Monetary Policy and Commercial Banks’ Performance in Nigeria

The study was carried out to examine the impact of monetary policy on commercial banks’ performance in Nigeria in a micro-panel analysis. Interest rate and money supply were used as proxies for monetary policy, while profit before tax (PBT) was used to represent commercial banks’ performance. Pooled regression, Fixed effect regression, and random effect regression were all carried out in the analysis. However, Hausman test revealed that fixed effect regression is the most appropriate. The results show that there is a positive relationship between banks’ profits and monetary policies as proxied by money supply and interest rate. However, interest rate was not statistically significant at 1% and 5% levels. This study therefore recommends that interest rate policy should be looked into by the monetary authority in a way that is friendly to loan advancement in the country. Key words: Monetary Policy, Fixed effect, Hausman test, Banks’ Profits, Nigeri

Exchange Rate Volatility and International Trade In Nigeria

Volatile exchange rate makes international trade and investment decisions more difficult because volatility increases exchange rate risk. This study seeks to evaluate the impact of exchange rate volatility on international trade in Nigeria on the basis of annual data from 1980 to 2013, which was obtained from World Bank Development Indicators (WDI). Exchange rate volatility, gross national product (GDP), investment, interest rate, import and export were used to capture the causal relationship between exchange rate volatility and international trade and also the long-run and short-run relationship between exchange rate volatility and international trade. A review of the literature reveals that exchange rate volatility has a negative impact on international trade. The empirical analysis began with testing for stationarity of the variables by applying the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), this was followed by co-integration test, then the granger causality and the Error Correction Model (ECM). The co-integration test indicated that the variables are co-integrated which implies that a long-run relationship exist between the variables while the granger causality test showed that a causal relationship exist between international trade and exchange rate volatility. It was observed form the ECM analysis that exchange rate volatility negatively affects international trade. The study therefore recommend that the government should put in place exchange rate and trade policies that will promote greater exchange rate stability and trade conditions that will promote domestic production in the economy. In other to achieve this, the government should provide efficient infrastructural services like energy resources

Determinants of Depression among University Students in Nigeria

الملخص: تبحث الدراسة محددات الاكتئاب بين طلاب الجامعات في نيجيريا، وقد اُستخدم المنهج الوصفي من خلال تطبيق استبيان في هذه الدراسة. شملت عيّنة الدراسة جميع طلاب الجامعات في نيجيريا، وتكونت عينة الدراسة من 1050 طالبًا جامعيًا. قام الباحثون بإعداد استبانة خاصة للدراسة، باستخدام نمط الاستجابات المغلقة. أظهرت النتائج أن العمر والدخل عوامل مهمة في مستوى الاكتئاب لدى طلاب الجامعات في نيجيريا، بينما نوع الأسرة لم يكن له تأثير، وعليه فقد جاءت التوصيات على أنه يجب على إدارة الجامعة تحسين خدمات الصحة العقلية من خلال زيادة التثقيف الصحي للكشف المبكر والسيطرة على حالات الاكتئاب بين الطلاب.Abstract: The study examined the determinants of depression among university students in Nigeria. Additionally, descriptive research design of survey type was used in this study. The population for this study comprised of all Nigeria undergraduate students. The sample for the study was 1,050 undergraduates. The instrument used for this study was a self-constructed, structured close ended questionnaire. Findings revealed that age and income were significant determinants of depression among university students in Nigeria while family type is not. It was therefore recommended that the University management should strengthen mental health services through health education to enable early detection and management of depression among students

Climate Change and Its Effects on Agricultural Outputs in Nigeria

This study was carried out to examine the effects of climate change on agricultural productivity in Nigeria. Changes in annual rainfall, temperature, and CO2 emission were used as proxies for climate change. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bound test approach to co-integration was used for the analysis. The result shows that climate change is insignificant in influencing agricultural productivity in the short run. It is recommended that the proposed agricultural policy should be keenly implemented by taking Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) prediction into consideration

Ocimum gratissimum Ameliorates Gentamicin-Induced Kidney Injury but Decreases Creatinine Clearance Following Sub-Chronic Administration in Rats

The effects of aqueous extract of Ocimum gratissimum leaf (AOGL) on the renal function of rats with gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity were investigated. This study involved the use of forty five (45) adult male Wistar rats (housed in separate metabolic cages) such that graded doses of OAGL were administered to the experimental groups (p.o.) for 28 days after exposure to gentamicin toxicity (100 mg/kg i.p.) for 1 week. At the end of the study, comparisons of some indices of renal function as well as antioxidant status (GSH and TBARS) were made between the control, toxic and AOGL-treated groups at P < 0.05. The result showed that gentamicin treatment caused significant increase (P < .05) in urine output, urea, creatinine, total protein, relative kidney weight, and TBARS, as well as significant decrease (P < .05) in urine creatinine and GSH levels. Post-treatment with graded doses of AOGL caused significant increase in food consumption, GSH, urine, and plasma creatinine, as well as significant decrease (P < .05) in relative kidney weight, TBARS, and urine total protein. There was an appreciable difference in the kidney histology of the AOGL-treated groups when compared with the toxic control. Hence, the extract has therapeutic potential in the management of gentamicin-induced kidney injury, although a risk profile of renal dysfunction is not unlikely from 28 days of administration as evident by the decrease in creatinine clearance

A Simulation Study on Robustness of One Sample Inferential Statistics in Mixture Distribution

Mixture distribution refers to the combination of more than one probability distribution. Meanwhile, non-normality of data set may be inevitable and the cause may be as a result of mixed distributions thereby renders parametric tests ineffective. Montecarlo experiment was performed 5000 times under twelve sample sizes where data were generated from Gaussian and Cauchy distributions using R-statistical packages. At three commonly used alpha levels (0.1, 0.05 and 0.01), the robustness of the test statistics (Rank transformation t-test, Wilcoxon sign test (Distribution and Asymptotic), Signed rank test (Distribution and Asymptotic) and Trimmed t-test) were examined. When the type I error rate of a statistic approximately equal to the true error rate then the statistic is considered robust. At 0.1 and 0.05, Rank transformation t-test, Wilcoxon sign test (distribution) and Trimmed t-test in this order are robust. Meanwhile, at 0.01 Rank transformation andWilcoxon sign test (distribution) were identified to be robust. Also, further counts at all levels of significance revealed that the Rank transformation test is robust and thereby recommended when data comes from a mixed distribution. Hence, this study has been able to identify test statistics that are robust when data comes from a mixed distribution in one sample problem

Assessing food security among young farmers in Africa: evidence from Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda

Open Access JournalFood insecurity remains a serious challenge for many households in Africa and the situation is even more prevalent among young people. However, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on youth food security status in Africa. We assessed the level and determinants of food security among young farmers in Africa. We adopted a multi-stage sampling technique to select 400, 429, and 606 young farmers in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda, respectively. Individual food consumption was assessed following a 7 days recall method. The Food Consumption Score, which combines dietary diversity and consumption frequency was used to assess food security status while the determinants of food security were identified using a logistic regression model. Results suggest low dietary diversity across the three countries. Also, the majority of the respondents had an unacceptable food consumption score, suggesting that despite being food producers, young farmers are still food insecure. The odds of being food secure was positively determined by access to extension services, participation in the ENABLE TAAT business incubation programme, and access to market information but, negatively by access to credit, number of employees, Covid-19 pandemic, and location. Additionally, the food security status of young female farmers was positively influenced by age, suggesting that younger youths are less food secure compared to older ones. These results suggest that more efforts should be directed towards improving the food security of young African farmers and that policy- and programme-level interventions should support access to extension services, market information, and land. Additionally, more investments should be directed towards developing need-based agribusiness incubation programmes with an effort to scale existing programmes beyond the regular one-time period

Inhibitory Effect of Aqueous Extract of Moringa oleifera and Newbuoldia laevis Leaves on Ferrous Sulphate and Sodium Nitroprusside Induced Oxidative Stress in Rat’s Testes in Vitro

Oxidative stress has been identified as one of the factors that affects fertility status. Therefore, this study sought to in-vestigate the inhibitory effect of aqueous extract of Moringa oleifera and Newbuoldia laevis leaves on FeSO4 and So-dium Nitroprusside (SNP) induced lipid peroxidation in rat testes in vitro. Incubation of the testes tissue homogenate in the presence of FeSO4 and SNP caused a significant increase in the malondialdehyde (MDA) contents of the testes. The aqueous extract from both Moringa oleifera and Newbuoldia laevis leaves caused a significant decrease in the MDA contents of the testes in a dose-dependent manner. However, aqueous extract from Moringa oleifera leaf (EC50 = 0.29 mg/ml) had a significant (P < 0.05) higher inhibitory effect on Fe2+ induced lipid peroxidation in the rat testes homoge-nate than that of Newbuoldia laevis leaf extract (EC50 = 0.58 mg/ml); while there was no significant (P < 0.05) differ-ence between the plant extracts on SNP induced lipid peroxidation in the rat testes homogenates. Therefore, part of the mechanisms through which the water extractable phytochemicals in the leaves protect the testes from oxidative stress may be through their antioxidant activity; DPPH scavenging ability, Fe2+ chelating and reducing power. Therefore, these plants have potential to prevent oxidative stress in testes and improve fertility outcomes

Amelioration of Cadmium-Induced Nephropathy using Polyphenol-rich Extract of Vernonia amygdalina (Del.) Leaves in Rat Model

AIM: To determine the effects of polyphenol-rich extract of the leaves of Vernonia amygdalina (PEVA) in rats with Cd-induced nephropathy.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty five male Wistar rats were divided into five groups as follows; Group 1 received distilled water throughout the period of study. Group 2 received 5 mg/kg body weight of cadmium (Cd), in the form of CdSO4, for five consecutive days via intraperitoneal route. Groups 3, 4 and 5 were pretreated with Cd as group 2 and thereafter received oral treatment of PEVA for 4 weeks at 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg body weight, respectively.RESULTS: Exposure to Cd toxicity significantly induced deleterious alterations in plasma and urine levels of creatinine, urea and glucose as well as creatinine and urea clearance (p &lt; 0.05) in the rat model. There was a significant disturbance in the antioxidant system as revealed by the levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) and reduced glutathione (GSH) (p &lt; 0.05) in the kidney tissue of the rats. With marked improvements in renal histoarchitecture, PEVA treatment showed a duration and non dose-dependent ameliorative potential. CONCLUSION: PEVA treatment reversed the compromise of renal function that was induced by Cd toxicity in rat model

Diabetes Is Associated with Cerebrovascular but not Alzheimer\u27s Disease Neuropathology

INTRODUCTION: The relationship of diabetes to specific neuropathologic causes of dementia is incompletely understood. METHODS: We used logistic regression to evaluate the association between diabetes and infarcts, Braak neurofibrillary tangle stage, and neuritic plaque score in 2365 autopsied persons. In a subset of \u3e1300 persons with available cognitive data, we examined the association between diabetes and cognition using Poisson regression. RESULTS: Diabetes increased odds of brain infarcts (odds ratio [OR] = 1.57, P \u3c .0001), specifically lacunes (OR = 1.71, P \u3c .0001), but not Alzheimer\u27s disease neuropathology. Diabetes plus infarcts was associated with lower cognitive scores at end of life than infarcts or diabetes alone, and diabetes plus high level of Alzheimer\u27s neuropathologic changes was associated with lower mini-mental state examination scores than the pathology alone. DISCUSSION: This study supports the conclusions that diabetes increases the risk of cerebrovascular but not Alzheimer\u27s disease pathology, and at least some of diabetes\u27 relationship to cognitive impairment may be modified by neuropathology