Determinants of customer satisfaction in a high-contact service environment: a study of selected hotels in Abakaliki metropolis, Nigeria

This article explores the factors that lead to customer satisfaction, with a particular interest in the hospitality industry of Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria.  In a high-contact service industry such as hospitality, service providers and customers usually have an intimate and direct interaction for a considerable  time duration and, as such, sales to and retention of customers is based on the richness or otherwise of such interactions. With this in mind, this study  specifically seeks to find out if customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry (especially hotels) is determined by staff service quality, room quality, value  and security. Hypotheses were formulated vis-à-vis a theoretical background and conceptual models. Survey data generated from 317 consumers  of hotel services in Abakaliki were used as the research database. In analysing the data used for the study, the researchers made use of factor analysis  and multiple regression analysis techniques. It was discovered that all the determinants of customer satisfaction under study have an effect on customer  satisfaction.&nbsp

Rethinking terrorism financing and democracy in Africa: The Nigeria case

Terrorism financing has become a threat to humanity and democracy in Africa. Most terrorist organizations in Africa need money to carry out their massacre activities, which threatens African democracy, political stability, and economic development. The wave of terrorism activities and terrorism financing in Africa have remained a major cause for concern. The pervasive widespread of terrorist attacks seem to have defile all situations. Apparently, in Nigeria, terrorist attack reports have become a daily menu. The lethal killings by Boko Haram in Nigeria can be likened to the era of the Nigerian Civil war. This paper therefore, compares and contrasts the terrorism financing vis-à-vis the nascent democracy in Africa with a focus on Nigerian cases of Boko Haram. Terrorism financing misrepresents democratic growth and economic development in Africa, which brought about a rise in terrorist widespread and negative financial growth and progress in Nigeria and Africa. The multi-dimensional of terrorist financing has brought difficulties to trace terrorist funds due to legitimize illegal sourcing of funds to terrorist accounts. The paper finds that the current wave of terrorism financing have made African democracy unstable and pathetically feeble. Keywords: Terrorism, financing, security, democrac

Determinants of the performance of women entrepreneurs’ in SMEs in Abakaliki: ‘Perhaps the wolf will arrive, but when’?

This study investigates the fundamental factors that influence women entrepreneurs’ performance in SMEs in Abakaliki urban region. Entrepreneurship shares strong relationship with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in economic development process and SMEs are placed as the thrust sector of an economy because of its capacity to drive economic development. Survey data collected from 285 experienced women entrepreneurs (WE), engaged in SMEs formed the final database used in the study. Findings from this study reveal that five factors out of nine factors investigated have significant influence on WE performance. These factors include: human capital, entrepreneurs’ goals and motives, economic factors, socio-cultural factors and SMEs industry characteristics. Legal and administrative factors, job complexity, entrepreneurial orientation and opportunity recognition do not have significant influence on WE performance. Among the five factors that significantly influence WE performance, three factors: socio-cultural factors, SMEs industry characteristics and entrepreneurs’ goals and motives are most influential factors. On the strength of the above findings, this study recommends lead effort on expanding financial access to WE in SMEs and policy endorsement on innovative models that encourage private sector led and market base economy, supportive regulatory framework for women entrepreneurs and development of entrepreneurial education in Nigeria

Macroeconomic determinants of bond market development: Evidence from Nigerian

This paper examined the macroeconomic determinants of bond market development in Nigeria to address the persistent research question of whether bond market development is driven by macroeconomic factors or institutional factors in emerging markets. Time series data generated over the period of 32 years were analyzed using ordinary least square regression techniques involving multiple regression. The aggregate bond market capitalization comprising both government bonds and corporate bonds were exploited. The major findings of the study revealed that exchange rate, interest rate, inflation rate and banking sector development have negative and significant influence on the Nigerian bond market capitalization and as such, they demonstrated strong evidence as robust macroeconomic determinants and drivers of bond market development in Nigeria. Keywords: Bond market, Macroeconomics, Development, Financial market, Capital marke

Dilemma of financial exclusion and inlusion in Africa: Can Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana be compared?

This paper investigates the level of financial inclusion and exclusion in selected African countries with special attention to Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana in a comparative approach. The study utilized global survey data on financial inclusion index published by Global Findex. From the researcher‟s comparative analysis using the basic variables of financial inclusion, it was discovered that: in terms of financial service accessibility, bankable adult Nigerians have less access to financial services than South Africa while the degree of financial services availability and financial service usage are all higher in South Africa than Nigeria and Ghana. The implication of these findings is that South Africa is more financially inclusive than Nigeria and Ghana; indicating that greater percentage of Nigerian and Ghanaian bankable adult citizens are financially excluded from their economy irrespective of the various banking reforms in the two countries. It was recommended among other suggestions that an all-embracing financial inclusion strategy that is rural based be developed for Nigeria and Ghana as well as reduction in the cost of banking and financial services (especially lending and deposit rates in Africa). The implication of these recommendations is that in Africa (and even other continents) the higher the deposit rate, the more people are willing to save and the lower the lending rate the more people are willing to get loans. The study submitted that by hierarchy of financial inclusion in Africa, Nigeria and Ghana with their present high level of financial exclusion cannot be compared to South Africa in all the key indicators of financial inclusion

Rethinking money demand function in Nigeria using Toda-Yamamoto Approach

This study examined the demand for money in Nigeria from 1980 to 2019, employing various techniques of econometric analysis. The study was motivated to determine whether Keynes liquidity preference theory holds in Nigeria and to ascertain whether money demand function is stable in Nigeria. The Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) unit root test showed that the variables were stationary at different levels. The test of stability showed that the estimated parameters for the study are stable within the period under study. Thus, money demand function is stable in Nigeria. Considering a year period lag in the estimated money demand function, it was found that there was a positive relationship between money demand and real income during the period of study. It implies that increase in real income (gross domestic product) leads to increase in the demand for money, as predicted by economic theory. The real income (gross domestic product) coefficient is 0.09 which is less than unit and is consistent with the transactions and precautionary theories. However, the inflation rate both at a year and two years period lags had negative signs, and were consistent with a priori expectations. The coefficient of –0.002 and -0.001 respectively showed that the demand for money in Nigeria will decrease by about 0.2% or 0.1% when the inflation rate (at a year or two year lag) rises by 1%. The result indicated that the higher the rate of expected inflation (i.e. higher returns on the alternative assets), ceteris paribus, and the lower is the demand for money in Nigeria. Hence, people would tend to switch to other money alternatives when inflation is anticipated, because they promise higher rates of returns. In the light of the findings, it was recommended that Central Bank of Nigeria should pursue policy aimed at changing the level of income which will influence the demand for money in the same direction