Employee Benefits and Earnings Per Share: The Case of Consumer Goods Firms in Nigeria

The development of an economy involves the agglomeration of the output of various firms across the sectors. Firms’ output is basically a function of employees’ motivation. Thus, meeting the employees’ aspirations is an essential condition. The study aims at examining the effect of employees benefits on financial performance of consumer goods sector in Nigeria using panel dataset from ten consumer goods firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and ranges from 2012 to 2019. To achieve the stated aim this study employed the panel Random effect modeling approach after subjecting the dataset to series of tests to validate its conformity with statistical prescriptions. The study's findings show that, in varied degrees, gratuity (GRY), medical allowance (MDA), and salary (SAY) has statistically significant influence on earnings per share (EPS), which is utilized as the measure of organizational development in the study. Gratuity and medical have negative effect, while Pension (PSN) and Salary were found to have positive effect. However, Pension is statistically insignificant. The implication of the findings is that an increase in salary has the tendency of enhancing organizational development. Thus, for organizational development through employees’ benefits, salary increment will have to be given a serious consideration and maybe Pension too

Empirical Analysis of External Debt Exposure to Exchange Rate Risk in Nigeria

The study investigates external debt exposure to exchange rate risk in Nigeria. The Secondary data used were sourced from World Bank Development Indicators for all the variables from the period 1981 to 2019. By employing the Augmented Dickey-Fuller Unit root test and OLS estimation technique, the study found that external debt service payment (EXTDSP), total payment on external debt (TPEXTD), and trade openness (TROP) is significant. While External debt service payment (EXTDSP) and trade openness (TROP) is negatively impacting the exchange rate (EXCHR). TPEXTD has a positive significant impact on EXCHR at a 5% level of significance. The rest of the explanatory variables: external debt stock (EXTDS), gross domestic product growth rate (GDPGR), and real interest rate (RINTR) are all positive and insignificant at all levels of significance. The study, therefore, recommends that the government should go for concessional loans which has low-interest rate and are long-term in nature and as well encourage international trade with other countries of the world

Energy Demand and Cooking Energy Cost in an Oil-Rich Economy: A New Evidence from Nigeria

According to several recent studies, energy is seen as a commodity, due to the fact that energy sector markets are more like commodity markets. Essentially, it serves as an enabler of social and economic development and so cannot be neglected. This study, therefore, estimated the impact of cooking energy cost on energy demand in Nigeria using the ARDL model and quarterly data spanning from 1990-2018. The result from the study showed that in the long-run both liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) price and kerosene price has a negative impact on energy demand. In the short-run, the result remained the same for kerosene while it reversed for LPG. The study, therefore, recommended that government should enact policies that will moderate or minimize the cost of cooking energy and enhance the removal of all forms of barriers in making cooking energy affordable to users in the country

Achieving Carbon Neutrality Pledge through Clean Energy Transition: Linking the Role of Green Innovation and Environmental Policy in E7 Countries

Most countries, notably those that signed the Paris Climate Agreement, prioritize achieving the zero carbon or carbon neutrality aim. Unlike earlier studies, this one assesses the contribution of environmental policy, clean energy, green innovation, and renewable energy to the E7 economies’ achievement of carbon neutrality goals from 1990 to 2019. Findings emanating from the study show that the EKC hypothesis is valid in E7 countries. Implying that emissions in the E7 countries increased with the kick-off of development but declined later due to possible potent environmental regulatory policies put in place. Similarly, across all models, renewable energy (REN), green innovations (GINNO), environmental tax (ETAX), and technological innovations (TECH) were found to exert a negative and significant impact on carbon emissions in the E7 countries both in the short and long run. On the other hand, economic expansion (GDP) positively impacts environmental deterioration. Furthermore, the country-specific result shows that, on average, Brazil, India, China, Russia, Mexico, and Indonesia have significant environmental policies aiding carbon abatement. Except for Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia, the income growth in the rest of the countries does not follow the EKC proposition. Furthermore, the causality result revealed a unidirectional causal relationship between GDP, REN, and GINNO to CO2 emission. No causality was found between ETAX with CO2, while a bi-directional causality exists between technology and CO2 emissions. Based on the finding, policymakers in the E7 countries should move away from fossil fuels because future electricity output will not be sufficient to reduce emissions considerably. Environmental regulations, encouraging technological innovation, adopting green and sustainable technology, and clean energy sources, among other things, demand radical and broad changes

Energy Efficiency Investment in a Developing Economy: Financial Development and Debt Status Implication

Our study assesses financial development and debt status impact on energy efficiency in Nigeria as a developing economy. We combined the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), FMOLS, and CCR analytical methods to estimate the parameters for energy efficiency policy recommendations. Secondary data between 1990 and 2020 were used for the analysis. The result confirms the long-run nexus between energy efficiency, financial development and total debt stock. Furthermore, the ARDL estimates for our key variables show that financial development promotes energy efficiency in the short run but hinders long-run energy efficiency. Total debt stock limits energy efficiency in Nigeria in short and long-run periods. The environmental consequences of energy intensity are being felt globally, with the developing countries most vulnerable. The cheapest way to curb these consequences is to promote energy efficiency to reduce the disastrous effect. Driving energy efficiency requires investment in energy-efficient technology, but the challenge for developing economies i.e. Nigeria's funding, remains challenging amid a blotted debt profile. This becomes crucial to investigate how financial sector development and debt management can accelerate energy-efficient investments in Nigeria. The financial sector must ensure the availability of long-term credit facilities to clean energy investors. The government must maintain a sustainable debt profile to pave the way for capital expenditure on clean energy projects that promote energy efficiency. The limitation of this study is that the scope is limited to Nigeria as a developing economy. The need to support energy efficiency projects is a global call requiring cross-country analysis. Despite our study focusing on Nigeria, it provides useful insights that can guide energy efficiency policy through the financial sector and debt managemen