Women entrepreneurs and survival of small scale enterprises in Nigeria

This research set out to analyze the women entrepreneurs and survival of small–scale enterprises in Nigeria. The objective of this paper is to determine the extent of women entrepreneurs and survival of SSEs in Nigeria. One Hundred and Twenty Eight (128) questionnaires were retrieved for analysis. Data collected were analyzed using multiple regressions. The results revealed that Women entrepreneurs experience and women entrepreneurs’ level of education have significant effect on the survival of small scale enterprises in Nigeria. The study therefore, concluded that an increase in training or improvement in the activities of women entrepreneurship will lead to a significant increase in the maintenance and sustainability of SSEs in Nigeria. This paper recommended that since, women entrepreneurs experience and high level of education led to the survival of SSEs in Nigeria therefore, the Nigerian government should provide an avenue for adequate funding, training on entrepreneurship, provision of infrastructural facilities and enabling environment in order to enhance the women entrepreneurial activities as this would translate to increase in an income generation, provision of employment and reduction of poverty in Nigeria.  Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Women Entrepreneurs, Small Scale Enterprises, Women Entrepreneurship and Survival

Women Entrepreneuurs and Survival of Small Scale Enterprises in Nigeria

This research set out to analyze the women entrepreneurs and survival of small–scale enterprises in Nigeria. The objective of this paper is to determine the extent of women entrepreneurs and survival of SSEs in Nigeria. One Hundred and Twenty Eight (128) questionnaires were retrieved for analysis. Data collected were analyzed using multiple regressions. The results revealed that Women entrepreneurs experience and women entrepreneurs’ level of education have significant effect on the survival of small scale enterprises in Nigeria. The study therefore, concluded that an increase in training or improvement in the activities of women entrepreneurship will lead to a significant increase in the maintenance and sustainability of SSEs in Nigeria. This paper recommended that since, women entrepreneurs experience and high level of education led to the survival of SSEs in Nigeria therefore, the Nigerian government should provide an avenue for adequate funding, training on entrepreneurship, provision of infrastructural facilities and enabling environment in order to enhance the women entrepreneurial activities as this would translate to increase in an income generation, provision of employment and reduction of poverty in Nigeria.&nbsp

INLUENCE OF POLITICS IN EDUCATION IN NIGERIA: PROBLEMS AND WAY FORWARD

The influence of politics on education can be traced to the development of civil society itself. Societies evolved from the primitive stages where people agreed and submitted themselves to an authority for control. As a result of that and the legitimacy accords to the authorities, the forces of development in the societies in terms of economic, cultural, social, and political are determined and directed by the authorities. It is on the above backgrounds this paper looks at the negative influence of politics in education in Nigeria which ranges from inequalities in the Nigerian education sector, poor staffing, inadequate funding, and half-backed graduates among others. Furthermore, the positive influence of politics in education in Nigeria is also reiterated such as level of pupil enrolment, quality product, adequate budgetary allocation and funding of education, availability of adequate and quality teachers in schools, and many more.  The paper concludes that educational leadership should be based on merit, policies are made considering the needs of the society, and graduate to be produced on the needs of the economy

THE EFFECTIVE READING HABIT: A PRACTICE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NIGERIA AMIDST COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Many schools at different levels of education including Secondary schools worldwide were suspended classroom teaching due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and switched to online teaching. In most developing countries, physical learning is faced with a number of challenges part of which is inadequate facilities of instruction. Switching to online teaching and learning in these countries is likely to face challenges such as; lack of background knowledge of online teaching by teachers and learning by students, inadequate ICT facilities, poor electricity supply, the poor network for connection, constraints in purchasing data, etc. These challenges affect students of secondary schools in Nigeria thereby making them stayed without learning online and subsequently affect their performance. Now that the schools were reopened, it was opined that the students should imbibe effective reading habits to improve their academic performance. To support this, it was recommended that students/parents/schools should make available the required reference materials and time of extra reading among others

Adsorption, Thermodynamic and Kinetic Studies of Azadirachta indica (AI) Bark Extract as a Potential Corrosion Inhibitor for Zinc in 0.25 M HNO3 Solution

The inhibition action and adsorption behavior of Azadirachta indica bark extract was studied on zinc in 0.25 M HNO3 solution using weight loss, FT-IR and SEM analysis. The result of the findings show that inhibition efficiency of the extract increases with increase in inhibitor concentration and decrease with rise in temperature. Corrosion rate was found to increase with rise in temperature and decrease with increase in inhibitor concentration. FT-IR and SEM analysis shows that there is adsorption of inhibitor molecules on metal surface which lead to decrease in corrosion rate. Adsorption isotherm study shows that experimental data obey Freundlich isotherm and the mechanism of adsorption follow physisorption. Adsorption thermodynamic study indicates feasible and spontaneous process from the large negative value of free energy. The value of enthalpy are all positives indicating endothermic nature of adsorption. The result of activation energy was found to be higher in the presence of inhibitor than its absence indicating the decrease in energy barrier of zinc dissolution process

Equilibrium studies on batch adsorption of alizarin red in aqueous solution using activated carbons derived from orange peels

Adsorption has been one of the most preferred methods for the removal of dyes from aqueous solutions due to its simplicity and economic advantages. In this research, activated carbon prepared from orange peels has been characterized using Boehm titration which revealed the surface as having 7.70 mmol/g and 3.64 mmol/g total acidic and basic sites respectively. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) imaging showed that the adsorbent had heterogeneous surface morphology while the pH of zero point charge (pHzpc) of the adsorbent was found to be 3.6. Furthermore, Sear’s titration has shown that the activated carbon specific surface area was 791.1 m2 g - . 1The influence of various experimental parameters have been probed and optimized. The optimized conditions were set for the study of adsorption equilibrium and the experimental data were treated using Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubnin-Radushkevic (D-R) and Halsey isotherm models. However, all the four isotherm models were in good fit with the data obtained as indicated by the regression coefficients (R2 value) of 0.944 for the Langmuir isotherm, 0.993 for both Freundlich and Halsey models, and 0.980 for D-R model. The maximum monolayer coverage capacity (qm) was determined to be 11.5 mg/g at room temperature, which is higher than some presented in the previous literature.Keywords: Adsorption, Alizarin red, Orange peels, Textile dyes, Waste water, Adsorption isother

Evaluation of Anti-Inflammatory and Antipyretic Activities of The Aqueous Stem Bark Extract of Lophira Lanceolata Van Tiegh. Ex Keay

The bark of Lophira lanceolata (Ochnaceae) has been used traditionally for the treatment of many disease conditions such as dysentery, headaches, diarrhoea, cough, abdominal pains, fungal infections, nociception and cardiovascular diseases. However, no specific work on its anti-inflammatory or antipyretic effect has been reported which forms the basis of this study. This study evaluates the in-vivo anti-inflammatory and antipyretic activities of the aqueous extract of the stem bark of Lophira lanceolata using laboratory animal model. The methods adopted for this study were formalin induced inflammation and yeast induced hyperpyrexia in rats. All the results were expressed as mean ± S.E. The data were statistically analysed by one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Dunnett's multiple comparison and p-values 0.05 were considered as significant. The result of this study showed a significant anti-inflammatory effect different from the control (distilled water) at p 0.05 characterized by oedema formation, change in temperature, redness, and itching in the paw of the rats which is comparable with the standard indomethacin. The inhibition of oedema was statistically dose dependent as the group 4 rats which received 400 mg/kg body weight demonstrated more effect than the group 1 rats which received 100 mg/kg body weight of the aqueous extract of the stem bark of Lophira lanceolata. The aqueous at the dose of 400 mg/kg body weight showed the highest antipyretic effect. Hence the antipyretic activity was also dose- dependent. The study demonstrated that the aqueous Lophira lanceolata stem bark extract possesses anti-inflammatory and antipyretic activities.&nbsp

Distance tracking scheme for seamless handover in IMS-based systems with UMTS access network

This paper proposes a fast and seamless handover scheme for systems based on IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architectural framework with Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) access network. In the scheme the location, direction and movement pattern of a Mobile Node (MN) in a network cell are proactively tracked in order to determine the exact moment to trigger the pre-handover process with one of the adjacent cells considering MN’s direction before the execution of Layer 2 handover. The performance of the proposed scheme was evaluated by comparing it with the traditional handover scheme and the evaluation shows that the traditional handover scheme introduced a handover delay of about 675.5 ms, whereas the proposed scheme introduced handover delay of about 96.25 ms, which is less than 100 ms, hence the handover delay introduced by the proposed scheme fall within the specified range of best class service for voice traffic and streaming media over IP networks.Keywords: IMS, Handover delay, Distance Tracking, pre-handover, UMT

Assessment of commercialization of food crops among farming households in Southwestern, Nigeria

This study assessed the commercialization of food crops among farming household in Osun state by administering questionnaires to 99 food crop farmers. Furthermore, descriptive statistics, Household Commercialization Index (HCl) and Linear Regression analysis were used for data analysis. Results of field data analyses  revealed that food crops farmers carry out full commercialization in the study area with Household Commercialization Index at 51.7% and  about 54.6% of the respondent are at full commercialization. Also 79% of the respondents are male with 56% within the age range of 50 to 69 years and 53% having a household size between the range 4 to 7. However, the respondents travelled an average distance of 17.5km from farm to market. The study also revealed that usage of modern machinery and storage facilities, are some of the major determinants that contribute to the commercialization of food crops. With these, it is recommended that, farmers need to be provided with good storage facilities to ensure that food crops produced in excess quantities are stored in order to make it available throughout the year at an affordable prices. There is need to also sensitize the farmers on the benefits that can be derive from commercialization of food crops.  Key Words: Commercialization, Food crop, Agriculture, Regression, Nigeri

Muslim scholars and the world of social media: opportunities and challenges

The paper has examines what is considered dual contributions of the internet based medium of communication in Da’wah. These platforms for social interaction and communication have become medium of spreading Islamic messages by Islamic scholars. The objective of the paper is to analyze how internet related mane of communications and interaction have aided Da’wah. The researchers adopted an explanatory type of research whose aim is to explain a phenomenon of choice.  The researchers sourced data from the secondary sources and analyzed them. It is on the basis of such that, the findings of this research have portrayed that social media as medium of social interaction have been adopted as tools for Da’wah which learned Islamic scholars are using to propagate Islam and its teachings. However, the outcomes confirmed that social media have provided a fruitful ground for the germination of cyber space Islamic scholars, people who are not learned but share texts, video and audio containing distorted and misleading information. This has challenged the age long Islamic practice in Islam where any issues regarding Islamic Da’wah and Fatwa are exclusively for the learned Islamic Scholars. The study in addition reveal that what is obtainable on the social media now is, cyber scholars and quick to post or comment on issues that are exclusive the purview of Islamic scholars