Wealth Allocation and Determinants of Venture Capital among Poultry Agribusiness Entrepreneurs in Abia State, Nigeria

This study examined wealth allocation and determinants of venture capital among poultry entrepreneurs in AbiaState, Nigeria. It specifically examined the socio-economic characteristics of poultry agribusiness entrepreneurs,sources of venture capital, entrepreneurs’ wealth status, and factors influencing wealth allocation, factorsinfluencing venture capital and finally examined the relationship between wealth allocation and venture capital.A simple random sampling technique was used to select forty (40) poultry agribusiness entrepreneurs andinformation was solicited via the use of well structured questionnaire. The tools for data analyses weredescriptive statistics, pie chart, coefficient of correlation and multiple regression analyses. The result revealedthat most of the respondents were young, married and had household size ranging from 6 – 10 persons withbusiness experience of 11 – 20 years. Sources of venture capital were mainly formal source of venture capital.Farm size, access to credit, and value of stock, equity shares were significant and positive variables influencingwealth allocation while personal savings, value of assets and source of capital from financial institution wereobvious variables influencing venture capital negatively. There was a strong relationship between wealthallocation and venture capital. It is recommended that government and other stakeholders involved in theagribusiness sector should provide a better market for the enhancement of the entrepreneurs’ stock value withrespect to sales of product. Further, hitch free and adequate access to credit will to greater extent improve thewealth allocation statues and venture capital volume of the entrepreneurs

Corporate governance attributes and financial reporting quality in Nigeria

This study evaluated the effect of corporate governance attributes on financial reporting quality of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The research design adopted for this study was the ex-post facto research design because the data used were already in existence and therefore the researcher had no control over the data set of the study.  The source of the data was therefore secondary sources taken from audited annual reports and accounts of the related listed manufacturing firms as listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange Fact Book (2021).  Using the non-probability sampling filtering technique, the study used a sample of forty-two (42) manufacturing firms listed on the NSE fact Book 2021.  These listed manufacturing firms included selections from: four (4) - agriculture; sixteen (16) - consumer goods; seven (7) - industrial goods; six – (6) - healthcare; four (4) - natural resources and five (5) - conglomerates.  Data were extracted from the annual reports and accounts of these companies and were analyzed with the aid of Panel Regression using Stata version 14 and Microsoft Excel.  From the Hierarchical Regression results, the variables of board size (Coef. = 6.2313; t = 2.88 and P-value = 0.004) and ownership concentration (Coef. = 70.2144; t = 2.22 and P-value = 0.027) have significant positive effects on timeliness of financial reporting of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria from 2012 to 2021. These results are in line with prior expectations but are inconsistent with the stated null hypotheses, hence the null hypotheses which states that board size and ownership concentration have no significant effects on timeliness of financial reporting of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria during the period under study are rejected.  It implies that an increase in the number of board size and ownership concentration will improve the financial reporting timeliness of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria during the period under study.  The variables of board gender diversity (Coef. = .04463; t = 0.11 and P-value = 0.912) and board diligence (Coef. = -2.0632; t = -0.47 and P-value = 0.638) have no significant effects on timeliness of financial reporting of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria from 2012 to 2021. These results are not in line with prior expectations but are consistent with the stated null hypotheses, hence the null hypotheses which states that board gender diversity and board diligence have no significant effects on timeliness of financial reporting of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria during the period under study are retained.  It also implies that an increase in the number of female members on the board and an increase in the number of board meetings will have no effect on the financial reporting timeliness of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria during the period under study.  The manufacturing sector is extremely crucial for a developing country such as Nigeria since they promote the enlargement and expansion of Nigeria’s economic growth.  It is therefore recommended that the number of directors on the board should be between seven (7) or eight (8) board members in order to foster faster communication, coordination and ultimately timeliness of financial reporting among listed manufacturing firms in Nigerian

EXTERNAL AUDITORS’ ATTRIBUTES AND INCOME SMOOTHING AMONG LISTED NON-FINANCIAL FIRMS IN NIGERIA

This study investigated the degree of influence of external auditors’ attributes on income smoothing among listed non-financial firms in Nigeria from 2011 to 2020.  The research design adopted for the study was the ex-post facto research design because the data used for the study were already in existence and therefore the researcher had no control over the data set of the study.  Hence, the sources of data were secondary sources taken from audited annual reports and accounts of the related non-financial firms as listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange Fact Book.  Using the filtering sampling technique, the study used a sample of seventy-five (75) non-listed firms drawn from ten (10) Nigerian non-financial sectors including agriculture, conglomerate, consumer goods, construction and real estate, healthcare, information and communication technology, oil and gas, industrial goods, natural resources and services.  Data were extracted from the annual reports and accounts of these firms and were analyzed with the aid of binary logistic regression usingthe analytical software of Stata version 16 and Microsoft excel. From the marginal effect model, the variables of audit opinion (Coef. = 0.448; p-value = 0.000) and audit delay (Coef. = 0.000; p-value = 0.050) respectively have significant positive effects on Small Positive Income of listed non-financial firms in Nigeria.    Audit fees (Coef. = -0.098; p-value = 0.002) has significant negative effect on Small Positive Income. Lastly, the variable of audit firm size (Coef. = -0.034; p-value = 0.351) has an insignificant effect on Small Positive Income of listed non-financial firms in Nigeria. Non-financial sectors are extremely crucial for the economic growth of a developing economy such as Nigeria. The study therefore concluded that the external auditors’ attributes of interest in this study significantly determine whether or not managers of non-listed financial firms in Nigeria will engage in income smoothing.  In general, it was revealed that managers of listed non-financial firms in Nigeria do practice earnings smoothing.  It seems clear that except for the variable of audit firm type, all other variables of interest do significantly (positively or negatively) determine the likelihood of income smoothing among listed non-financial firms in Nigeria.  It is therefore recommended that policymakers and managers of listed non-financial firms in Nigeria should continue to develop stronger internal control policies to checkmate accounting and bookkeeping errors which in turn should reduce the extent of substantive tests by external auditors to avoid detrimental and costly external audit delays

Impact of Public Capital Expenditure on Economy Growth of Nigeria

The research investigates the relationship between governmental capital spending and economic development in Nigeria. Several issues of the Central Bank of Nigeria's statistics bulletin were used in the research, which yielded a large amount of data. The data was submitted to a unit root test, which was performed using the Augmented Dickey fuller (ADF) method, in order to determine its time series characteristics. The variables' socioeconomic characteristics were obtained via the use of descriptive statistics. Because of the varying order of integration seen in the unit root, cointegration and regression analysis were carried out utilizing the ARDL- Autoregressive Distributed Lag method, which is an acronym for Autoregressive Distributed Lag. The results show that public capital investment has a negative and statistically significant (tcal = -2.6996) impact on the Nigerian economy, as assessed by the GDP growth rate, according to the data. The results demonstrate that when capital expenditures in Nigeria get the attention they deserve, they have the potential to contribute to economic development in the country. This research recommends that the government manage capital spending in an appropriate manner in order to enhance the nation's productive capacity and accelerate economic development in light of the results