Soil Erosion Control and Damage Costs in Nigerian Small Farms: Implications for Farm Growth and Sustainability

In Nigeria 90% of the agricultural primary produce is in the hands of small holders cultivating between 0.8-4 hectares. Farm size expansion is limited by population pressure, land fragmentation, poor market opportunities and lack of finance. This article presents estimates of soil erosion control(SEC) and soil erosion damage costs (SEDC) in small farmers' fields in Nigeria and examines the contents and direction of the country’s agriculture and environment policies vis-à-vis the SEC among small farmers. It was found that 24% of the farmers’ spending on tillage/cultural practices was directed at the institution of SEC measures, and that SEC-related defensive expenditures was 3.7 times more than the estimated SEDCs. The capacity of small farmers to respond to soil degradation is severely limited. Most SEC measures deployed derive from non-tradable inputs blurred by incomplete/missing markets for environmental assets. Yet farm development and environmental policies in Nigeria have dwelt on supply-side interventions based on marketable inputs, and have been largely ineffective. Policy and institutional reforms are needed to increase and focus support to farmers to increase defensive expenditures for SEC.Soil erosion, damage costs, farm growth, Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics,

Risk Analysis and Uncertainties in Capital Investment Appraisal: Application of Monte Carlo Simulation

Every business decision involves risk and decision-making has become increasingly more complex today because ofrmcertainty. Since capital investmem is a long-term function, it becomes obvious that the further into the future plans are made the more uncertain are the outcome. It is expected that only top managemem will be equipped with tire management skills to predict the flllure with some degree of confidence and certainty. One way through which the management can predict the future of the outcome with some degree of confidence and certainty is through Monte CArlo simulation. Monte (Arlo simulation is a tool that shows the possible outcome based on certain key characteristics or behaviors of a system using random numbers. The paper has shown that Monte Carlo simulation enables the management predict the outcome of wrong estimates and prepare their minds better about the possible losses that may occur and thus concrete plans can be put in place to minimize the effects ofsuclr possible losses if they occur as a result of inaccurate estimates in key variables. The paper concludes that overlooking significaJrt interrelationships among the projected variables can distort the results of risk analysis and lead to misleodingconclusionr. The paper recommended that organizations should send their staff on training to upgrade their skills to enable them implement Monte Carlo simulation which will enablemww.gement make an informed decision on capital Investment decisions

EXTERNAL DEBT: A POTENTIAL TOOL FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Debt (domestic or external) is a feature, or rather, an integral part of eve!J' mudem econumy. Developed and developing nations borrow to enhance development. However. while the developing nations borrow to fasl-lrack the process of economic developmenl, the developed nations borrow to keep their economies running and making progress. Theoretically, nations resort to external borrowing to fast-track the process of economic development and Nigeria is not leji out. However, emerging evidence from most borrowing nations, particularly, African countries, shows that rather than develop, they end up poorer and more underdeveloped, thereby bringing to test the theoretical basis for external debt acquisition. In Nigeria, for instance, it is argued that the level of infrastructural deficiency, rising unemployment, poverty, etc do notjus(!jy the quantum of external debts outstanding as at 2004 (S35.94billion) and that the country was more developed in the 1 960s than presently. Evidence from available literatw-e however support.\" this argument A number of factors have been identified as impediments to the noble objective of external borrowing and relevant recommendations made to resolve the paradox

THE INFLUENCE OF FINANCE AND MACROECONOMIC VARIABLES ON MANUFACTURING CAPACITY UTILIZATION IN NIGERIA

This paper estimates the response of manufacturing capacity utilization in Nigeria to changes in key macroeconomic indicators in Nigeria using annual data on exchange rate, interest rate, inflation rate, external debt, terms of trade and trade openness over the period 1975 – 2012. The variance decomposition analytical technique was adopted. The study presents the following results: (i) Both the Engle and Granger (1987) and Johansen (1991) co-integration tests show evidence of co-integration between the endogenous and exogenous variables. However, the error correction mechanism (ECM) shows that the model has a low speed of adjustment to short-run disequilibrium, of approximately 6.5 per cent; (ii) The forecast error variance decomposition analysis shows that variations in manufacturing capacity utilization in Nigeria are largely driven by its own shocks. The study further shows that exchange rate, interest rate and terms of trade contribute significantly but negatively to variations in manufacturing capacity utilization. Though it shows evidence of negative contributions from inflation rate, external debt and trade openness, they do not significantly influence movements in manufacturing capacity utilization in Nigeria; (iii) The study also presents evidence of causal impact of manufacturing capacity utilization on exchange rate and manufacturing capacity utilization on interest rate and not vice versa but did not produce evidence of causality between manufacturing capacity utilization and the other exogenous variables namely, inflation rate, external debt, terms of trade and trade openness. It is strongly recommended that government should adopt drastic measures to stabilize the flow of foreign exchange as well as enthrone and sustain low interest rate regime. Government should also emphasize local content in domestic manufacturin

THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH FINANCING SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES FROM THE CAPITAL MARKET

This paper on “the problems associated with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) financing from the capital market”, is intended to examine why small and medium enterprises do not procure long term funds from the capital market as well as ascertaining the conditions under which small and medium enterprises will be enabled to source funds from the capital market. It gives an insight that may help owners of SMEs in Nigeria to know other options of accessing long term funds from the capital market; the unending benefits associated with listing on the capital market as well as the terms and conditions for enlisting on the exchange. The study adopted a descriptive survey. 80 small and medium enterprises in Anambra state were sampled, 40 each from Onitsha and Nnewi. The choice of the two areas was guided by the fact that they have large clusters of small and medium enterprises in the state. Questionnaires were administered on the owners of these SMEs and/ or representatives (in cases where the owner was not available as at the time of administering the questionnaire). The data generated from the survey of the study were tested using the Chi- Square (X2). Simple tabulation was used to present the survey findings, percentage distribution of the respondents was equally presented. The study reveals that information about the activities of the capital market among SMEs specifically, in respect of its relevance to access long term finance is still very low. The few SMEs that are aware fear losing control of their companies to wealthy shareholders. The study also finds that the listing requirements constitute major constraints to procuring long term finance by SMEs. In the light of this, the Nigerian Stock Exchange should carefully consider the constraints highlighted by the respondents with a view to reviewing them for the benefit of SMEs in line with global best practices. The regulatory authorities should formulate policies that would engender a more investment friendly climate particularly in the areas of infrastructure, interest rate, inflation, etc. to make procurement of long term finance more attractive to investor

AGRICULTURAL VALUE CHAIN FINANCING AND SMALL SCALE FARMERS IN NIGERIA: THE PRE-REQUISITES

value chain is a connected string of companies, groups and other players working together to satisfy market demands for a particular product or group of products. In recent times, Financial Institutions are more interested in financing various actors along the value chain, with emphasis on cash flow rather than any form of collateral. Value chain approach to agribusiness financing considers the market first and assesses the level of development of the value chain. However, in Nigeria as in most other Sub- Saharan African countries where agriculture is still characterized by small scale producers and disjointed agricultural value chains, a lot still needs to be done to be able to achieve success with the concept of value chain financing in the bid to transform the agricultural sector and accelerate economic development. One of the pre-requisites for making the concept of agricultural value chain financing work efficiently in Nigeria where over 90 percent of agricultural output in the country is produced by small-holders with less than 2 hectares under cropping is connecting farmers to market

Semantic-Based Process Mining Technique for Annotation and Modelling of Domain Processes

Semantic technologies aim to represent information or models in formatsthat are not just machine-readable but also machine-understandable. To this effect, thispaper shows how the semantic concepts can be layered on top of the derived models toprovide a more contextual analysis of the models through the conceptualization method.Technically, the method involves augmentation of informative value of the resulting mod-els by semantically annotating the process elements with concepts that they represent inreal-time settings, and then linking them to an ontology in order to allow for a moreabstract analysis of the extracted logs or models. The work illustrates the method usingthe case study of a learning process domain. Consequently, the results show that a systemwhich is formally encoded with semantic labelling (annotation), semantic representation(ontology) and semantic reasoning (reasoner) has the capacity to lift the process miningand analysis from the syntactic to a more conceptual level

Working Capital Management and the Performance of Consumer and Industrial Goods Sectors in Nigeria

The paper investigates the impact of working capital management on the performance of selected companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange using panel data for forty (40) firms from the consumer and industrial goods sectors of the economy. Return on assets (ROA) was adopted as proxy for firm performance while cash conversion cycle (CCC), average payment period (APP), inventory collection period (ICP), and average collection period (ACP) were adopted as proxies for working capital management. Estimation of the impact of the exogenous variables (cash conversion cycle, average payment period, inventory conversion period and average conversion period) on firm performance (endogenous variable) was based on the econometric technique of the Ordinary Least Squares. The study produced evidence of significant positive impact of cash conversion cycle, average payment period, and inventory conversion period on firm performance. There is also evidence of non significant negative impact of average conversion period on the performance of the selected firms.Parameter estimates were obtained at 10 per cent level of significance. Based on the above result, the study concludes that working capital management has significant impact on the performance of firms in the consumer and industrial goods sectors of the Nigerian economy. Industry managers are therefore advised to innovate efficient strategies for managing working capital so as to optimize its potential