Electricity Supply and Output in Nigerian Manufacturing Sector

This research examined electricity supply and the output of the Nigerian manufacturing sector. The major objective is to critically determine the impact of electricity supply on the manufacturing output in Nigeria. Numerous literatures only revealed the relationship between economic growth and electricity supply, with little empirical attention on the effect of electricity on the various sectors of the economy. This could lead to fallacy of decomposition because economic growth is a function of the performance of different sectors which certainly differ in their need for electricity. In response to this perceived gap, this study explores the relationship between electricity supply and manufacturing sector’s output in Nigeria. Time series data spanning the period between 1981 and 2013 were analyzed using Johansen Cointegration and Vector Autoregression tests. The results revealed that there exists a long run relationship between electricity and manufacturing output in Nigeria. It also identified that electricity supply has an insignificant relationship with the manufacturing sector in Nigeria. For the Nigerian manufacturing sector to serve as a catalyst for the transformation of the Nigerian economy, we recommend that adequate and stable electricity supply must be a policy focus if the desired output of the manufacturing sector is to be achieved. Key Words: Electricity Supply, Output, Manufacturing, Cointegration, Vector Autoregressio

The Impact of Exchange Rate Regimes on Economic Growth in Nigeria

The choice and management of an exchange rate regime is a critical aspect of economic management to safeguard competitiveness, macroeconomic stability, and sustainable development. But rather, the country has continued to be at disadvantage in terms of macroeconomic performances as the different regimes have been accompanied by instability and uncertainties, hence the need for the present study to examine the relationship between exchange rate regimes and output growth in Nigeria in different periods from 1970 to 2014. The study employs the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to estimate economic growth equation as a result of endogennity problem. In contrast with previous findings, ours study strongly suggest that exchange rate regimes indeed matter in terms of real economic performance in Nigeria as the results reveal that deregulated exchange rate regime spur economic growth in Nigeria as against the whole period and fixed exchange rate regime. All in all, the findings suggest that fixed exchange rates constrain the performance of the Nigerian economy as real exchange rate depicts inverse relationship with economic growth during the whole period and period of fixed exchange regime. It is against this background, that we recommend the sustainability of the regime of exchange rate liberalization that has been in operation from 1986 Keywords: Exchange Rate, Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy, Economic Growth, Endogeneity JEL Codes: D51, E52, E62, O4, and C26

Modelling Stability in the Demand for Sea Transport in Nigeria’s Freight Market: A Cointegration Analysis

Using time series data on seaborne trade, government public expenditure and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), we investigated the existence of long run equilibrium relationship among these variables in Nigeria’s shipping market. The object was to determine stability in demand for shipping services while relying on the assumption that volume of seaborne trade is a proxy for sea transport demand. We subjected these time series variables to unit roots tests and found they were not stationary at level but at first difference i.e. they are integrated of the order I(1). However, to assess the underlying relationship between the variables, seaborne trade was separately regressed against government expenditure and GDP. Analysis of the regression residuals confirms the existence of cointegrating relationship between seaborne trade and GDP. Much against our a priori expectation, it was also found that no such relationship exists between seaborne trade and government expenditure. In addition, Granger causality tests also showed that seaborne trade ‘granger cause’ GDP and not vice versa. Thus, the empirical evidence from our study indicates that GDP stabilizing policies are a pre-condition to maintaining stability in the freight market for shipping services in Nigeria. Keywords: shipping demand, freight market, seaborne trade, stability, cointegration.

Socio-Economic Determinants of Academic Performances in Aguata Local Government Area, Anambra State

Education is regarded as the greatest investment that any nation can make for the development of its human and material resources. This paper investigated the socio-economic determinants of academic performance in Aguata local government area, Anambra state. The study made use of a qualitative response regression model to analyze the participant’s responses obtained through a well-structured questionnaire. The study presents some interesting findings. The ML-Binary logit estimation results show that parental income (PI); number of hours of study (NHS); parent educational achievement (PEA) and power supply (PS) have positive and significant impact on student’s academic performance (AP), family size (FS) has a negative and significant impact on student’s academic performance (AP) whereas residential area (RA) has positive and insignificant impact on academic performance. The correlation results show that all the variables except family size are positively correlated with student’s academic performance. The study therefore recommends that since parental income is a very important variable which influences student’s academic performance; government employment initiatives should be strengthened while those that are not effective should be reviewed. Government’s effort to boost power supply should be intensified beyond mere transfer of ownership to the private sector. Epileptic power supply does not augur well with the academic performances of students as the finding of this study has shown. Key words: Education, Academic performance, Anambra State. JEL Classification: P17, H4, H

A Quantitative Economics Of Seasonality In Bus Patronage In Nigeria

Seasonal variation is a well-known phenomenon, in many endeavrous and enterprises. Passenger of patronage of road transportation by bus is generally implicated as exhibiting excessive seasonality. The study thus set out to empirically investigate the myth or reality of the thesis that trip generation and trip attraction can be significantly season- determined. Collecting time series data over a three-year period from thee most respectable and scientifically managed bus service in the Nigerian private sector, seasonal variations were computed after necessary validation precautions had been taken to obviate thee infiltration of biases. Deseasonalised figures; in the form of a matrix were generated and juxtaposed to the unadjusted original data. Findings led logically to the upholding of the governing hypothesis that bus patronage by a high incidence of seasonality. Apposite recommendations were then made, sequel to highlighting of policy implications of findings. Key words: seasonality, bus patronage. Journal of Agriculture and Social Research Vol.4(1) 2004: 72-8

Resource Control: A Translocation Of The Scramble For Africa

The Scramble for Africa, also known as the partition of Africa, was conducted among Europeans sitting at the Berlin Conference of 1885 -85. It was consummated as the colonization of African countries by these powers. The era of colonialism ended about 1980. But the seeds of discord sown in that epoch have since germinated and developed into a tree, of which one of the most notorious and reprehensible fruits is today\'s resource control crisis in Nigeria. Adopting a theoretical framework successfully adapted from the biological and medical sciences, namely; translocation analysis, the paper traces the ancestry of the present resource control problem to the scramble, first, and then, the use of fiscal and revenue allocation commissions during the colonial era, and the miniaturization of solutions to fiscal acrimonies and bad blood in the post-colonial era. The paper acknowledges that the creation of the OMPADEC in 1992, the NDDC in 1999, the concession of 13 percent derivation in 2001 and the abrogation of the onshore-offshore dichotomy in 2003, are measures calculated to reduce the resource control disturbances to manageable proportions. But that armed confrontation and hostage taking have persisted and remain intractable indicate that more fundamental solutions are called for. Journal of Agriculture and Social Research Vol. 4 (2) 2004: 61-7

Analysis of Maritime Piracy and Armed Robbery in the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Domain

The Gulf of Guinea in the past 14 years witnessed serious challenges of maritime piracy and armed robbery attacks. The paper analyzed maritime piracy and armed robbery in the Gulf of Guinea region from 2002 to 2015. Time series data of 14 years on the reported piracy and armed robbery attacks in the 15 Gulf of Guinea countries and nine coastal zones of Nigeria were obtained from International Maritime Bureau annual reports. Trend analysis model and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data. It was found that there was significant variation in piracy and armed robbery attacks among the Gulf of Guinea countries, the greatest of attacks occurred in Nigeria. There was also a significant variation in piracy attacks among the coastal zones of Nigeria with attacks in Lagos ports and anchorages being highest within the period. There exists decreasing trend of attacks within the period