Examining the Relationship between Federal Government of Nigeria’s Revenue and Expenditure Profiles

This paper examines the relationship between federal government of Nigeria’s revenue and expenditure profile for the period 1970 to 2011. With the aid of E-view statistical package - version 7.0, granger causality tests were carried out on a time series data and to avert the emergence of spurious results, unit root tests were conducted. Other econometric advances of co- integration test and descriptive statistics were deployed to ascertain the order of co- integration and the level of relationships. Outcome of study provides us with mixed results. First, there is a significant unidirectional causal movement from expenditures to revenues for 4 of the 8 revenue–expenditure pairs. This represents an average level of adherence to the Spend -Revenue hypothesis. Second, a significant bidirectional causal effect exists between 4 of the 8 receipt –expenditure pairs. This also indicates that Revenue –Expenditure relationship at the federal level of government in Nigeria finds prevalence in the fiscal synchronization hypothesis. It was ascertained that, ratio of Nigeria’s oil revenue to her federally collected revenue stood at 81%., while that of non –oil accounted for 19% of the total. That is a clear manifestation of her age’s long dependence on crude oil exports. It was equally noted that, the ratio of federal government’s retained revenue to her federally collected revenue stood at about 39%. A functional classification of the expenditure profile reveals that outlays on recurrent expenditure accounted for about 68% of total expenditure, while the remaining balance of 32 % went to capital expenditure. That is certainly not good enough for a nation that is aspiring to grow. A further classification of the expenditure profile indicates that outlays on Administrative services accounted for 33% of the total, economic services 22%, Social and community services 15% and transfers 30%. The indications are rife that, the administration sector and external debt service transfers attracted more than their fare share of public expenditure to the detriment of the economic and social / community welfare sectors. The implication is that directly productive activities such as agriculture, industry and commerce, construction, transport and communication, education, health services and environmental development were relatively underfunded as compared to defense, internal security, general administration and external debt servicing. From the foregoing analysis, it has become imperative that changes must occur in the expenditure structure of federal government of Nigeria, in order to enhance the effectiveness of her fiscal policy instruments and to achieve set goals and objectives. There is therefore the need for a policy shift from the present protective-sectors-dominance to productive- sectors –dominance. The study recommends that as government plans, budgets and implements her expenditure decisions; she should be mindful of her overall level of revenue accruals; set priorities for its allocation and to ensure quality within each of the expenditure categories. These calls for fiscal planning whose primary goals should be to forecast and to take cognizance of resource constraints and the linkages it spurs within the larger economy Keywords: Total Revenue, Retained Revenue, Recurrent Expenditure, Capital Expenditure, Total Expenditure, Fiscal Deficits

ANALYSIS OF VEGETABLE PRODUCTION AMONG RURAL WOMEN FARMERS IN IMO STATE NIGERIA

Globally, vegetable forms a most valuable part of every household's diet and are used to increase the quality of the soup. It has also become the most important crop grown by farmers in recent times. However, vegetable farming is not without production challenges. Regrettably, there is an acute shortage of empirical studies to substantiate this claim. It was against this backdrop that the study on analysis of vegetable production among rural women farmers in Imo State, Nigeria was undertaken. Specifically, the study was guided by the following objectives; describing the socio-economic characteristic of women in the study area; identifying the types of vegetables produced by women; identifying women's intent/reason for all-round vegetable farming. A multistage random sampling method was used in the selection of respondents. The sample size comprised one-hundred and thirty-five (135) vegetable women farmers. Well, a structured questionnaire was the main tool for data collection. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools, likert –scale rating, and multiple regression analysis.  Results show that the mean age was 44.00 years.  The majority (71.11%) were married with an average household size of 6 persons.  Average educational level, farming experience, farm size, and monthly farm income were 12 years (equivalent to secondary school education), 21.00years, 1.20ha, and N101,200 respectively. About 82.96% and 71.85% of the women farmers were visited once per month by extension agents and were members of cooperatives respectively. As types of vegetable crops produced by the women Approximately, 98.52%, 96.30% 91.85%, 89.63%, and 68.15% were also involved in Fluted pumpkin (Telfairiaoccidentalis), pepper (Capsicum annuum), Scent leaf (Ocimumgratissimum), Waterleaf (Talinumfruticosum) and Okra (Abelmoschusesculentus) respectively amongst others. The result shows that about 99.26%, 96.30%, and 95.56% identified personal intentions, wanting autonomy, and unstable income respectively as intent/reasons for all-round vegetable farming. Radio and farmers’ cooperative societies were identified by approximately 98.52% and 95.56% as sources of information on all-around vegetable farming among other sources. The study concludes that most of the women are involved in the cultivation of almost all the vegetables and therefore recommends that the extension agents should increase their visits/training to the rural vegetable farmers as results show low extension visits which affected them in the choice of vegetable planted as recent technologies has made it possible for farmers in the southeast to plant most of the vegetables formerly believed to survive only in the northern area of the country

Bird flu outbreak amidst COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa:Efforts and challenges at hand

Over the months of April and May 2021, South Africa has witnessed several outbreaks of highly infective avian influenza (H5N1) in different poultry farms. This came as a shock to a country that was already battling with the deadly COVID‐19 pandemic. The emergence of the virus has spurred import bans and massive culls in the poultry business. Local experts have also called for a restriction on the movement of people and cars in and out of their chicken farms. Employees have also been encouraged to shower in the mornings when they arrive at the farms and wear fresh clothes, as the flu spreads very quickly. In a country that is already facing the economic implications of the COVID‐19, this has the potential to cause a significant dent in the economy, as well as severely impact people's day‐to‐day life. Bird flu—also called avian influenza—is a viral infection that can infect not only birds but also humans and other animals. The threat of a new influenza pandemic has prompted countries to draft national strategic preparedness plans to prevent, contain and mitigate the next human influenza pandemic. This paper describes the South African burden, current efforts, and preparedness against the avian influenza virus

Behavioral Economics and the Public Sector

This thesis consists of four essays dealing with topics that are relevant for the public sector. The essays cover diverse issues of economics partly overlapping with political science. The topics reach from the taxation of labor over monetary policy to preferences over voting institutions. Throughout this thesis it is, in contrast to classical economics, not assumed that humans are necessarily fully rational. Once full rationality is no longer assumed, experiments become an important tool to learn about human behavior. Consequently, most of the work in this thesis makes use of economic experiments

Competition and Combative Advertising: An Historical Analysis

Fred K. Beard (PhD, University of Oklahoma) is a professor of advertising in the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Oklahoma. His research interests include comparative advertising, advertising humor, and advertising history. His work has appeared in the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Advertising Research, the Journal of Business Ethics, the Journal of Business Research, Journalism History, the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, the Journal of Macromarketing, and the Journal of Marketing Communications, among others.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS): An Approach to Traffic Congestion Challenges in Enugu Meteropolis

Mobility is a necessity but the consequence is the resultant congestion from increase in traffic volume. At a time the solution was the construction of more transport infrastructures, but in the face of a persistent decrease in land other methods of tackling the ever increasingtransport problems gave birth to systems such as Intelligent Transport Systems. This study attempts to assess the role of Intelligent Transport System in solving the problem of traffic congestion by identifying the existing system of traffic management in Enugu Urban and determining the potential for a more effective traffic management system through intelligent transport systems. Primary sources of data were employed. Using purposive sampling and simply random sampling 400 road users and 122 staff of Enugu State Ministry of Transport were interviewed through well-constructed questionnaires with a return rate of 94.5% and94% respectively. Descriptive statistics were employed. The results were compiled using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The study revealed that Automated Traffic Signal and Control, Traffic Wardens, Channelization to Road Signs; are the existing systems of traffic management and was found to be ineffective in tackling the challenges of traffic congestion. It was also discovered that the introduction of some forms of Intelligent Transport Systems would go a long way in improving the control and management of traffic. The study therefore recommends the integration of Intelligent Transport Systems for operational efficiencies and inter-jurisdictional coordination benefits that result incomprehensive and improved transport system management