The Effects of Electricity Consumption on Industrial Growth in Nigeria

The study analyzed the relationship between electricity consumption and industrial growth in Nigeria. The study make up time series data covering the period between 1980 and 2012 and the data collected were analyzed using co-integration and error correction techniques to estimate the short-run and long-run dynamics of the research models respectively. The result established that in the long-run, there is a significant positive relationship between industrial growth and electricity consumption, electricity generation, labour employment and foreign exchange rate while it showed a negative relationship between industrial growth and capital input (proxied by gross capital formation). The study therefore recommends that government should undertake cogent approach towards reforming the electricity supply in such a way to increase industrial production and to monitor the privatization policy of the electricity sub-sector to provide employment to reduce high rate of unemployment in Nigeria. Keywords – Industrial growth, economic development, energy, electricity consumption, production

Genotypic Characterization of Aminoglycoside Resistance Genes from Bacteria Isolates in Selected Municipal Drinking Water Distribution Sources in Southwestern Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Multi-drug Resistant (MDR) bacteria could lead to treatment failure of infectious diseases and could be transferred by non-potable water. Few studies have investigated occurrence of Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARGs) among bacteria including Aminoglycoside Modifying Genes (AMGs) from Drinking Water Distribution Systems (DWDS) in Nigeria. Here, we aimed at characterization of AMGs from DWDS from selected states insouthwestern Nigeria.METHODS: One hundred and eighty one (181) MDR bacteria that had been previously characterized using 16S rDNA and showed resistance to at least one aminoglycoside antibiotic were selected from treated and untreated six water distribution systems in southwestern Nigeria. MDR bacteria were PCR genotyped for three AMGs:aph (3´´)c, ant (3´´)b and aph(6)-1dd.RESULTS: Out of 181 MDR bacteria genotyped, 69(38.12%) tested positive for at least one of the genotyped AMGs. Highest (50, 27.62%) detected gene was ant (3”)c followed by aph (3")c(33,18.23%). Combination of aph(3")c and ant (3")b in a single bacteria was observed as the highest (14, 7.73%) among the detected gene combination. Alcaligenes sp showed the highest (10/20) occurrence of ant (3")b while aph(3")c was the highest detected among Proteussp (11/22). Other bacteria that showed the presence of AMGs include: Acinetobacter, Aeromonas, Bordetella, Brevundimonas, Chromobacterium, Klebsiella, Leucobacter, Morganella, Pantoae, Proteus, Providencia, Psychrobacter and Serratia.CONCLUSIONS: High occurrence of ant (3”)c and aph (3”)c among these bacteria call for urgent attention among public health workers, because these genes can be easily disseminated to consumers of these water samples if present on mobile genetic elements like plasmids, integrons and transposons

Management of Polluted Soils by a White-Rot Fungus: Pleurotus pulmonarius

There has been increasing interest in the application of organisms and nutrients to contaminated soils for effective degradation of oil. The white-rot fungus Pleurotus pulmonarius was investigated for its ability to mycoremediate polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heavy metal content in cement and battery wastes polluted soils. The effect of the incubation periods on the contents of cement and battery polluted soil incubated with P. pulmonarius after six and ten weeks was determined.A general increase in the carbon, organic matter, phosphorus and potassium was observed while a decrease in percentage nitrogen, calcium and pH was observed after 6 and 10 weeks. The heavy metal content of the two polluted soil showed that lead (8 ppm) was constant at 6 and 10 weeks while significant decrease in copper, manganese and nickel was observed in cement contaminated soil. However there was a gradual decrease in lead content of batter polluted soil while copper was not utilized at all. The polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) also decreased from 6.86 in control to 0.56 after 10 weeks of incubation. All of these results show that the cement polluted soil was effectively remediated by the white-rot fungus

An ‘Econographic’ analysis of the relevance of the Thomas Malthus theory to Nigeria and Ethiopia

Issues bordering around population studies have caught the attention of scholars in different fields. Inter alia, development economists and demographers have written plethora of literatures on it considering the multi-dimensional impacts of changing populations on the very existence of humans. Most developing countries are considered to have alarming population growth rates. Matter-of-factly, countries with seriously large population like China have had to adopt some population control measures. In this study, special reference is made to the population theory of Rev. Thomas Malthus and its relevance to the economies of these two countries. This study also re-examines the arguments of both the pessimistic and the optimistic population schools, and analysing relevant demographic and economic statistics of Nigeria and Ethiopia – the most populous and second most populous countries respectively in the African continent, draws a conclusion consistent with the view point of a world development report that rapid population growth, above all, is a developmental problem. Key Words: ‘Econographics,’ Population Growth, Thomas Malthus, Descriptiv

Trade openness channels and labour market performance: evidence from Nigeria

The implications of trade on developing economies have generated substantial debates with most studies focussed on “openness in the policy”. Hence, the purpose of this study is to focus on “openness in practice”. Design/methodology/approach This study uses two models and employed the vector error correction model and structural vector autoregression, first, to examine the sectoral effects; second, to investigate the efficacy of neoclassical and new trade theories; and third, to analyse the effect of trade openness shock on Nigerian labour market performance. Findings The results of the first model showed that trade openness has an adverse effect on employment and wages in both the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. Likewise, the study concludes that the new trade theory explains trade's behaviour on employment and wages in Nigeria. The second model showed that the effect of error shock from trade openness affected wages more than employment. Research limitations/implications The study ignores the distributional effects due to unavailability of data. Practical implications The study suggested, amongst others, the need for policies mix on the labour market via a coherent set of initiatives in other to increase the competitiveness of Nigeria in the international market. Originality/value Most studies focussed on openness in policy through the channels identified in the literature. However, this study investigates these channels in “openness in practice” and investigates trade theories' efficacy on manufacturing and agricultural sectors in Nigeria, which has been neglected in the literature

THE NEXUS BETWEEN HUMAN CAPITAL AND INCOME INEQUALITY: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE

The study examines the relationship between human capital and income inequality in Nigeria from 1981 to 2019. The study made use of secondary data and the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test estimation technique to analyze the data. The variables used in the analysis include income inequality, tertiary education enrolment, secondary school enrolment, government health expenditure, inflation rate, employment rate and gdp per capita. The results of the findings showed that one-year lagged income inequality and secondary school enrolment are both significant at the 5% level. In the long run, tertiary education enrolment, secondary school enrolment, government expenditure on health and employment rate are all statistically significant at the 1% level. Thus, in the long run, all the indicators of human capital are significant drivers of income inequality in Nigeria. Notwithstanding, of all the indicators, only tertiary school enrolment is negatively related to income inequality, as expected. The implication is that, in Nigeria, it is tertiary school enrolment that significantly lowers income inequality. Sequel to the finding in respect of the importance of tertiary school enrolment, it is recommended that policy makers continually support enrolment to tertiary schools in order to continuously witness significant declines in income inequality in Nigeria

IMPLICATIONS 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

Genetic diversity in two populations of Limicolaria aurora (Jay, 1839) from two ecological zones in Nigeria

Limicolaria aurora belongs to the group of land snails commonly called garden snails. This study seeks to use shell morphology and random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPDPCR) to examine gross morphological differences in populations of L. aurora from New Bussa (guinea savannah) and Benin City (tropical rain forest) in Nigeria and possibly delimit the populations into sub species. A total of one hundred and ten specimens of L. aurora made up of fifty five individuals from each of the two ecological zones were collected randomly for the study. Data on shell parameters including: height of shell (SH), width of shell (SW), aperture height (AH), aperture width (AW), spire length (SL), and first whorl length (1WL) measured on each snail were subjected to one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Principal component analysis (PCA) and canonical variates analysis (CVA) were performed on the data using PAST statistical software. DNA which was extracted from the muscular tissues of the foot of eight individuals from each location using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) method was subjected to RAPD-PCR. Amplification of the DNA was done using five primers (OPB-12, OPB-18, OPH-08, OPD-11 and OPS-13). Analyses showed significant differences (P<0.05) in L. aurora populations within and between the vegetation zones revealing great heterogeneity in the populations. Both PCA and CVA clusters did not separate the populations into distinct sub-populations. SH was the most variable morphological characteristic and consequently the most suitable for the separation of L. aurora specimens into distinct populations. All the primers used in the amplification of the DNA produced polymorphic bands. The Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) cluster diagram revealed two major clades within the snail populations with about 74% similarity. The study showed that RAPD-PCR analysis is more suitable for delimiting populations of L. aurora than morphometrics and that the basis for gross morphological differences in these populations might not only be environmental but also genetic factors.Keywords: Achatinidae, biodiversity, environmental factors, morphometrics, phylogenetics, shell, subpopulations, variatio

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