Gender Discrimination in Micro Credit Financing Development Agencies in Nigeria: An Empirical Analysis

The issue of gender discrimination has been at the front burner in literature. Women are increasingly assuming greater roles. In spite of that, response to their quest for credit and other critical resources are often below expectation. The Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank (NACB) is a development bank, concerned with providing credits to small-scale farm holders. This paper therefore examines the level of discrimination and participation in terms of loan disbursement of the bank between 1990 and 1999. The study found that women were discriminated against, and called for a cultural change in loan administration

Government Bonds and Capital Market Development: The Nigeria Experience

The perennial debt overhang of most developing countries have brought to the fore the need to develop domestic capital markets. However, in most developing countries, domestic capital markets have so far fallen short of expectations in spite of the great potential for financing development. The objective of this paper is therefore to empirically evaluate the impact of government bonds on the growth and development of the Nigerian capital market. The ordinary least square regression (OLS) was used to measure the impact of government bonds on the capital market from 1970 to 2003. The study found out that the level of current prospects and benefits of the Nigerian capital market can be improved upon to attain yet greater height within the framework of this study

Spatial Distribution of Registrar’s Services in Nigeria Capital Market: Issues, Problems and Prospects

The growing level of unclaimed dividends in the Nigerian Capital Market has generated concern. This paper examines the effect of spatial distribution of registrars’ services on unclaimed dividends and concludes that there is need for a legal maximum to be fixed for registrars in terms of number of firms to service to reduce the mounting level of unclaimed dividend

An Evaluation of Poverty Alleviation Programmes in Nigeria

The issue of poverty and measures to reduce the incidence of poverty have remained at the front burner of government policies the world over in the last two decades. Specifically, the governments at the various levels in Nigeria have introduced different poverty alleviation programmes. The paper therefore examined these programmes in Nigeria. The paper found out that there is no correlation between poverty alleviation programmes and the level of poverty. The paper recommends a more integrated strategy that will treat sectoral priority in both urban and rural area

Risk of infection and estimated incidence of tuberculosis in northern Uganda.

Abstract The main goals of our study were to evaluate: 1) the annual risk of tuberculosis infection (ARTI) and its annual decrease in Uganda; 2) the expected incidence of new tuberculosis cases and the notification rate; and 3) the role of incentives given to children tested in increasing compliance with the survey procedures. The methodology is based on performing the standard World Health Organization (WHO) tuberculin test on children of the same age groups at intervals of 10-15 yrs, identifying infected persons by induration distribution analysis, and converting the prevalence rates detected into risk rates according to the ARTI model. Two thousand six hundred and twenty one school children aged 10 yrs old and bacilli Calmette-Gu\ue9rin (BCG) nonvaccinated, in six study areas, were injected with two tuberculin units (TU) of purified protein derivative (PPD) RT 23 Copenhagen. The detected prevalence was 14 +/- 1.4% (prevalence +/- 95% confidence interval (95% CI)) and the ARTI value 1.2 +/- 0.9%, with an estimated annual decrease of 0.83% from 1958 to 1970 and 2.9% in the 1970-1987 period. The estimated expected incidence of new cases in Uganda was 59 smear positive and 75 smear negative/extrapulmonary cases per 100,000 population in 1987, and 53 and 65, respectively, in 1990, with an overall 68% notification coverage. No significant improvement in children returning for reading was observed in the group receiving incentives. We conclude that the average decrease (2.9%) probably represents the natural decline of tuberculosis in Uganda. The coverage appears encouraging, although the ARTI detected could be underestimated, since the existing ARTI model was developed and validated before the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) era.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS

Massive outbreak of poliomyelitis caused by type-3 wild poliovirus in Angola in 1999

The largest outbreak of poliomyelitis ever recorded in Africa (1093 cases) occurred from 1 March to 28 May 1999 in Luanda, Angola, and in surrounding areas. The outbreak was caused primarily by a type-3 wild poliovirus, although type-1 wild poliovirus was circulating in the outbreak area at the same time. Infected individuals ranged in age from 2 months to 22 years; 788 individuals (72%) were younger than 3 years. Of the 590 individuals whose vaccination status was known, 23% had received no vaccine and 54% had received fewer than three doses of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). The major factors that contributed to this outbreak were as follows: massive displacement of unvaccinated persons to urban settings; low routine OPV coverage; inaccessible populations during the previous three national immunization days (NIDs); and inadequate sanitation. This outbreak indicates the urgent need to improve accessibility to all children during NIDs and the dramatic impact that war can have by displacing persons and impeding access to routine immunizations. The period immediately after an outbreak provides an enhanced opportunity to eradicate poliomyelitis. If continuous access in all districts for acute flaccid paralysis surveillance and supplemental immunizations cannot be assured, the current war in Angola may threaten global poliomyelitis eradication