Manufacturing sector performance and economic growth in Nigeria

Abstract : The paper attempted to examine the impact of manufacturing sector output on economic growth in Nigeria from 1981 to 2016. The study employed secondary data sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin for Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and the Granger causality techniques on RGDP, manufacturing capacity utilization (MCU), manufacturing output (LMO), government investment expenditure (GINVEXP), money supply (LM2) and interest rate (INR). Evidence of long-run and short-run relationships among the variables was established. The results showed that MCU has positive influence on RGDP while LMO also affects RGDP positively. It also showed that GINVEXP has negative effects on RGDP whereas LM2 influenced RGDP positively. Moreover, the result indicated a unidirectional causality between RGDP and MCU, LMO and LM2. Based on the above, the study suggest government should intensify efforts to promote socio-economic infrastructural, macroeconomic and institutional framework in Nigeria to provide favourable environment for external and domestic institutions interactions; so harnessed mobilized funds effectively towards productive manufacturing sector

Macroeconomic as Basis of Economic Growth : An ARDL Approach

Abstract : We examined the effect of some selected macroeconomic factors reflecting on Nigeria economic growth between the periods of the year 1981 to the year 2015 using Auto Regressive Distributed Lag denoted as ARDL method. Findings revealed that foreign direct investment, and trade openness were the major factors that determine real gross domestic product, especially in the short run. On this basis, this paper, therefore, concluded that increase in the net flow from foreign investors from the rest of the world has a significant effect on the Nigeria economy as it increases the capital inflow and improves economic growth

Numerical simulation and optimization of p-NiO/n-TiO2 solar cell system using SCAPS

Abstract: This study illustrates a numerical simulation and optimization of NiO/TiO2 metal oxide thin film for solar cell applications. Metal oxide-based solar cells have now become a new and low-cost alternative for sunlight harvesting and solar power generation. Different material properties like thickness, temperature, and density of states for conduction and valence band were varied using the SCAPS 1D template. The study examined various window layer material with varied range of 300 K –400 K temperature. Therefore, the thickness are also varied between 2 to 0.05 mm and the interface state 1018 to 1021 for absorber and buffer respectively. The objective of this study is to show the numerical annealing effect on the efficiency of nanostructured p-NiO/n-TiO2 heterojunction solar cells using Solar Cells Capacitance Simulator (SCAPS). As the p-NiO layer reduced at high thickness the electrons and holes have more time to recombine whereby the increase in thickness also presented more than 100% increase in fill factor (FF) with the efficiency that was varied from 0.03 to 0.05. The analyzed result indicates that the thickness increase in Jsc, FF, density, and efficiency is due to more electron holes pairs generated

Correlation between manufacturing sectors and foreign direct investment

Abstract : The manufacturing sectors of nation’s economies have without doubt been noted as the chief driver of economic growth the world over. The connection between the Nigerian manufacturing sector and foreign direct investment (FDI) was assessed in this work. The study, in order to empirically examine how the variables are related in the long term and short term, utilised time series data spanning 36 years, while the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and co- integration technique were used. From the result, it is seen that the dependent variables explained R2 of 97% of the variations in manufacturing sector indicators (MFI), while Foreign direct investment, (FDI), Inflation rate (INF), government expenditure (GOE), and money supply (MSP) represent the independent variables. One of the recommendations of the study is that the federal government should consciously increase amount of foreign direct investments (FDI) made available to this all-important sector-manufacturing sector to boost its efficiency especially with respect to percentage impact on GDP and employment generation in Nigeria

Adoption of total quality management in the educational sector: case study of Engineering Institutions

Abstract : Due to the aspirations of various institutional stakeholders clamoring for improvement in the quality of education in their various institutions, the concept of total quality management has gained so much attention to this regard. In the recent time, several emphases have been made on the need for quality improvement and efforts are been put in place on the possible ways of increasing the standard of education globally. The productivity of any tertiary institution, especially the Engineering colleges is centered on the quality culture of such institutions, also, the customer’s satisfaction is another thing to put into consideration, to achieve the desired productivity. Generally, there are some constructs which are the major critical success factors that enhances quality improvement in any organization, customer satisfaction has been identified as another important factor to put into consideration to achieve optimum quality of products as well as services. This paper gives an insight on how the implementation of Total Quality Management in an Engineering educational system can aid the Quality of Engineering Education

Shea Butter Oil Biodiesel Synthesized Using Snail Shell Heterogeneous Catalyst: Performance and Environmental Impact Analysis in Diesel Engine Applications

The implementation of biodiesel in internal combustion engines has been observed to enhance engine performance and mitigate the discharge of toxic gaseous emissions from the engine. In this research, Shea Butter Oil Biodiesel (SBOB) was used to operate a diesel engine to analyze the performance and emissions characteristics. Shea Butter Oil Biodiesel (SBOB) was blended with petroleum diesel in ratios 0:100 (B0), 25:75 (B25), 50:50 (B50), 75:25 (B75), and 100:0 (B100). The torque, brake power (BP), and brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of the engine were determined. Gaseous emissions from the engine’s combustion were characterized using the BOSEAN BH-4S portable multi-gas detector, while the organic emissions compositions were detected and quantified using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The fuel properties of SBOB and its blends were found to be within the range of acceptable standards. However, the carbon content, sulphur content, heating value, and ash content of the blends decreased from 0.68 to 0.12 wt %, 0.04 to 0.00 wt %, 44.2 to 34.2 MJ/kg, and 0.020 to 0.010 wt %, respectively. The engine torque, brake power, BTE, and engine vibrations were found to reduce when the biodiesel blends were used. Besides the diesel fuel, the biodiesel blend, B25, produced the best engine performance characteristics with 8.50 Nm torque, 1780.95 W BP, and 90.29% BTE. The B100 produced the lowest concentrations of carbon emissions, viz. 520 ppm CO and 1.0% CO2. The NO and NO2 concentrations were found to increase for all the biodiesel blends used. The NO and NO2 concentrations were measured as 230 ppm and 210 ppm for B0, respectively, and 250 ppm and 235 ppm for B25, respectively. The research showed that SBOB has improved engine performance and lowered the emissions profile of CO and CO2 compared with petroleum diesel. The GCMS analysis confirmed that some harmful organic compounds were present in the emissions profile obtained from the exhaust samples of the diesel engine at various compositions.</p

An Overview of Composites materials and their Machinability in Transport Industries

Many composite materials are increasingly being used in the technology of many fields of study. They find applications in Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, Marine, Medical fields, etc. In this current study, an overview of all these applications were gathered and then consign the study to an interesting application of composite materials in transportation industries where biocomposites are predominantly used as biomaterials. Biocomposite materials are machinable and require machining procedures in many of their applications, this was extensively highlighted in this study. Also some challenges that stem from their machining were mentioned

Thermo-economic comparative analysis of a simple and cascaded organic Rankine power plants fired by rice husks

The application of organic working fluids in the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) has been demonstrated to be an attractive option for shifted integrated power and heat production. The procedure allows for the implementation of low-temperature heat sources, which provides advantages in small-scale uses. This study models the organic Rankine cycle for use with rice husk waste from a typical agricultural farm. The comparative analysis of agro-fired simple and cascaded organic Rankine power plants. Toluene and R245fa were considered as the working fluids for both simple and cascaded ORCs. Basic thermodynamic and economic governing equations were utilized in the analyses and embedded in the Engineering Equation Solver. The net powers, energy, exergy, and economic analyses of the two ORCs form the basis for comparison. Afterward, sensitivity analysis was carried out to ascertain the effects of variability of pertinent parameters on the plants. Results revealed that the net power output, thermal and exergy efficiencies of the simple and cascade ORC plants were 1.154 MW, 15.53% and 20.38%, and 1.599 MW, 21.51%, and 28.23%, respectively. The largest exergy destruction rate was obtained in the combustion chamber (1531 kW), and the least exergy destruction was recorded in the recirculation working fluid pump (1.073 kW). The simple ORC showed better economic performance as reflected in the unit cost of energy of 35.11 N/kWh as against 37.68 N/kWh of the cascaded ORC. The proposed energy system has the potential for a viable business enterprise based on the favorable Federal Government of Nigeria's fiscal and energy policies