899 research outputs found
Impact Analysis of Microfinance in Nigeria
This paper applies the financing constraints approach to study whether microfinance institutions improved access to
credit for microenterprises in Nigeria or not. According to this approach, microenterprises with improved access to
credit rely less on internal funds for their investments. Thus, investment sensitivity to internal funds of micro
enterprises in Lagos State (a municipal with significant presence of Microfinance Banks (MFBs) was compared to
that of micro enterprises in Ekiti State (a municipal with no (or limited) presence of MFBs) using a cross sectional
survey method and Microfinance Institutions (MFI) branch location data. Results indicate that MFBs alleviated
micro businesses’ financing constraints. This approach is applicable to evaluating microfinance impact in other
countries
FINANCIAL SECTOR REFORMS AND PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN COUNTRIES
Financial sector reforms have been undertaken by many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and one of the key targets of these reforms has been investment. This study conducts an empirical investigation of the effect of financial sector reforms on private investment in selected Sub-Saharan African countries. An index is developed which tracks the gradual progress made with implementation of the phases of the reforms. The results of econometric estimations show that financial sector reforms (measured by the index) have had a positive effect on private investment in the selected countries, thus offering support to the financial liberalization hypothesis.Private Investment, Financial Sector Reforms, Sub-Saharan Africa
"All The Things We Could [Se]e by Now [Concerning Violence & Boko Haram], If Sigmund Freud's Wife was Your Mother": Psychoanalysis, Race, & International Political Theory
In response to the sonic media and ludicrosity of her time, Hortense J. Spillers' paradigmatic essay ""All the Things You Could Be by Now, If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother": Psychoanalysis and Race," transfigures Charles Mingus' melodic, cryptic, and most puzzling record title into a workable theoretical cacophony. Closely written within the contexts and outside the confines of "some vaguely defined territory between well established republics," Spillers is able to open up the sarcophagus of meaning(s) within the Black occupation of the psychoanalytic discourse. Mingus' original assertion, "all the things you could be by now, if Sigmund Freud's wife was your mother," means absolutely nothing insofar as it means everything in the face of constructed openings and invitations into "extending the realm of possibility for what might be known." As such, this article asks a similar question relating to what might be known about the sensual convergence of media, violence, and representation ('all the things we could see by now') of international, political, and theoretical significance. If anything, Spillers and Mingus compel us toward locating some semblance of forgotten relationality between what appears to be abstract, distant, and unfamiliar. Given our contemporary era of violent post-colonial terror and desires for alternatives to the afterlife of slavery, this article endorses the free-floating investigation into the live survey of unprotected human flesh in the specific case of Boko Haram's explosion in modern media. Is it possible that such a study is able to uncover the motive behind the assembly of spectatorship? Through a Freudian reading of human nature into international political theory, this article indicates that narrative formation and transmission is an essential component to the development of both ethno-universalisms and global constructions of race and captivity
Entrepreneurs Health and Productivity in Nigeria: Analysis of Microfinance Bank Contribution
This paper investigates the effects of microfinance bank health related services on micro and
small enterprise owners’ productivity. Productivity is measured as output value over resource input value.
The paper employed panel data and multiple regression analysis to analyze a survey of 502 randomly
selected entrepreneurs whose enterprise are finance by microfinance banks in Nigeria. We find strong
evidence that microfinance bank health related programmes have positive correlation with productivity of
micro and small entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Participation in health related services such as health education
and health finance are found to have positive impact on entrepreneurs’ productivity, while microfinance
bank linkages with health services provider and entrepreneurs access to health product through
microfinance bank are microfinance banks health related services that are yet to be developed well
developed by the microfinance banks . The paper recommends that a well structured health seminar and
training programmes should be embedded in all Microfinance programme to further enhance productivity
of entrepreneurs in Nigeria and partner with Insurance Companies in the country to provide quality health
insurance services affordable to MFBs’ client. This will guarantee the clients’ access the health services
when the need arise
Considering users' behaviours in improving the responses of an information base
In this paper, our aim is to propose a model that helps in the efficient use
of an information system by users, within the organization represented by the
IS, in order to resolve their decisional problems. In other words we want to
aid the user within an organization in obtaining the information that
corresponds to his needs (informational needs that result from his decisional
problems). This type of information system is what we refer to as economic
intelligence system because of its support for economic intelligence processes
of the organisation. Our assumption is that every EI process begins with the
identification of the decisional problem which is translated into an
informational need. This need is then translated into one or many information
search problems (ISP). We also assumed that an ISP is expressed in terms of the
user's expectations and that these expectations determine the activities or the
behaviors of the user, when he/she uses an IS. The model we are proposing is
used for the conception of the IS so that the process of retrieving of
solution(s) or the responses given by the system to an ISP is based on these
behaviours and correspond to the needs of the user
Business intelligence systems and user's parameters: an application to a documents' database
This article presents earlier results of our research works in the area of
modeling Business Intelligence Systems. The basic idea of this research area is
presented first. We then show the necessity of including certain users'
parameters in Information systems that are used in Business Intelligence
systems in order to integrate a better response from such systems. We
identified two main types of attributes that can be missing from a base and we
showed why they needed to be included. A user model that is based on a
cognitive user evolution is presented. This model when used together with a
good definition of the information needs of the user (decision maker) will
accelerate his decision making process
Using Users' Expectations to Adapt Business Intelligence Systems
This paper takes a look at the general characteristics of business or
economic intelligence system. The role of the user within this type of system
is emphasized. We propose two models which we consider important in order to
adapt this system to the user. The first model is based on the definition of
decisional problem and the second on the four cognitive phases of human
learning. We also describe the application domain we are using to test these
models in this type of system
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