The Impact of Capital Structure on Firms’ Performance in Nigeria.

This study seeks to investigate the impact of capital structure on firm performance in Nigeria from 2000 to 2010. We considered the impact of some key macroeconomic variables (gross domestic product and inflation) on firm performance. The traditional theory of capital structure was employed to determine the significance of leverage and macroeconomic variables on firm’s performance. The study makes a comparative analysis of the selected firms which are classified into highly and lowly geared firms setting a leverage threshold of above 10% as being highly geared. A static panel analysis was used to achieve the objectives of the study. Using fixed effect regression estimation model, a relationship was established between performance (proxied by return on investment) and leverage of the firms over a period of ten years. The results provide strong evidence in support of the traditional theory of capital structure which asserts that leverage is a significant determinant of firms’ performance. A significant negative relationship is established between leverage and performance. From our findings, we strongly recommended that firms should use more of equity than debt in financing their business activities, this is because in spite of the fact that the value of a business can be enhanced with debt capital, it gets to a point that it becomes detrimental. Each firm should establish with the aid of professional financial managers, that particular debt-equity mix that maximizes its value and minimizes its weighted average cost of capital

The Impact of Capital Structure on Firms’ Performance in Nigeria.

This study seeks to investigate the impact of capital structure on firm performance in Nigeria from 2000 to 2010. We considered the impact of some key macroeconomic variables (gross domestic product and inflation) on firm performance. The traditional theory of capital structure was employed to determine the significance of leverage and macroeconomic variables on firm’s performance. The study makes a comparative analysis of the selected firms which are classified into highly and lowly geared firms setting a leverage threshold of above 10% as being highly geared. A static panel analysis was used to achieve the objectives of the study. Using fixed effect regression estimation model, a relationship was established between performance (proxied by return on investment) and leverage of the firms over a period of ten years. The results provide strong evidence in support of the traditional theory of capital structure which asserts that leverage is a significant determinant of firms’ performance. A significant negative relationship is established between leverage and performance. From our findings, we strongly recommended that firms should use more of equity than debt in financing their business activities, this is because in spite of the fact that the value of a business can be enhanced with debt capital, it gets to a point that it becomes detrimental. Each firm should establish with the aid of professional financial managers, that particular debt-equity mix that maximizes its value and minimizes its weighted average cost of capital

The Impact of Capital Structure on Firms’ Performance in Nigeria

This study seeks to investigate the impact of capital structure on firm performance in Nigeria from 2000 to 2010. We considered the impact of some key macroeconomic variables (gross domestic product and inflation) on firm performance. The traditional theory of capital structure was employed to determine the significance of leverage and macroeconomic variables on firm’s performance. The study makes a comparative analysis of the selected firms which are classified into highly and lowly geared firms setting a leverage threshold of above 10% as being highly geared. A static panel analysis was used to achieve the objectives of the study. Using fixed effect regression estimation model, a relationship was established between performance (proxied by return on investment) and leverage of the firms over a period of ten years. The results provide strong evidence in support of the traditional theory of capital structure which asserts that leverage is a significant determinant of firms’ performance. A significant negative relationship is established between leverage and performance. From our findings, we strongly recommended that firms should use more of equity than debt in financing their business activities, this is because in spite of the fact that the value of a business can be enhanced with debt capital, it gets to a point that it becomes detrimental. Each firm should establish with the aid of professional financial managers, that particular debt-equity mix that maximizes its value and minimizes its weighted average cost of capital

The Impact of Capital Structure on Firms’ Performance in Nigeria

This study seeks to investigate the impact of capital structure on firm performance in Nigeria from 2000 to 2010. We considered the impact of some key macroeconomic variables (gross domestic product and inflation) on firm performance. The traditional theory of capital structure was employed to determine the significance of leverage and macroeconomic variables on firm’s performance. The study makes a comparative analysis of the selected firms which are classified into highly and lowly geared firms setting a leverage threshold of above 10% as being highly geared. A static panel analysis was used to achieve the objectives of the study. Using fixed effect regression estimation model, a relationship was established between performance (proxied by return on investment) and leverage of the firms over a period of ten years. The results provide strong evidence in support of the traditional theory of capital structure which asserts that leverage is a significant determinant of firms’ performance. A significant negative relationship is established between leverage and performance. From our findings, we strongly recommended that firms should use more of equity than debt in financing their business activities, this is because in spite of the fact that the value of a business can be enhanced with debt capital, it gets to a point that it becomes detrimental. Each firm should establish with the aid of professional financial managers, that particular debt-equity mix that maximizes its value and minimizes its weighted average cost of capital

Impact of Intergovernmental Transfers on Household Multidimensional Well-Being

Do intergovernmental transfers affect the multidimensional well-being of households? This paper investigates the relationship between intergovernmental transfers and household multidimensional well-being, using the revenue allocation by the federal government to sub-national or state governments in Nigeria. We follow Alkire & Foster to compute a multidimensional poverty index (MPI), which is the weighted sum of three broad dimensions of poverty – health, education, and living standards. We adopt an instrumental variable (IV) approach by using exogenous variation in oil windfalls as an instrument to mitigate the endogeneity concerns associated with using intergovernmental transfers in our analysis. We find that an increase in intergovernmental transfers leads to an improvement in household multidimensional well-being or a decline in the multidimensional poverty index. We identify recurrent and capital expenditures as some of the potential channels through which intergovernmental transfers affect the multidimensional well-being of households in Nigeria. The findings of this paper reinforce the growing evidence of the developmental impacts of intergovernmental transfers, especially in the context of developing countries

Consumption Expenditure and Preferences for Animal Products among Low-Income Households in Makurdi Metropolis, Benue State, Nigeria

The consumption expenditure on beef, fish, egg, pork and chicken was investigated using data obtained from randomly selected 80 respondents. It was revealed that, except in the case of fish and beef which had consistent position in the preference ranking, there is no consistency between the households’ consumption preference ranking based on desire and their consumption frequency ranking based on purchasing power. Fish was the most preferred as well as the most frequently consumed by the lowincome households. Educational level, household size, age and monthly income were the major factors through which total expenditure on the selected animal products can be explained. Income elasticity of household expenditure was low (0.121) signifying that increasing household monthly income may be a veritable way of stimulating animal protein consumption among the low income urban dwellers. Furthermore, policies that discourage large family sizes, and sensitization on the importance of animal protein intake will help to increase the animal protein consumption of households

Migrants Remittances and Financial Inclusion among Households in Nigeria

This article investigates the impact of remittances on financial inclusion, using the 2009 World Bank’s Migration and Remittances Household Survey data for Nigeria. An instrumental variable estimation technique was used to estimate the impact of remittances on financial inclusion, and migrant network effect was used as an instrument to control for potential endogeneity between remittance and financial inclusion. This article finds that the receipt of remittances increases the probability of using formal financial services, such as deposit accounts and Internet/mobile banking. This article concludes that reducing barriers and costs to remittance inflows can improve the access to and use of formal financial services in Nigeria, which can lead to an increase in funds for investments and the economic growth of the country

The effects of international remittances on expenditure patterns of the left-behind households in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract: This article explores the effects of international remittances on the expenditure patterns of households in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This article focuses on five countries in SSA, which are some of the destinations that account for the highest receipt of international remittances. We analyze both aggregate and distributional effects of international remittances on expenditure patterns of households. To investigate the distributional effect of international remittances, we adopt the instrumental variable quantile (IV-quantile) regression framework that allows us to simultaneously address the endogeneity of international remittances and possible heterogeneity in the impact of international remittances on households’ expenditure patterns. We instrument for international remittances by using the economic conditions in migrants’ countries as an instrument for international remittances. Our results show that the receipt of international remittances increases expenditures on food, durables, education, and health. Using the IV-quantile regression, we find the effects of international remittances on household expenditure on food, durables, education, and health increase across the different expenditure quantiles

GENDER AND ATTITUDE AS CORRELATES OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS IN KATSINA-ALA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BENUE STATE

This study investigated the relationship of gender and attitude on mathematics achievement of secondary school students in Katsina-Ala Local Government Area of Benue State. The access population was 760 SS2 students and a sample of 200 SS2 students was drawn from six secondary schools using proportionate sampling. The sample consisted of 111 boys and 89 girls. A 20-item questionnaire was used to measure students' attitude towards mathematics. Also, a standardized achievement test was used for collecting the data on students achievement in mathematics. Three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. This study revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between the achievement of boys and achievement of girls in mathematics. Attitude was found to have a significant relationship with mathematics achievement of students. It was also found that there was a significant relationship between the attitude of males and females students towards mathematics. This is confirmed by the result of the positive correlation obtained within the range of 0.42 to 0.88. Therefore, it was recommended that a special scholarship scheme for female mathematics students and immediate employment opportunity for female mathematics graduate be put in place to encourage female participation in mathematics. Also, parents and teachers should encourage female students to study mathematics and its related courses.DR ALIGBA SOLOMON OGEB

THE USE OF INTEGRATED CONSTRUCTIVIST STRATEGY AND ADVANCE ORGANIZERS FOR IMPROVING STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENTS IN MENSURATION AND PROBABILITY IN EDUCATION ZONE B OF BENUE STATE

This study examined the use of constructivist approach in improving students’ achievement in mensuration and probability. Integrated constructivist strategy and advance organizers were the two experimental strategies that were used as constructivist approach while lecture method was the traditional approach that was used as control. A quasi experimental design of non- randomized pretest/posttest control group was used. The sample was made up of 60 students for integrated constructivist strategy, 65 students for advance organizers and 49 students for conventional method drawn from a population of 11,764 SSII students using a multistage sampling technique. Mensuration and Probability Achievement Test (MPAT) was administered before and after the instruction. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze data that answered all the eight research questions while Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used to test the hypotheses. It was found that there was a significant difference in the achievement of students in the experimental and control group . That is, the use of both the integrated constructivist strategy and advance organizers were found to significantly improve students’ achievement in mensuration and probability compared to the conventional method. It was also found that gender and school location have no significant effect on either integrated constructivist strategy or advance organizers. Therefore, the researcher recommends that if the two teaching strategies could be used by national mathematical centre, curriculum planners, text book authors and other stakeholders to train and retrain mathematics teachers through workshop, conferences, in-service training among others, then it will facilitate meaningful teaching of mathematics across secondary schools within the country.DR ALIGBA SOLOMON OGEB