Political Violence in Nigeria and Its Implication for National Development

Political violence is a major impediment to Nigeria's national development. With the restoration to democratic rule in May 1999, high expectations were raised that the new democratic dispensation would resolve the risk of Nigeria's political violence, while speeding the country's economic and social transformation. It's worrying that since democratic rule returned, Nigeria has experienced a degree of unprecedented political violence that has crippled the efforts of national development. The fundamental thrust of this paper is to investigate the incidence of Nigeria's political violence and assess its national development consequences. The paper shows that political violence dissuades domestic and foreign investment in our economy, triggers government loss of revenue and resources, and results in the election of unqualified representatives to the detriment of the country's economic and social progress. This paper proposes reducing wages paid to political office holders, and politicians should strive to achieve national unity instead of growing religious and ethnic tensions. Lastly, National resources should also be equitably distributed by the government

EFFECT OF DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS ON REAL ESTATE GROWTH IN NIGERIA

This study examined the effect of deposit money banks on real estate growth in Nigeria using bank credit to the real estate, interest rate, inflation rate and the contribution of the real estate to GDP as the study’s variables. The study adopted the ex-pose facto research design. Annual time series data were collected from the CBN statistical Bulletin using the desk survey method for the period 1985 to 2017. The data were analysed using the ordinary least square multiple regression statistical technique. Result from the analyses revealed that bank credit to the real estate subsector has a positive and significant effect on the real sector growth in Nigeria. Also, it was shown that interest rate had a positive but insignificant effect on real estate growth in Nigeria. Lastly, it was revealed that inflation has a positive but insignificant effect on real estate growth in Nigeria. Based on these findings, it was recommended that CBN and other regulatory authorities should formulate policies to encourage increased funding by banks to the real estate sector by prioritizing lending by deposit money banks to this subsector. Also, interest rate on real estate loans should be set lower than the conventional interest rates to boost the efficiency of the sector and facilitate it contribution to GDP and growth and Lastly monetary authority should target inflation rate at single digit and ensure that inflation does not increase beyond that level to boost real sector growth. JEL: G20; G21; L85  Article visualizations

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA: VAR APPROACH

The major objective of this study was to examine the impact of government expenditure on the growth of the Nigerian economy. This study specifically examined the impact of government capital, government recurrent expenditure and government fiscal deficit on the growth of the Nigerian economy. The ex-post facto design was adopted and secondary data were sourced from the CBN statistical bulletin and collected using desk survey for the period 1980 to 2017. The VAR technique was applied among other techniques to analyse the data. Findings showed that government capital expenditure had a positive but insignificant effect on the growth of the Nigerian economy. Also, it was revealed that government fiscal deficit had insignificant negative effect on the growth of the Nigerian economy. Lastly, the study revealed that at the short run, government recurrent expenditure had an insignificant positive effect on the growth of the Nigerian economy while in the long run it has a positive but insignificant effect on economic growth. Based on these findings, it was recommended that Government should revamp non-functioning capital projects to reduce the inefficiency in capital expenditure and monitor its contract awarding process closely, to prevent over estimation of execution cost and boost economic growth; government should enhance it recurrent expenditure to sustain the growth potentials of the economic through increasing it expenditure in running governmental activities and the planning and coordination of expenditure process of government should be made more efficient to avoid running into deficit and promote surplus funding of public expenditure. JEL: H10; H83; O11  Article visualizations

Shadow banking and micro-, small and medium scale enterprises: A municipal assessment in Nigeria

Shadow banking is usually considered as offering financial and financial-related support outside of the mainstream conventional financial system. The biggest issue facing micro-, small, and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) in Nigeria is the inconveniences and challenges associated with obtaining funds or credit from conventional banks, which encourages remote business operations and small-scale expansion. Thus, shadow banking activity is still widespread among MSMEs in Nigeria. This study used MSMEs operating in the Marian and Watt markets to analyze the impact of shadow bank interest income, savings products, and loans on the performance of MSMEs. A systematic Likert scale questionnaire was given to a group of 160 people, with 157 questionnaires duly returned. The survey research design was adopted, while the SPSS software was used to analyze the data acquired. As such, shadow banking interest income has a non-significant positive impact (0.022%) on the performance of MSMEs in Calabar metropolis; shadow banking savings products have a negative but significant impact (–0.160%) on MSME performance in Calabar metropolis, while shadow banking loans have a positive and significant effect (0.194%) on micro-, small, and medium-scale firm performance in Calabar metropolis. The study concluded that shadow bank operators should ensure that their service costs are standardized and supplied at affordable rates to attract MSMEs to patronize them for more successful business operations

Humoral immunological kinetics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection and diagnostic performance of serological assays for coronavirus disease 2019: an analysis of global reports

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to rise and second waves are reported in some countries, serological test kits and strips are being considered to scale up an adequate laboratory response. This study provides an update on the kinetics of humoral immune response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and performance characteristics of serological protocols (lateral flow assay [LFA], chemiluminescence immunoassay [CLIA] and ELISA) used for evaluations of recent and past SARS-CoV-2 infection. A thorough and comprehensive review of suitable and eligible full-text articles was performed on PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Wordometer and medRxiv from 10 January to 16 July 2020. These articles were searched using the Medical Subject Headings terms 'COVID-19', 'Serological assay', 'Laboratory Diagnosis', 'Performance characteristics', 'POCT', 'LFA', 'CLIA', 'ELISA' and 'SARS-CoV-2'. Data from original research articles on SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection >= second day postinfection were included in this study. In total, there were 7938 published articles on humoral immune response and laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19. Of these, 74 were included in this study. The detection, peak and decline period of blood anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgM, IgG and total antibodies for point-of-care testing (POCT), ELISA and CLIA vary widely. The most promising of these assays for POCT detected anti-SARS-CoV-2 at day 3 postinfection and peaked on the 15th day; ELISA products detected anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG at days 2 and 6 then peaked on the eighth day; and the most promising CLIA product detected anti-SARS-CoV-2 at day 1 and peaked on the 30th day. The most promising LFA, ELISA and CLIA that had the best performance characteristics were those targeting total SARS-CoV-2 antibodies followed by those targeting anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG then IgM. Essentially, the CLIA-based SARS-CoV-2 tests had the best performance characteristics, followed by ELISA then POCT. Given the varied performance characteristics of all the serological assays, there is a need to continuously improve their detection thresholds, as well as to monitor and re-evaluate their performances to assure their significance and applicability for COVID-19 clinical and epidemiological purposes

Public Awareness of Malaria Diseases and Transmitting Plant: A Case Study of Ahiazu Mbaise, Nigeria

This study intended to determine the influence of knowledge of malaria epidemiology and water-bearing plant and public participation in malaria prevention and control in Ahiazu Mbaise local government area, Imo State. The study was analyzed basedon the two hypotheses were postulated to guide the study. The descriptive survey research design was used, 100 samples wereused and the stratified random sampling technique was adopted to select the respondent for the study. Questionnaires weredistributed to the respondents and used as an instrument in conducting the research, 100 respondents were given the questionnaires all of it was retrieved to facilitate precise results of the investigation. The Pearson correlation analysis was used forthe data analysis and the following result was obtained – That there is a significant relationship between residents’ knowledge ofmalaria transmission and their participation in malaria prevention and control activities in Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area, there is a significant relationship between people knowledge of water-bearing plants as a factor that promote the spread ofmalaria and their participation in malaria prevention and control in the Area