Impact of Corporate Governance on the Performance of Selected Banks in Nigeria

The impact of corporate governance on the performance of selected banks in Nigeria has become a wide-reaching truism that the quality of corporate governance makes a significant difference to and has a chief effect on the performance of banks. Effective corporate governance requires a clear understanding of the respective role of the board and of senior management and their relationships with others in the corporate structure.This study aim to examine the relationship that exists between corporate governance and banks performance of selected commercial banks in Nigeria. Using regression analysis of 5 years ranging from 2014 – 2018. The stock performance being the response variable was captured by Market price per share (MPS) while the explanatory variables included Board Size (BS), Corporate Governance Disclosure Index (CGDI), Non-Executive Director (NED) and Number of Female Director (NUM) are the regressors used in achieving this objective. Descriptive analysis was used to ascertain the mean (1.64141; MPS, 2.658831; BS, 2.145323; NED, 1.127043; NUM 0.933143; CGDI) median, Maximum, Minimum. Correlation was carried out and a positive and strong relationship were generated.Post estimation diagnostic test of Hausman test and redundant fixed effect test were adopted in selecting the most appropriate model to capture the impact of corporate governance characteristics on stock performance of banks. The test indicated that random effect is not an appropriate model and non-normality of the variables will not encourage the use of ordinary effect, therefore, in estimating the parsimonious model of the variable, fixed effect will be an appropriate assumption. 86.78% of the stock performance of banks was accounted for by the explanatory variables.The work suggests that efforts should be made to improve corporate governance focus on the stock performance of deposit money banks since the stock performance is a measure of the wealth of shareholders. Also, the Central bank of Nigeria and other relevant authorities should also try to ensure that steps are taken for mandatory and absolute compliance with the code of corporate governance. Also, an effective legal framework should be developed that specifies the rights and obligations of a bank, its directors, shareholders, specific disclosure requirements and provide for effective enforcement of the law. Keywords: Performance, Corporate Governance, Banks, Measure and Shareholders. DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-16-12 Publication date:August 31st 202

Foreign Direct Investment Inflows and Oil Price Fluctuations in Developing Oil Exporting Countries: the Case of Nigeria

The study investigates the impact of oil price fluctuations on foreign direct investment inflows in developing oil exporting countries using Nigeria as a case study by ARDL method and VECM granger causality test to analyse the data spanning from 1970 to 2015. It was observed that oil price fluctuations do not favour foreign direct investment in Nigeria both in the long-run and short-run. This implies that as oil price changes foreign direct investment inflows falls. VECM granger causality test revealed that there is no direction of causality between oil price fluctuations and foreign direct investment inflows in Nigeria. We therefore concluded that oil price is not an important determinant of foreign direct investment inflows. The study recommends that government should take the advantage of times of positive change in the oil price to fix the needs to attract foreign direct investment inflows in the economy

Ocularhaemodynamics parameters of asymptomatic HAART experienced HIV-infected under-five children

Objectives: Study aimed at evaluating the impacts of HAART on retinal blood flow of a symptomatic HAART - experienced HIV-infected underfive children.Method: Ethical approval and patient consents were obtained before commencement of the study in the selected hospitals. Thirty asymptomatic HAARTexperienced HIV-infected children and three seronegative children aged 0-5 year-old fulfilled conditions for ocular ultrasonography among 60 convenience sampled under-fives. Ocular ultrasonography was done on the patients in supine position with eyes closed as instructed by the radiologist. Maximum velocity (Vmax), pulsatility index (PI), resistive index (RI), optic nerve diameter, lens thickness and axial diameter were measured. Results of HAART-experienced children were not compared with the control children because of unequal size. Data were analysed by using ANOVA and level of significance was considered at p<0.05. Results: Vmax of blood flow in central retinal artery (CRA) of asymptomatic HAART - experienced HIV infected children was 12.2cm/s while that of seronegative children was 13.4 cm/s. The PI and RI of blood flow in CRA of asymptomatic HAARTexperienced HIV-infected children were 0.8 and 0.5 respectively while those of the seronegative children were 0.6 and 0.4 respectively. Reduced Vmax of blood flow of CRA was significantly associated with both increased PI and RI of asymptomatic HAARTexperienced HIV-infected underfive children.Discussion: Vmax of CRA of asymptomatic HAART-experienced HIV-infected children was reduced because of their increased PI and RI suggesting an increased resistance to blood flow in asymptomatic HAART experienced HIVinfected children.Conclusion: Reduced Vmax of blood flow to CRA was significantly associated with increased PI and RI of asymptomatic HAARTexperienced HIV-infected children.Keywords: Ophthalmic artery, Central retina artery, maximum velocity, Seropositive children, HAAR

Tuberculosis–Diagnostic Expert System: An architecture for translating patients information from the web for use in tuberculosis diagnosis

Abstract Over 1.5–2 million tuberculosis deaths occur annually. Medical professionals are faced with a lot of challenges in delivering good health-care with unassisted automation in hospitals where there are several patients who need the doctor’s attention. To automate the pre-laboratory screening process against tuberculosis infection to aid diagnosis and make it fast and accessible to the public via the Internet. The expert system we have built is designed to also take care of people who do not have access to medical experts, but would want to check their medical status. A rule-based approach has been used, and unified modeling language and the client–server architecture technique were applied to model the system and to develop it as a web-based expert system for tuberculosis diagnosis. Algorithmic rules in the Tuberculosis–Diagnosis Expert System necessitate decision coverage where tuberculosis is either suspected or not suspected. The architecture consists of a rule base, knowledge base, and patient database. These units interact with the inference engine, which receives patient’ data through the Internet via a user interface. We present the architecture of the Tuberculosis–Diagnosis Expert System and its implementation. We evaluated it for usability to determine the level of effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction. The result of the usability evaluation reveals that the system has a usability of 4.08 out of a scale of 5. This is an indication of a more-than-average system performance. Several existing expert systems have been developed for the purpose of supporting different medical diagnoses, but none is designed to translate tuberculosis patients’ symptomatic data for online pre-laboratory screening. Our Tuberculosis–Diagnosis Expert System is an effective solution for the implementation of the needed web-based expert system diagnosis

Determinants of Dividend Policy in Nigerian Manufacturing Firms

Dividend policy is becoming an area of concern to different stakeholders including the researchers in recent time. Although there are existing literatures on Determinants of Dividend Policy in Nigeria, this study wishes to contribute to existing study by viewing determinants of dividend policy with a focus on listed food and beverages and cement firms in Nigeria. Dividend per Share is used as dependent variable while Return on Capital employed, Earnings per Share and Tangible Asset growth rate are used as the independent variables.Panel Data were sourced from annual report and account of the selected five (5) companies to cover a period of eight (8) years(2008 to 2015). Panel least square was employed to estimate the model built for the study. The result shows that Return on Capital employed has no significant relationship with dividend policy; Earnings per Share and Tangible Asset growth rate have significant relationship with dividend policy of firms. Moreso, only Earning per Share out of the three explanatory variables exhibit positive relationship with dividend per share while others have negative relationship. It is strongly recommended that firms should pursue effective dividend policy that will motivate investors to commit more resources in the company, and to also ensure that reasonable proportion of profit is also retained for future growth without detriment to shareholders wealth maximisation. Keywords: dividend policy, returns on capital employed, earnings per share and tangible asset growth rate

Foreign Direct Investment Inflows and Oil Price Fluctuations in Developing Oil Exporting Countries: the Case of Nigeria

The study investigates the impact of oil price fluctuations on foreign direct investment inflows in developing oil exporting countries using Nigeria as a case study by ARDL method and VECM granger causality test to analyse the data spanning from 1970 to 2015. It was observed that oil price fluctuations do not favour foreign direct investment in Nigeria both in the long-run and shortrun. This implies that as oil price changes foreign direct investment inflows falls. VECM granger causality test revealed that there is no direction of causality between oil price fluctuations and foreign direct investment inflows in Nigeria. We therefore concluded that oil price is not an important determinant of foreign direct investment inflows. The study recommends that government should take the advantage of times of positive change in the oil price to fix the needs to attract foreign direct investment inflows in the economy

Lemierre's syndrome due to Klebsiella pneumoniae in a 63-year-old man with diabetes: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Lemierre's syndrome was originally documented to be caused by <it>Fusobacterium necrophorum</it>. It is a very rare condition with a prevalence of one to 14.4 instances per million. Its presentation is varied, not only in composition but also in the infecting organism. Treatment with anticoagulants has been controversial and applied only on a case-by-case basis.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 63-year-old Saudi man who had had uncontrolled diabetes mellitus for 47 years presented to our facility with a five-day history of swelling on the right side of his neck and fever. The swelling progressively increased in size and was associated with pain, dysphagia, odynophagia, change of voice ('hot potato voice'), and reduced appetite. Abscess content culture and sensitivity testing revealed <it>Klebsiella pneumoniae</it>. However, blood culture results were repeatedly negative. The abscess was incised and drained without any complication. Our patient was treated with clindamycin and cefuroxime. Warfarin was also administered concurrently for six weeks, for an isolated internal jugular vein thrombosis (IJV), with complete resolution of the thrombus. Normoglycemia was achieved and our patient was discharged after complete wound healing and the return of his biochemical parameters to normal.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Only two cases of Lemierre's syndrome in patients with diabetes due to <it>K. pneumoniae </it>have been reported previously. A review of the literature suggested that an association exists between deep neck infections due to <it>K. pneumoniae </it>and diabetes mellitus. The reasons for this association are still not clear. This poses a question as to whether diabetes mellitus specifically predisposes these patients to infection with this organism. It is suggested that clinicians should consider infectious agents other than <it>F. necrophorum </it>in the causation of Lemierre's syndrome, especially in patients with diabetes.</p

Setting priorities for ageing research in Africa: a systematic mapping review of 512 studies from sub-Saharan Africa

BACKGROUND: In 2040, the older population's growth rate in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) will be faster than those experienced by developed nations since 1950. In preparation for this growth, the National Institute on Aging commissioned the National Academies' Committee on Population to organize a workshop on advancing aging research in Africa. This meeting provided a platform for discussing some areas requiring improvement in aging research in SSA regions. We believed that conducting a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles to set priorities for aging research in SSA is warranted. Therefore, this article is the first in a Four-Part series that summaries the types and trends of peer-reviewed studies in SSA. METHODS: This systematic mapping review followed the Search-Appraisal-Synthesis-Analysis Framework. We systematically searched multiple databases from inception till February 2021 and included peer-reviewed articles conducted with/for older adults residing in SSA. Conventional content analysis was employed to categorize studies into subject-related areas. RESULTS: We included 512 studies (quantitative = 426, qualitative = 71 and mixed-method = 15). Studies were conducted in 32 countries. Quantitative studies included were observational studies: cross-sectional (n = 250, 59%), longitudinal (n = 126, 30%), and case-control (n = 12, 3%); and experimental studies: pre-post design (n = 4, 1%), randomized control trial (RCT, n = 12, 3%); and not reported (n = 21, 5%). Fifteen qualitative studies did not state their study design; where stated, study design ranged from descriptive (n = 14, 20%), ethnography (n = 12, 17%), grounded theory (n = 7, 10%), narrative (n = 5, 7%), phenomenology (n = 10, 14%), interpretative exploratory (n = 4, 6%), case studies (n = 4, 6%). Of the 15 mixed-method studies, seven did not state their mixed-method design. Where stated, design includes concurrent (n = 1), convergent (n = 1), cross-sectional (n = 3), informative (n = 1), sequential exploratory (n = 1) and retrospective (n = 2). Studies were classified into 30 (for quantitative studies) and seven (for qualitative and mixed-method) subject-related areas. HIV/AIDs-related and non-communicable diseases-related studies were the most predominant subject-related areas. No studies explored the transdisciplinary co-production of interventions. CONCLUSIONS: There are glaring gaps in ageing research in SSA, especially mixed-methods and RCTs. A large number of studies focused on HIV/AIDs and non-communicable disease-related studies. National and international funding agencies should set up priority funding competitions for transdisciplinary collaborations in ageing research