AN AUTOREGRESSIVE ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF PRIVATE SAVINGS IN NIGERIA

Purpose. Despite the increasing trend of private savings in Nigeria, the country is still characterised by low investment and output growth, thus, suggesting that the average saving rate is still far from being impressive. This study investigates the determinants of private savings in Nigeria. Methodology. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Model using annual time series data from 1981 to 2016 within the theoretical framework derived from the life-cycle hypothesis is employed in this study. The key variables under investigation are private savings, income, dependency ratio, real interest rate, social security payment, financial development and macroeconomic stability. The data used for analysis are sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin (2016) and World Development Indicator (2016). Findings. The results show that lifetime income and social security payment have significant positive relationship with private saving in the long-run, while adult dependency has significant negative relationship. In the short-run, adult dependency and social security payment have significant positive relationship with private savings. In addition, the result shows that 62% of deviation from the long-run equilibrium level of private savings is annually corrected for by the model estimated. Originality. This research investigates both the long-run and short-run effects of the various determinants of private savings in Nigeria. Thus, the study can serve as eye opener to the important variables that can improve the level of private savings in Nigeria

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the open reading frame (ORF) of prion protein gene (PRNP) in Nigerian livestock species

Abstract Background Prion diseases, also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) remain one of the deleterious disorders, which have affected several animal species. Polymorphism of the prion protein (PRNP) gene majorly determines the susceptibility of animals to TSEs. However, only limited studies have examined the variation in PRNP gene in different Nigerian livestock species. Thus, this study aimed to identify the polymorphism of PRNP gene in Nigerian livestock species (including camel, dog, horse, goat, and sheep). We sequenced the open reading frame (ORF) of 65 camels, 31 village dogs and 12 horses from Nigeria and compared with PRNP sequences of 886 individuals retrieved from public databases. Results All the 994 individuals were assigned into 162 haplotypes. The sheep had the highest number of haplotypes (n = 54), and the camel had the lowest (n = 7). Phylogenetic tree further confirmed clustering of Nigerian individuals into their various species. We detected five non-synonymous SNPs of PRNP comprising of G9A, G10A, C11G, G12C, and T669C shared by all Nigerian livestock species and were in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE). The amino acid changes in these five non-synonymous SNP were all “benign” via Polyphen-2 program. Three SNPs G34C, T699C, and C738G occurred only in Nigerian dogs while C16G, G502A, G503A, and C681A in Nigerian horse. In addition, C50T was detected only in goats and sheep. Conclusion Our study serves as the first to simultaneously investigate the polymorphism of PRNP gene in Nigerian livestock species and provides relevant information that could be adopted in programs targeted at breeding for prion diseases resistance