good hygienic and manufacturing practices in order to reduce or eliminate these hazards.Keywords: Safety, street foods, hazards, donkwa