ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE IN ENTEROBACTERIACEAE FROM INTENSIVELY-REARED APPARENTLY HEALTHY AND DISEASED POULTRY IN ABEOKUTA, NIGERIA

The emergence and wide-spread dissemination of antimicrobial resistant bacteria strains is a global phenomenon of great public health and economic implications. Antimicrobial resistance was investigated in enterobacteriaceae isolated from apparently healthy and diseased poultry birds using the broth micro-dilution method to determine antimicrobial minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). In all, 504 bacterial isolates including Escherichia coli (471), Klebsiella spp (28) and Salmonella enterica isolates (5) were studied. The isolates were resistant to ampicillin (88.5%), chloramphenicol (62.3%), ciprofloxacin (74.8%), enrofloxacin (81.0%), neomycin (83.9%), norfloxacin (78.8%), streptomycin (91.3%) and tetracycline (83.3%). The geometric mean MIC (µg/µL) of tested antimicrobials for enterobacteriaceae is as follows: ampicillin (102.5), chloramphenicol (48.4), ciprofloxacin (19.1), enrofloxacin (34.5), neomycin (47.7), norfloxacin (24.5), streptomycin (142.2) and tetracycline (62.5). Although rates of resistance to ampillin, streptomycin and tetracycline were similar among isolates from apparently healthy and diseases birds, resistance to chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, neomycin and norfloxacin were significantly higher (p<0.05) in isolates from diseased chickens than in those from apparently healthy chickens. The high rates of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria may contribute to the persistence of pathogens in poultry flock and ineffectiveness of antimicrobial chemotherapy during disease outbreaks.Â

Foreign aid, human capital and economic growth nexus: Evidence from Nigeria

This study investigates the link between aid and human capital in promoting economic growth of Nigeria. The study used two models; the first model was used to test the validity of the medicine model in Nigeria; while the extended model was used to investigate the effect of aid and human capital shocks on growth using Engle-Granger and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) estimation techniques respectively. The findings from the first model suggest that persistent increase in foreign aid flows beyond a particular point (the optimal point) may adversely affect growth thus confirming the proposition of the Medicine Model. Evidence from the study’s extended model indicates that growth in Nigeria is sensitive to human capital shock via education while the response from aid shock is trivial in the long run. The mechanism through which aid impacts economies is influenced by many heterogeneous factors, notably; the role played by the recipient governments is often not considered. Our implication from the obtained results is that government expenditures on education with additional inflows of aid can promote economic growth in Nigeria. However, there is also an indication that attainment of economic growth might be challenging for this aid-dependent country

Human Capital and Energy Infrastructure: Implications for Economic Growth in Nigeria

Both hypothetical and empirical evidences have found the roles that human capital and energy infrastructure in spurring the economic growth of a nation as very germane. These key variables are undoubtedly working together in a quest to achieve equitable redistribution of the nation’s economic resource and ensuring poverty reduction. This study is based on an attempt to use co-integration and ARDL modeling framework to examine the empirical evidence of the impact of the different components of human capital and energy infrastructure on economic growth in Nigeria between 1981 and 2018. Findings from the study showed that the quality of educational, transportation and communication facilities had a significant and contemporary influence on economic development. In the same way, investment in physical resources calculated by gross fixed capital development, quality of healthcare facilities, availability of power supply were also found to have a positive impact with a lag effect on economic growth. Implicitly, an increase in these facilities over the past decade in terms of their availability and efficiency would boost economic development over the current period. The study therefore recommended that education and health should be given an unwavering focus on investment by the policy maker as components of human capital coupled with energy infrastructure if the desired growth for which Nigeria aspires is to be attaine

The Impact of Ethical Tax Behaviour on Tax Compliance of Tax Authority and Corporate Taxpayers of listed Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria

The development of tax payment decision-making models (Sociological, Economical and Psychological) has focused on economic and behavioural factors affecting tax compliance. The issue of tax evasion, which remains an ethical problem for companies, has been a general concern in developed and developing countries alike. The main problem of this study is low tax collection on the part of relevant tax authority, couple with non-tax compliance behaviour of the corporate taxpayers in Nigeria. This study examined the effect of tax fairness of tax authority on tax compliance behaviour of taxpayers in the Nigerian manufacturing sector. This study adopted a survey research method, and 400 copies of the questionnaire were administered to the selected listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria and relevant tax authority staff (FIRS). Theory of Planned Behaviour underpinned this study and Correlation analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Multiple Regression analysis were also employed. The study found that there is a significant level of tax compliance among the listed manufacturing company in Nigeria. The study also shows that the tax authority’s perception of fairness of -2.769 (0.006) has a significant impact on corporate taxpayer’s compliance behaviour. Based on the above findings, the study recommends that taxpayers need to file accurate tax returns, transparency in total income declaration and minimize the risk of breaching of tax laws within the entity, while tax authority should apply tax laws consistently without bias (fairness), also adhere strictly to moral and ethical code of conduct. Keywords: Taxes, Ethics, Tax Authority, Manufacturing, Nigeri

Investigation of the Inhibitive Properties of Alchornea laxiflora leaves on the Corrosion of Mild Steel in HCl: Thermodynamics and Kinetic Study

Staff PublicationThe use of naturally occurring compounds as corrosion inhibitors is of potential interest because of their cost effectiveness, abundant availability and environmental acceptability. Therefore, the study investigates the inhibition efficacy of acid extract of Alchornea laxiflora leaves on mild steel in acidic medium using gravimetric method. Experiments were performed by varying the immersion time, concentration of extract and the temperature. The results showed that acid extract of Alchornea laxiflora leaves is a potential inhibitor for the corrosion of mild steel in acidic medium. The corrosion rate of mild steel in 1M HCl decreases with increase in the concentration of the extract. The inhibition efficiency increases progressively as the concentration of the extract increases but decreases with rise in temperature and the exposure time. The highest inhibition efficiency observed in the presence of the extract was 96 %. Activation energy was found to be 21.81 kJ mol-1 for the blank and increases to 82.57 kJ mol-1 in the presence of the extract. Thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy change, entropy change and Gibb’s free energy were evaluated. Kinetics of the reaction in the presence of the extracts revealed that it follows a first order reaction and the half-lives increase as the concentration of the extract increases. Adsorption studies revealed that Langmuir adsorption isotherm is the best adsorption model applicable to the adsorption of the extract on mild steel surface. Preliminary investigation of the phytochemical con

MPLICATIONS OF HUMAN CAPITAL FORMATION ON OUTPUT AND EMPLOYMENT: EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA

Many studies have documented that human capital formation is important to boost output both empirically and theoretically. However, studies on the implications of human capital on employment are still scanty, especially for developing countries. Against this background, the study investigates the shock and long-run implications of government financing on education and health on output and employment in Nigeria using a vector error correction model (VECM). The results show that the forecasting error shocks from government expenditure on health and education affect output more than employment along the 10-horizon period. Evidence from the long-run output model showed that government expenditure on education and human capital index is statistically significant, while government expenditure on health is not statistically significant. Government expenditure on education and the human capital index has a positive relationship with output. For the long-run employment model, government expenditure on health and education is statistically significant; while investment in human capital is not significant with employment. Government expenditure on education has a negative relationship with employment, while a positive relationship exists between government expenditure on health and employment. The result implies that human capital indicators in terms of quantity and quality do not contribute positively and significantly to employment growth in Nigeria. The study recommends the need to encourage self-reliance through entrepreneurship training to bolster employment opportunities in the long run

Exchange rate fluctuations and manufacturing output: Stylized evidence in Nigeria

One of the key engines of growth in many countries is the manufacturing sector, whose performance is impacted by the movement of the local currency. The manufacturing sector also offers opportunities like increased commerce, innovation, competitiveness, increasing exports, and productivity, which will only be possible when exchange rate is in the form of currency appreciation. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on Nigerian manufacturing output. The Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity technique was used in the study in order to examine the exchange rate oscillations. The result of the model estimation revealed that there is no persistence of shocks in the volatility of the exchange rate in the Nigerian economy. The business cycle stylized facts were also used to examine exchange rate volatility and the result established that exchange rate is highly volatile and has a negative effect on manufacturing output in Nigeria. The Auto Regressive Distributed Lag Bounds test was used to establish the long-run relationship and the result showed that there is a long-run relationship between exchange rate and manufacturing output. The variance decomposition and Impulse Response function were employed and the resul

Determinants of Household Energy Consumption in Nigeria: Evidence from Ogun State

This study examines household energy consumption in Ogun State. Primary data on socio- economic characteristics of household head, expenditure on energy and non energy sources were collected from 150 respondents using stratified random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics and multinomial logit were used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze socio economic characteristics of household head and to determine the share of each energy source on total expenditure on energy. Multinomial Logit and Tobit regression models were employed for the analysis of the determinants of fuel choice, the determinants of energy consumption. The determinants of fuel choice (solids) are prices of wood and kerosene and family size squared significantly and positively influence the choice of fuels while prices of wood, kerosene and electricity determines the monthly household’s expenditure on fuels. The effect of family size on the choice of fuels is negative and nonlinea