Determinants of foreign direct investment into sub-saharan Africa and its impact on economic growth.

The aim of this research has 3 main objectives. The first objective is to examine the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This further to investigate how SSA countries compare in their FDI determinants with other countries from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). These are the two least recipient regions of global FDI. The second objective is to examine the determinants of firm performance in SSA manufacturing firms with respect to market structure and foreign ownership. The third objective is to examine the impact of FDI on economic growth in SSA. To address the first objective, panel data techniques (pooled OLS and fixed effects) were employed on different samples of SSA and MENA countries for the time period 1996-2010. The findings revealed that return on capital, market size, infrastructure development, human capital, control of corruption, trade openness and strategic assets are important determinants of FDI in SSA. Surprisingly, natural resource endowments are not significant determinants of FDI. Also, the findings revealed that all things being equal, SSA countries will receive less FDI inflows compared to MENA countries. To achieve the second objective, OLS regression was employed on a sample of SSA manufacturing firms (garments, fabricated metals, and woods and furniture) for the period 2007. The findings showed that quality of human capital, foreign ownership, and firm size positively and significantly influence firm performance. On the other hand, competition, capital intensity, poor electricity delivery, and obstacles in accessing finance impact negatively on firm performance. Corruption and political instability (except for garments firms) have insignificant relationships with firm performance. Lastly, the third objective used panel data estimation techniques (pooled OLS, fixed effects and GMM) on a sample of SSA countries for the period 1996-2010. The findings showed that agricultural output, governance, merchandise exports, total official flows, and fixed capital formation are positive and significantly related to economic growth. External debt stock was negative and significantly related to economic growth. Surprisingly, the stock of FDI is insignificantly related to SSA economic growth. Further analyses indicate that in order to ensure that FDI impacts significantly on economic growth, minimum threshold requirements are needed in terms of education

Kidnapping Rate and Capital Flight: Empirical Evidence from Developing Countries

open access articleThis paper contributes to the literature on capital flight by investigating the relationship between kidnapping rate and capital flight in developing countries. Numerous empirical studies exist on the determinants of capital flight but, surprisingly, none of them have investigated the empirical link between kidnapping and capital flight. To fill this existing void in the literature, this paper utilised a sample of 67 developing countries for the period 2003-2017. Estimates of the GMM technique show that kidnapping rate has a positive and significant impact on capital flight. However, estimations of the marginal differences show that this significant effect remained consistent only in the sample of ‘fragile’ developing countries. The results remained consistent to alternative measures of capital flight

Financial Inclusion And Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises (Msmes) Development In Nigeria

This study investigated the effect of financial inclusions of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) development in Nigeria. The methodology adopted for evaluation of the model is the multiple linear regression method. This choice of method is necessitated by the nature of the study which in this case is an analysis of relationship among variables. The statistical methods used included Unit root test, the Co-integration test and error correction model. Data was sourced from CBN statistical Bulletin 1981-2019. The results show that, whereas financial inclusion positively and significantly impacts the operations and development of MSMEs, distance to financial services, access points and infrastructural deficiency challenged fast and effective access to financial services by MSMEs in Nigeria. The study recommends that deliberate efforts should be made to spread access points to more rural areas and improve infrastructure to promote FI. This should include a policy roadmap for expanding financial services access points to unbanked and underserved areas using the financial services geospatial ma

Understanding China’s Economic Engagement in Africa: An Exploration of the FDI-Trade Nexus

open access articleThe rapid rise of China on the global stage has promoted a widely held concern about the country’s political intention behind its expanding overseas economic activities. This paper attempts to shed new light on this old question: Is the abundance of natural resources in Africa the primary motivation for Chinese economic engagement in the continent? To this end, we investigate the nexus of China’s direct investment in 54 African countries and its international trade with the region between 2003 and 2014 to estimate how and to which extent Chinese investment affects its trade with the continent. This empirical task is facilitated using a transaction-level trade database from Chinese customs, which allows us to trace the trade records by product, destination, and exporting firm. Our empirical results support the trade-promoting effect of China’s foreign direct investment in the region, and this effect is found to be more significant for China’s exports of consumption and processed goods to the continent than for China’s imports of primary goods from this same region. Furthermore, we do not find systematic evidence that these investment activities lead to more primary goods being imported by Chinese state-owned enterprises. While these findings do not rule out the existence of resource-seeking motivation, they cast doubt on that being a primary driving force behind Chinese investment in Africa

Interventions to increase use of services; Mental Health Awareness in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Mental health services in Nigeria consist mainly of large government psychiatric hospitals and there are very few mental health professionals to serve the large population of the country. However, more recently, community mental health services, which have been shown to improve access to care and clinical outcomes are beginning to develop in some locations. Despite efforts to promote more accessible services, low levels of knowledge about effective treatment of mental disorders means that even where these services are available, a very small proportion of people utilise these services. Therefore interventions to increase service use are an essential component of health system. METHODS: This intervention was designed to increase use of a mental health services through the work of community-based Village Health Workers. Fifteen Village Health Workers in each Local Government Area (district) were selected and trained to create mental health awareness in communities. Their function also include identification and referral of persons with mental illness to trained mental health nurses in the clinics. Attendance data prior to and after intervention were collected and compared. RESULTS: The incident rate for initial period of intervention is five times higher than the baseline rate (95% CI; 3.42-7.56; p < 0.001) though this diminished in the long term, levelling off above initial baseline. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that addition of awareness raising using volunteers in communities as part of health programme implementation can increase services use by a population. Mechanisms such as informing populations of the existence of a service which they were previously lacking; explanation of causation of mental illness and achieving community leaders' support for a new service can make investment in services more efficient by increasing attendance

Double Alkynylation of Quinoline-5,8-diones and their In-silico and Antimicrobial Studies

A double alkynylation of quinoline-5,8-dione to furnished bis-alkynylquinoline-5,8-dione in good yields and their in silico and antimicrobial studies is described. This was achieved by cross-coupling of 6,7- dibromoquinoline-5,8-dione with various terminal alkynes in the presence of bis(triphenylphosphine) palladium(II) chloride as a pre-catalyst and tetrabutyl ammonium fluoride trihydrate. The structures of the synthesised compounds were confirmed by UV/Visible, Fourier Transform-Infrared and 1H and 13C-NMR spectral data. The synthesised compounds exhibited good activity against Escherichia Coli 1, Escherichia Coli 12, Klebsiella Pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeroginosa and Staphylococcus aureus compare to the gentamycin and ampicillin. Molecular docking simulation study of the binding interactions of compounds with receptors disclosed significant binding affinity for P. aeruginosa LpxC than the E. coli glutaredoxin.Keywords: 6, 7-Dibromoquinoline-5, 8-dione, Bis-alkynylquinoline-5,8-diones, Terminal alkynes, Antimicrobial activity

Dynamic Impact of Energy Consumption on the Growth of Nigeria Economy (1986-2016): Evidence from Symmetrical Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model

This paper empirically examined the dynamic impact of energy consumption on the growth of Nigeria economy between 1986 and 2016 using symmetrical ARDL model approach. Findings from the study revealed that electricity consumption has not had a significant impact on the growth of the Nigerian economy. It shows that due to fluctuations in electricity supply, the growth of Nigerian economy has been on the decline. However, petroleum consumption was discovered to have a significant impact on economic growth in Nigeria; while gas consumption was discovered to have no significant impact on the growth of Nigeria economy. This was attributed to gas flaring activities and other environmental abuses that had caused major Niger-delta crisis and attendant consequences like pipeline vandalization and hostage taking. Suggestive from the study therefore are that government should undertake a cogent approach towards reforming the electricity supply sector as its paramount for the country's quest for industrialization. Keywords: Energy consumption, Economic Growth, Petroleum, Gas and Electricity JEL Classifications: O13, P28, O4

Effect of six sigma on performance of medium scale manufacturing firms in south-eastern Nigeria

The effect of Six Sigma on Performance of MSF’s in South-East Nigeria. The main objective is to determine the effects of Six Sigma on the performance of MSF’s in South-East, Nigeria. While others are to: determine the extent at which process defines influence the customers’ patronage of their product, determine the extent at which process measurement influences product positioning and determine the extent at which improvement on production processes influence customers retention. The result shows that process definition practice among MSF’s significantly influenced customers’ patronage, process measurement among MSF’s was found significant influencing positioning and production improvement significantly influenced customer retention among MSF’s in South-East Nigeria. The study concluded adoption of Six Sigma practices positively influences the performance of the MSF’s in South-East Nigeria

A study on the composition of heavy organic precipitates at various locations of a petroleum production line: wellhead, separator, and flowline

The heavy fractions from crude oil samples from different locations of a petroleum production line was investigated by gravimetric precipitation technique through the varying of n-alkane precipitant(s) type, volume, and volume ratios. The type of heavy organics (HOs) obtained at the different locations was studied using chromatographic fractionation into saturates, aromatics, resins and residual asphaltenes. Saturates and aromatics compositions were qualitatively and quantitatively determined by Gas Chromatographic-Flame Ionization Detection (GC-FID), while Ultraviolet-Visible spectroscopy was used for the resins. The results obtained show that the amounts of HOs precipitated changes with precipitants type, volume, and volume ratios and are in the order: wellhead (WH) > flowline (FL) > separator (SR). With changes in the total volume of precipitant binary mixtures, maximum precipitation is obtained at 40 mL/g of oil. Between 70–80 mL/g of oil, the amount of precipitate produced remain constant for all samples. There is no clear-cut trend in the concentration of individual and total saturate and aromatic compositions of the heavy organics along the different locations of the production system. However, the concentration of resins increases in the order: separator > flowline > wellhead