Challenges of accountability and development in Nigeria

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges of accountability and development in Nigeria. In the literature, corruption is seen as an indicator of a lack of political accountability in most countries of the world, especially in less developed countries such as Nigeria. The Nigerian Government has taken several actions to address the problems of bad governance and corruption that have impeded economic development, but unfortunately these measures have not yielded the desired results. Design/methodology/approach – Thus, this study examined accountability and developmental issues in Nigeria using secondary data and then made use of the auto-regressive distributed lag econometric technique to analyze the data. Findings – The results from the study found that a rise in total government expenditure poses a danger of reducing Nigeria’s economic development in the long run and that control of corruption and political (the institutional variables) has a direct and significant effect on Nigeria’s economic development. Originality/value – Therefore, upon these findings, this paper recommended that for Nigeria to experience development, corruption should be eliminated, and the Nigerian Government should spend on viable projects and economic activities that will be beneficial to the populace and the society at large and hence bring about economic development. Accountability is the hallmark of a prudent government that ensures efficient management of resources and transparency in the utilization of funds by the government. The absence of accountability mechanism allows corruption to thrive, which hinders the developmental process

Large-scale agricultural investment and female employment in African communities: Quantitative and qualitative insights from Nigeria

This study examines how large-scale agricultural investments (LSAIs) affect employment outcomes of female-headed households in Nigeria. It focuses on wage income and labour allocations of households in communities where LSAIs occurred in comparison with households in communities where LSAIs did not occur. It engages a mixed method approach, which involves the quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data was sourced from the Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA), which was analysed using Propensity Score Matching (PSM). The qualitative analysis entails in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs). The results show a positive relationship with the household income living in communities with LSAIs, but a negative association with labour allocation to agricultural activities. Also, the findings indicate that households in communities where LSAIs took place received higher wages and spent fewer hours in agriculture. Though, female-headed households spent more time on agricultural activities than the male-headed households, they earn less. The analysis from the qualitative study show, among others things, that female-headed households spent more time on off-farm business despite the fact that they earn less. The study concludes by recommending that the possible adverse employment effects of LSAIs could be reduced by optimising its positive impact, especially with respect to female-headed households in rural communities where most of such investments occur

Operations of small and medium enterprises and the legal system in Nigeria

Abstract This research explored the effects of the legal system on SMEs operations in the Nigerian economy. The study aimed to address the gap in literature discussing the legal system and SMEs’ operations in Nigeria. It focused on learning about the current level of support of the legal system for SME operations and as well as suggesting an approach to enhance effective SMEs’ operations in Nigeria further. The current study applied a conceptual review, relying on extant literature relating to the antecedence of the Nigeria legal system, focusing on the critical factors affecting SME practices in Nigeria. A key finding is the importance of the legal system functions to SMEs practice in Nigeria. It also highlighted the weaknesses of the legal system in providing the needed backing and conducive business environment for SMEs in Nigeria. A model was proposed, depicting the need for restructuring of the legal system, improvised support of other government functionaries and other relevant stakeholders, to facilitate SMEs’ operations and enhance their contributions to the Nigerian economy. The research ends with the suggestion for further research to consider other research methodological approaches, the development of alternative dispute revolutionary measures, as well as a comparative study involving two or more economies in order to project further learning on the legal system and SMEs’ operations