ANALYSIS OF NUTRITIONAL LABEL USE ON PACKAGED FOODS AMONG URBAN HOMEMAKERS IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

This paper presents the type of food label information used by homemakers in Abeokuta while pur- chasing packaged foods and the socio-economic characteristics influencing its usage. Structured questionnaire was use to elicit information from 149 homemakers drawn by multi-stage sampling tech- niques. The study found that majority (87.20%) of the homemakers were females with mean age of 40.2 years. About two-third (65.40%) of the homemakers considered information on food labels before purchasing packaged foods. The most commonly considered food label information was found to be the NAFDAC (National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control) number (63.8%), fol- lowed by the expiry date (59.1 %), brand name (57%), country of manufacture (51.7%) and nutritional facts (51.0%). Results from logit regression models showed that sex, education, marital status, occu- pation, income and health status were the key factors that significantly (p<0.05) influenced nutritional label use

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Economies of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have been growing slowly in recent time. Economic growth is thought to affect inequality but not much is known about the nature of such relationship in SSA and there is no concordance among the few available. This paper examined the relationship between economic growth and inequality in the region using data from 1990 to 2017estimated with the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Model and Granger Causality. Hausman’s test suggested the superiority of the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) over the Mean Group (MG) Model. The PMG results showed that economic growth had significant and negative effect on income inequality (proxy by GINI-coefficient) in the long run suggesting a state of the later part of the Kuznet curve. This is in addition to the negative effect in the short run which is contrary to the theory. Furthermore, the result of the Granger Causality test revealed evidence of unidirectional relationship running from economic growth to income inequality in the region. Therefore, the study recommended that governments of Sub-Saharan African countries should implement policies and programmes capable of sustaining and improving inclusive growth in order to avoid high income inequality in the region.     &nbsp

DOES HEALTH AID REDUCE HIV/AIDS PREVALENCE IN NIGERIA?

There has been influx of official development assistance (foreign aid) into the health sector in Nigeria but little or nothing is known about the impact of such funds on specific health outcomes in Nigeria. Given the economic implication of HIV/AIDS, this study therefore assessed the effect of health aid on the prevalence of the HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. Relevant data spanning 1990 to 2017were sourced from World Development Indicator (WDI) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) database and analyzed within the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework. Model estimation results revealed that health aid had no significant effect on HIV prevalence in the country. Effective utilization of health aid was advocated in order to reduce the HIV prevalence rate thereby reducing the accompanying burden on the people and the economy.   &nbsp

Carbondioxide Electricity Generation Prospect in Nigeria

The need to meet up with the present energy demand in Nigeria calls for urgent mediation. Using the carbon dioxide data obtained from IEA through the ministry of Environment in Nigeria and the knowledge of bottoming power generation; the ability of Carbon dioxides exhaust gas from the power plant is exploited. Qualitative amount of power is estimated from the nation industrial Carbon dioxide potential generation. The result shows that an optimum amount of 564.7MW of electricity per year could be estimated from this power source; this is equivalent to 10.8% of projected power required for year 2030. Therefore, using Carbon dioxide hybrid turbine a total amount of 1265MW of electricity could be spawned by year 2030. With these results it is concluded that Carbon dioxides powered turbine has better prospects in Nigeria energy needs. 1.0 Introduction The electricity demand in Nigeria is far outstrips its supply, this has been attributed to a number of causes Sambo, (2008). The little power available is epileptic in nature for few locations that is distributed. Its enormous needs in technological and socio-economic developments called for urgent attention; no substantial development could occur without it copiousness. Despites our huge resources and potential for power generation, this defect has made the development in the country to be so retrogressive. The fact that the first electricity installed in Nigeria is over a century, coupled with our potentials of having a stable power supply is enough to possess a developed steady economics. More so, literature had it that the electricity came to Nigeria just after fifteen years it was introduced in England. According to Sambo, (2008) various bodies were established in the process of regimenting this sector such blocs are; The Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) in 1950, Native Authorities and Nigeria Electricity Supply Company (NESCO), Niger Dams Authority (NDA), National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and now Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), with all the policies of these established bodies the power generation in the country is yet to be upright. In fact, Osueke and Ezeh, (2011) emphasized that instead for positive income elasticity demand Nigeria is having negative which show an in balance energy Furthermore, a capacity of about 5,600MW power generating station was installed in Nigeria but less than 2000MW is generated as at 2001 and even now less than 2,600MW is available as compared to a load demands of 6,000MW and 120000MW in 2005 and 2030 respectively IAEA/ECN, Osueke and Ezeh, (2011), IAEA/ECN, (2007). The mandate given by act 19 in 1989 gave strategic planning and co-ordination of national policies in the field of energy in all its ramifications. In all these power sources 31.3% and 68.3% Sambo, (2008) were for hydro and natural gas stations respectively and other occupied the remaining percentages. In spite of all these efforts the available power in the country now is less than 3000MW of electricity and the most of this power stations and other heavy duties industries give out huge emission of CO2, a green house gas, GHG, which has great effects on the environmental conduciveness. Sims et al (2007) studied the various sources of green houses gases and found out that over 70% of energy generation emit CO2 virtually in all parts of the world. Though most developed nations adopt different methods to control these like capturing methods but scientist still envisaged that greater measure is required to combat the release of this harmful gases. This means that all cost-effective means of reducing carbo

Screening of sweet potato ((Ipomea batatas [L.] Lam.)cultivars for drought tolerance

The effect of drought on most agricultural crops results inmany problems for the producers in Nigeria and even other parts of the world. These problems include reduced vegetative parameters and yield loss which consequently lead to reduced income for the growers of the crops. The most direct way of avoiding drought is to discover or create drought tolerant varieties of sweet potato. Sweet potato is a crop which is part of the Nigerian diet due to its perceived nutritive values. A field experiment was carried out in Bowen University, Iwo to evaluate different cultivars of sweet potato for drought tolerance. The experimental design was laid in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replicates and three treatments including the mild water stress (32 days of drought), severe water stress (from the day of drought till harvest) and nowater stress (control). Results showed that under the control treatment, the highest yield was from the Local variety 1 with 127.63 g while the lowest yield under control was from Local variety 2 with 39.20 g. Under the mild water stress, the highest yield was from Introduced variety 1 with 272.46 g while the lowest yield was from Local variety 2 with 59.66 g. Under the severe water stress, the highest yield was from Local variety 1 with 41.15 g while the lowest yield was from Introduced variety 1 with 0 g. The highest yield among the three treatment methods was under the mild water stress treatment from Introduced variety 1 with 272.46 g.Therefore, variety 3, the local variety, is recommended under severe drought based on the above reason but under moderate drought,the Introduced variety i.e. variety 1 (orange fleshed sweet potato) is preferred because it had the highest yield and is also of high nutrient content compared to the other varieties

DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF AN IMPROVED ELECTRO-MECHANICAL YAM POUNDING MACHINE

Yam is one of the oldest known recipes to man, which belongs to the class of carbohydrate and has been a part of the African meals for centuries. Pounded yam is generally accepted food prepared from yam tuber using indigenous method or equipment. Replacing such energy in cooking and yam pounding operation became expedient due to many reasons including tedious, laborious and very difficult. Materials to be used for construction of the electro-mechanical pounding machine were sourced locally and three different varieties of yam were used for its performance evaluation. It was observed from the result that the efficiency of the machine is high [98.75% (white yam), 99.70% (yellow yam), and 99.10% (water yam)]. The percentage lump and pounding capacity for white yam, yellow yam and water yam were 1.25, 3.49, 0.90 and 31.71, 29.68, 27.73g/s respectively

Entrepreneurship Education and Poverty Alleviation: Impact Analysis of Covenant University Graduate between 2006- 2013

Entrepreneurship is central to the economic growth and development of any nation and empirical evidence has shown that economic growth over time is necessary for poverty reduction. Entrepreneurship education is the process that provides trainees with knowledge, skills and attitudes to create wealth for poverty reduction and self-employment. Covenant University from inception has played tremendous role in promoting entrepreneurship education in Nigerian education system. This paper therefore intends to examine the impact of Entrepreneurship Education in alleviating poverty among the graduates of Covenant University. The population of the study comprise of all graduates of Covenant University between 2006-2013. Regression analysis was used to validate the hypotheses raised in the study. The theoretical and managerial implications of the results were discussed. Based on the findings of this study, conclusion and recommendations were made for implication

The Effect of Exchange Rate Volatility on Agricultural Exports in Nigeria: An Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds Test Approach

There have been fluctuations in the exchange rate of Naira to other major world currencies especially the US Dollar over time. The implication of this on agricultural exports is unknown. This study determined the effect of exchange rate volatility on Nigeria’s agricultural export performance using annual data from 1980-2015. The Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH-1,1) model was used to generate the exchange rate volatility series which was subsequently incorporated into the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Model for determining factors affecting agricultural exports (cocoa and rubber). The Bounds Test revealed long-run relationship among variables. The results indicated that exchange rate volatility did not significantly affect exports both in the short-run and the long-run. This may be partially attributed to the inelastic nature of agricultural commodities’ supply particularly in the short run. It was also revealed that there was a positive and significant relationship between exchange rate, inflation, GDP, domestic prices, world prices and agricultural export. The study recommended that fiscal and monetary policies such as lower interest rate and import restriction on certain agricultural products should be adopted by the relevant authorities alongside other measures which may improve local production to meet both international and local demands, thereby, improving agricultural export and raising foreign exchange earnings which may translate to sustainable economic growth and lead the country out of recession

Estimating Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Safety of Street Foods in South-west Nigeria

Street foods have the potential to improve both food security and nutrition but they have the possibility of causing food poisoning outbreaks because they are mostly produced in dirty environments along dusty roads and other sources of contamination. In order to reduce the incidence of food borne diseases there is need for improved safety practices especially by the street food vendors which may increase costs. Parts of these costs will be transferred to consumers in form of higher prices. There is therefore an urgent need to assess consumers’ Willingness to Pay (WTP) for safer street foods. Data were collected from 126 respondents who were selected from consumers patronizing street food stalls in Abeokuta, South-west Nigeria. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Logit regression model. WTP was estimated from the Dichotomous Choice Contingency Valuation Method (DCCVM). Average age of consumers was 35years with income of N29, 903.00. The Logit regression estimation showed that income and education have significant and positive effects on consumers’ WTP. Estimated WTP value of N12.70 per N100 worth of street food was obtained from the DCCVM. It is recommended that safer street stalls should be located in areas populated by high income and educated people due to their readiness to pay for the improved quality. Public enlightenments should also focus on food safety education in order to stimulate food safety awareness among consumers especially in areas populated by low income and lowly educated people