Foreign Trade and Nigerian Economy

Globalization theoretically leads countries to increase their production and consumption levels and as well ensures prosperity in line with benefits accruable from foreign trade. Foreign trade has been adjudged by many a scholar as an engine with potentials to propel an economy to desired growth as it affords the opportunities to new products, to explore new techniques, to enhance communication and a considerable positive role in the business life. This study is an empirical reassessment of the impact of foreign trade on Nigerian economy with a time series data from 1981 to 2013. The regressors conformed to a priori expectations while export (EX) alone passed the test of significance. The F-test suggests that the joint influence of the explanatory variables is statistically significant and Jarque-Bera normality test also implies that the residual is normally distributed. The non-statistical significance of most of the variables points to the relatively weak diversified Nigerian economy with the dominance of the petroleum sector. Consequently, further opening of the economy needs to be halted else it will retard the growth of the economy. In order to promote growth and development, conscious efforts should be made in the formulation of policies to create enabling environment that will promote non-oil exports, ensure growth induced imports and promote the use of local raw materials. Keywords: Foreign trade, Economic growth, Export, Import, Exchange rate, Policie

An Evaluation of the Contribution of Value Added Tax (Vat) To Resource Mobilization in Nigeria

Taxation as an instrument of fiscal policy has been a source of revenue to nations. This work sets to evaluate the contributions of Value Added Tax (VAT) to resource mobilization in Nigeria. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method of simple regression analysis was employed to determine the relationships between VAT and Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP), VAT and Current Revenue (CREV), VAT and Internal Revenue (INREV); also the impact of VAT on RGDP, CREV and INREV. The general conclusion is that the VAT is an ideal form of taxation in Nigerian tax system and has significantly contributed to resource mobilization as well as capital formation to the economy. The recommendation is that all that are involve (both payer and administrator) should be adequately motivated to enable each in his/her own sphere perform well to ensure higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness. Key words: Revenue, Taxation, Resource mobilization, Sales tax, Capital formation, Consumption

Financial Intermediation and Private Sector Investment in Nigeria

The symbiotic relationship between adequate funds to real sector and speed of economic growth is not in contention. Consequently, the successive Nigerian governments have made several policy attempts in the last three decades at ensuring that funds are channeled to savings deficits. These efforts notwithstanding, the economy at a glance, seems not to have made remarkable progress. What is more, there is dearth of empirical studies specifically targeted at assessing the specific contribution of financial intermediation to economic growth in Nigeria. It is this gap that this study sought to fill.  To realize the goal of this study, we adopted Private Investment (PRIVET) as the regressand and Financial Savings as a ratio of Real Gross Domestic Product (FS/RGDP), Credit Extended to Private Sector by deposit money banks (CEPS), Prime Lending Rate (PLR) & Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP) as the regressors. The study employed econometric method to construct a multiple regression model to analyze the long-run relationships among variables. The results showed that three out of the five coefficients are statistically significant at 5% level. CEPS and PLR conformed to the theoretically expected signs, while FS/RGDP, RGDP and DUM did not. Hetroscedasticity test carried out suggests that OLS assumption of constant variances over time was not violated. Ramsey Reset test indicates that the model is well specified. The findings indicate that although some progress is noted, much is remained to be done to ensure enabling environment conducive for investment growth and expansion of domestic capacity Keywords: Private Sector Investment, Prime Lending Rate, Financial Intermediation, financial system, financial institutions, multiple regression model

Evaluation of Supply Chain Management Effects on Consumer Preference for Cowpea Quality Features and Price Trend in Niger State

The concerns of dwindling food supply and over dependence on imported foods in Nigeria, especially in the face of dwindling foreign exchange, has prompted attention of experts on how to improve production and marketing of home-grown local food crops. The study assessed the quality characteristics and price preferences of consumers of Cowpea in the Niger State, Nigeria. The study adopted the survey design using quantitative research strategy. Primary data was collected from 600 famers over a 30-month period through the instrumentality of questionnaire. Hedonic price model was used to estimate the relationship between price and cowpea characteristics, and the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) analytical technique to investigate the impact of intrinsic characteristics on price in five varieties of cowpea. The regression analysis revealed that the respective value of R2 for Chanchaga markets is 0.72 and Bida markets is 0.77 which means that 72% and 77% of changes in the price of cowpea is explained by the changes in quality characteristics of cowpea in each market. The results indicated that consumer valued high protein content, sucrose content and dry matter content as the most important attributes as such they attracted higher prices. The study recommends among others that increase in protein content would make cowpea more attractive for the food industry and will have a positive impact on consumers’ nutritional health

Attaining Inclusive Growth in a Developing Economy on the Wings of Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises

A typical disturbing feature of most developing countries is a sprawling disparity between economic growth as measured by increase in gross domestic product and concrete progress in real welfare of the citizenry measured by standard of living, access to employment and poverty reduction. Contrary to natural logic, available evidence suggests that both variables are inversely related.  There is equally a consensus among scholars of inherent potential of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as a veritable agency for income and prosperity spread and thus a vehicle for inclusive growth. This paper empirically investigates the nexus between MSMEs and inclusive economic growth. With data ranging from 1980 to 2016, it specifically built econometric model to capture the link between Gini coefficients (proxy for inequality gap) and identified key determinants of viable MSMEs sub-sector: volume of credit to MSMEs, MSMEs’ contribution to national output, lending cost, cost of doing business, and infrastructural financing. With error correction model technique of analysis, findings revealed that MSMEs has the potential to provide growth that will spread prosperity to the majority of citizenry thereby narrowing inequality gap and reducing poverty. The paper recommends policy shift in favour of creating environment to promote the growth of MSMEs

Does investment in education and health impact youth employment outcomes? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

AbstractLabour engagement, underutilization and unemployment has dominated discourse in development literature in developing economies. It tangentially dictates the direction of migration, gross domestic output and in some cases, youth restiveness. This study investigated the unique relationship between investment in human capital proxied by spending in education and health and its effects on youth employment outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Annual data spanning 1995–2017 were obtained from 40 SSA countries comprising 920 macro panel observations. The bootstrap-based bias correction for the panel fixed effects estimation technique was employed to improve on the analytical corrections. Findings suggest that human capital investment comprising private and government health expenditures, primary, secondary and tertiary education expenditures were found to have varying significant impact on youth employment in SSA. The policy implication is that to reverse the perennial problem of youth unemployment in SSA would require serial consistent disproportionate investment more in education than in health