An Assessment of the Strategies for Sustaining Self Help Group Projects in Paikoro Area Niger State, Nigeria

Self-help groups (SHGs) have been seriously viewed in recent times as one of the potent instruments for socio-economic development in rural communities having realized that governments cannot provide all the necessities of life for the teeming population in the country. It is in this regard that rural people evolved this strategy as a means to overcome deprivation and neglect. The study aimed at assessing various projects executed by self help groups in Paikoro local government area of Niger State, Nigeria. This study used field survey, and focus group discussion. It adopted a systematic sampling to select 35 self help groups  and purposive sampling technique to select 4 group leaders to make 140 samples on the one hand, 316 samples were generated among the members of the communities through cluster sampling within the neighbourhoods to select key informants in wards where self-help group projects have been executed. The study adopted descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency, averages and percentages to analyse the data. The study identified 105 self-help groups within five districts Paiko having 37(35.2%) as the highest and Ishau has the lowest with 13(12.3%). Projects include roads, clinic, boreholes, electrification, skill acquisition centres, schools, and community toilets. With resource mobilization, some 52(37.2%) are donated by members, 34(24.3%) from stakeholders, 38(27.1) through launching of funds, and 13(9.3%) from various levies. Regarding sustainability of group projects, majority 118(84.3%) opined that involvement of community members would help to maintain the projects and some 9(6.4) admitted that provision of adequate security was necessary. It is recommended that active community participation in self help projects should be encouraged since the people treat such projects as their own. Also, distributive justice should be paramount to location of projects such that there should be no discrimination either by tribe, religion or political affiliation. Moreover, government should give grants and technical assistance to communities that embark upon laudable self-help projects. Keywords: District Self Help Group Project Sustenanc

Trade Openness, Economic Growth, and Environmental Concern In Nigeria

This study is an attempt to analyze the relationship between trade openness, economic growth, and environmental pollution in Nigeria. The study introduces urbanization and ruralization as measures of the growth of urban and rural sectors to analyze their contributions to pollution in the country. Using Vector Error Correction Mechanism (VECM) and co-integration techniques, the result confirms the existence of the Environmental Kuznets curve in Nigeria. Also, there is a positive relationship between ruralization and environmental pollution both in the short and long run. However, there is a negative relationship between urbanization and environmental pollution in the long run, but positive in the short run. The study concludes with the recommendation that there is a need for policy makers to enact and enforce environmental laws that are aimed at regulating various sources of environmental pollution in the country. Key Words: EKC, Trade Openness, Urbanization, Ruralization, VECMTrade Openness, Economic Growth, and Environmental Concern In Nigeri

Monetary Policy and Commercial Banks’ Performance in Nigeria

The study was carried out to examine the impact of monetary policy on commercial banks’ performance in Nigeria in a micro-panel analysis. Interest rate and money supply were used as proxies for monetary policy, while profit before tax (PBT) was used to represent commercial banks’ performance. Pooled regression, Fixed effect regression, and random effect regression were all carried out in the analysis. However, Hausman test revealed that fixed effect regression is the most appropriate. The results show that there is a positive relationship between banks’ profits and monetary policies as proxied by money supply and interest rate. However, interest rate was not statistically significant at 1% and 5% levels. This study therefore recommends that interest rate policy should be looked into by the monetary authority in a way that is friendly to loan advancement in the country. Key words: Monetary Policy, Fixed effect, Hausman test, Banks’ Profits, Nigeri

Exchange Rate Volatility and International Trade In Nigeria

Volatile exchange rate makes international trade and investment decisions more difficult because volatility increases exchange rate risk. This study seeks to evaluate the impact of exchange rate volatility on international trade in Nigeria on the basis of annual data from 1980 to 2013, which was obtained from World Bank Development Indicators (WDI). Exchange rate volatility, gross national product (GDP), investment, interest rate, import and export were used to capture the causal relationship between exchange rate volatility and international trade and also the long-run and short-run relationship between exchange rate volatility and international trade. A review of the literature reveals that exchange rate volatility has a negative impact on international trade. The empirical analysis began with testing for stationarity of the variables by applying the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), this was followed by co-integration test, then the granger causality and the Error Correction Model (ECM). The co-integration test indicated that the variables are co-integrated which implies that a long-run relationship exist between the variables while the granger causality test showed that a causal relationship exist between international trade and exchange rate volatility. It was observed form the ECM analysis that exchange rate volatility negatively affects international trade. The study therefore recommend that the government should put in place exchange rate and trade policies that will promote greater exchange rate stability and trade conditions that will promote domestic production in the economy. In other to achieve this, the government should provide efficient infrastructural services like energy resources

Optoelectronic Properties of Chemically Synthesized Copper Cadmium Sulphide Thin Films

Copper cadmium sulphide (CuCdS) thin film (TFs) is one of the most important ternary semiconductors for the development of various modern optoelectronic devices. In this study CuCdS TFs were deposited on soda-lime glass substrates utilizing chemical bath deposition (CBD) procedure at normal room temperature. The deposited materials were characterized by UV-Vis spectrophotometer and four-point (4-point) probes for its optical and electrical (O&E) properties. The band gap (BG) energy was determined to be 2.36 eV using the absorption spectrum fitting (ASF) method. Optical constants such as refractive index (n), extinction coefficient (k), real (Ɛᵣ) and imaginary (Ɛᵢ) dielectric constants, dielectric loss (tan ϕ), electrical susceptibility (Xc) have been calculated at a wavelength () of 900 nm. The film also demonstrates an optical transmittance of above 75% at wavelength greater than 900 nm. The electrical resistivity and conductivity were estimated to be 2.5 Ω/cm and 0.4 (Ω/cm)-1 respectively. These determined properties confirmed CuCdS TFs as a potential ternary material for various optoelectronic applications

Government Expenditure and Its Implication for Economic Growth: Evidence from Nigeria

Government Expenditure is an important macroeconomic objective in an economy. In this study, the structure and size of government expenditure determine the pattern of growth in the economy. The Keynesian aggregate expenditure is adopted as a framework to explain the role of government spending on output. The Johansen cointegration test was applied to verify the long run relationship between the variables and the Granger causality test was employed to determine the existence and direction of causation between government expenditure and economic growth. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) methodology was employed to examine the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. From the analysis and findings, government spending significantly and positively explained the economic growth of the country. The relationship was significant at 5 percent level. In comparing the results of the total government expenditure with capital and recurrent expenditure, the result shows that they are positively related to economic growth however the recurrent component of the expenditure significantly explained more. Therefore, it is recommended that the government should give more priority to the capital component that is more productive and can induce rapid economic prosperity

Cryptic Eimeria genotypes are common across the southern but not northern hemisphere

The phylum Apicomplexa includes parasites of medical, zoonotic and veterinary significance. Understanding the global distribution and genetic diversity of these protozoa is of fundamental importance for efficient, robust and long-lasting methods of control. Eimeria spp. cause intestinal coccidiosis in all major livestock animals and are the most important parasites of domestic chickens in terms of both economic impact and animal welfare. Despite having significant negative impacts on the efficiency of food production, many fundamental questions relating to the global distribution and genetic variation of Eimeria spp. remain largely unanswered. Here, we provide the broadest map yet of Eimeria occurrence for domestic chickens, confirming that all the known species (Eimeria acervulina, Eimeria brunetti, Eimeria maxima, Eimeria mitis, Eimeria necatrix, Eimeria praecox, Eimeria tenella) are present in all six continents where chickens are found (including 21 countries). Analysis of 248 internal transcribed spacer sequences derived from 17 countries provided evidence of possible allopatric diversity for species such as E. tenella (FST values ⩽0.34) but not E. acervulina and E. mitis, and highlighted a trend towards widespread genetic variance. We found that three genetic variants described previously only in Australia and southern Africa (operational taxonomic units x, y and z) have a wide distribution across the southern, but not the northern hemisphere. While the drivers for such a polarised distribution of these operational taxonomic unit genotypes remains unclear, the occurrence of genetically variant Eimeria may pose a risk to food security and animal welfare in Europe and North America should these parasites spread to the northern hemisphere

Optimisation of Cooking Time for Two Varieties of Foodstuffs using Single- and Double-Cavity Cooking Pots

The increase in the shortage of firewood due to deforestation, skyrocketing of electricity tariffs and fuel pump prices in recent times have propelled scientists to search for alternative measures of cooking that can reduce electric energy and fuel consumption. Double-cavity cooking pots have emerged in recent times to reduce the prolonged duration arising from the sequential cooking of different foodstuffs/ dishes using a single-cavity pot. However, experimental reports are rarely available to sensitise users about the advantages of using the double-cavity pot. The present work describes a simple and informative experimental report that compares the cooking time for two varieties of foodstuffs (rice and beans) using single- and double-cavity pots. It was found that the average time rate of cooking in the double-cavity pot was 1.33 ◦ C/min less than in the single-cavity pot. The total time taken to concurrently cook equal masses of rice and beans in separate cavities of the double-cavity pot was found to be 9.98 min less than that of the single-cavity pot. The double-cavity pot proved to be economically viable by reducing the cooking time, electric energy, and fuel consumption that arise from the successional cooking of a variety of foodstuffs using the single-cavity pot

Predictors and outcomes of COVID-19 patients with hypoxemia in Lagos, Nigeria

Objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the current public health concern. Hypoxemia has been identified as an independent risk factor for mortality in COVID-19 patients regardless of age or sex. This study therefore aimed to assess the profile of COVID-19 patients with hypoxemia in Lagos, Nigeria and identify their associated socio-demographic and clinical risk factors, predictors, and outcomes.Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study in which data were extracted from medical records of real-time polymerase chain reaction confirmed COVID-19 positive patients admitted between April and October 2020. Data extracted included age, sex, comorbidities, disease category/classification, symptoms, lowest oxygen saturation (SPO2), and outcomes. Bivariate analysis was done to test associations between hypoxemia and other variables. Multivariate analysis was done to determine significant predictors of hypoxemia.Results: A total of 266 patients were included in the study; mean (SD) 49.80 (± 16.68) years. Hypoxemia (lowest SPO2 ≤ 90 in adults and < 92% in children) was found in 102 (38.3 %) of the cases. SPO2 of hypoxemic patients ranged from 33% to 90%, Mean ±SD of 77±13%. About half of the hypoxemic cases, 53 (52%) were ≥ 60 years and mostly male 70 (68.6%). Difficulty breathing was present in 56 (55%), while the common comorbidities were hypertension 86 (32.3%) and diabetes mellitus 47 (17.7%). Age ≥ 60, difficulty breathing, and fever were independent predictors of hypoxemia. Hypoxemia was significantly associated with death (X2-42.13; P < 0.001); odds ratio 14.5 (95% CI: 5.4–38.8).Conclusion: Hypoxemia occurred in 1 out of every 3 COVID-19 patients with poor prognosis. SPO2 monitoring and early presentation in hospital for those 60 years and above or with dyspnea may be essential for early identification and treatment of hypoxemia to reduce mortality