Design, Construction and Performance Evaluation of a Small Scale Biofuel Distiller

A biofuel distiller of 20 L feed capacity was designed fabricated and used to distill bioethanol from a biomass broth. The distiller consists of a 40 L volume boiler unit integrated to the combustion chamber as a cylindrical column; and a counter current cylindrical condenser of length, tube and shell internal diameter of 88 cm, 0.0191/0.15 m, inclined at 450.  The reactor is a Top Lit Updraft (T-LUD) type fired with charcoal of moderate lump. Its performance evaluation was conducted using 20 L palm bunch broth as the distiller feed. The palm bunch collected from Siat Nigeria Ltd, Ubima, Rivers State, Nigeria, was physically pretreated by grinding to powder, hydrolyzed with 1.2 % dilute H2SO4, at 160°C for 30 min and fermented for 72 h with S.cerevisiae separated from palm wine. The broth was then separated from the slurry by filtering before distillation. The result of the machine evaluation showed that 817 ml bioethanol was obtained per batch at 20 min from the bubble point which took 95 min. Actual combustion efficiency was found to be 55 % with reactor power rating of 12.2 kW. The machine vaporized bioethanol fuel from the boiler feed fed at 27°C, and released the distillate at 28.3°C. Distillation efficiency was found to be greater than 90 % while the maximum productivity occurred at 10 min from the bubble point. The machine is economical, reliable, convenient to use and can stand diverse environmental conditions. It can be integrated as a waste management step in the downstream end of palm mill operations

Impact of Global Financial Crisis on Nigerian Stock Market

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the global financial crisis on the Nigerian stock market. To achieve this purpose, research questions were raised, hypotheses were formulated and a review of extant literature was made. The survey method of research design was adopted in an effort to generate the required data for the study. The data generated were analyzed using the regression model and our result shows that the global financial crisis measured by currency crisis, credit crisis, liquidity crisis, and foreign investment crisis has a negative significant impact on the Nigerian stock market. Based on our findings, we recommended that mergers and acquisition should be encouraged so as to increase the capital base of stock market participants. With this arrangement, stock market participants will be able to absolve shocks from economic meltdown; the government should implement discriminatory income tax policy for companies quoted in the Nigerian stock market. This is to motivate them participate in the stock exchange market; and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other relevant regulatory authorities should use the financial stress index (FSI) as proposed by IIIing and Liu (2006) to indicate early signals of financial crisis and guiding against such early enough.Key words: Global financial crisis, Nigerian stock market, currency crisis, credit crisis,liquidity crisis, and foreign investment crisis

Bank Reconciliation as a Due Process Imperative for Effective Financial Management

This paper establishes the importance of Bank Reconciliation as a mandatory activity for ensuring effective financial management. Every financial manager wants to keep close tab on the bank balances as his job involves real time decisions that have cost implications in his favour or against. A little delay in the clearing of an effect could result in huge financial losses to the organization in terms of interest charges or other opportunity costs. A delay could also be the source of loss of goodwill which can spell huge consequences for the entity’s business relationships. The paper affirms that there are several ways of carrying out bank reconciliation. However, it further concludes that the bank reconciliation process ensures that undue losses are not sustained through inadvertence of the staff of either the focal organization or the bank.                                                                 Key words: Bank reconciliation; Opportunity cost; Uncleared effect; Uncredited cheques; Stale effects; Due date; Unpresented effects; Effective financial management; Fair view; Due proces

Tax Revenue Sustainability: The Role of Tax Education and Enlightenment

Tax revenue sustainability is considered as a necessary imperative for attainment of economic sustainability. This requires an environment where both taxpayers and tax officials have appropriate knowledge of their roles and responsibilities. This study was aimed at establishing the effect of tax education and enlightenment on total tax revenue.   The survey design was adopted and through a close-ended questionnaire primary data were collected and analyzed using descriptive and inferential regression analysis. The results showed that tax education and enlightenment positively and significantly affected the total tax revenue. Radio and television were revealed as the strongest tax education channels.  The study recommended that the Federal Government of Nigeria should set up and sufficiently fund an autonomous department to handle all tax education and enlightenment issues as this can enable the unit function more vigorously. The study portends beneficial significance to Nigeria’s tax policy makers, national economic planners and academic researchers. Keywords: tax revenue; sustainability; tax education; enlightenment. DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/10-2-0

Analyses of Land and Housing Price Inflation in Nigeria, A Study of Federal Capital Territory Abuja from 1999 to 2009

The aim of this study is to critically considered inflation in the prices of land and housing in the Abuja property market from 1999 to 2009, and it is limited to residential property in the phase one of the Abuja property market. This research work was carried out to determine if actually there has been a persistence increase in the prices of residential accommodation in the study area, and also to determine the factors responsible for such increase. Data for the study were collected through observations, personal interviews, and library studies. The data so collected were analyzed using measures of central tendency, graphs and simple percentage table. The result of the study shows that there is inflation in the Abuja property market within the period under investigation. It also shows that the prices of land and housing are increasing at an average inflation rate of 50.1% for lease property and 39.3% for sale property. The work thus recommended the following: that the Government should provide mortgage insurance to first time home buyers who do not have credit history and to low-to middle income families  in  order  to  achieve  our  aim  of  providing affordable housing; the Federal government should de-centralize government offices from the city centre to other parts of the state to help reduce the demand of land and housing in the study area, in effect reducing the continuous-increase in the prices of land and housing, as people will have to shift to take abode in residential properties close to their offices; the government should go into mass housing development and also corporate with private developers in a bid to make different types of residential housing units available, thereby increasing the supply of the housing unit to meet demand for them. This will help reduce the continuous increase in the housing prices. Keywords: Land, Housing and Price Inflation

Facility Management in Educational Institutions: A Study of Nnamdi Azkiwe University Awka

This study evaluated the facilities available at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka with a view to making recommendations for effective management and efficient service through: identifying the facilities available in the school,  measuring their efficiency and effective management of these facilities through data collection from the inhabitants, analyzing the data so obtained and drawing inference from them. The Facilities investigated includes: Electricity Supply Facilities, Water Supply Facilities, Hostels and Library. The study adopted a questionnaire survey method to sample the opinion of students inhabiting the school hostels. It was found that although some facilities were provided, the quantity provided is adequate and mostly ill maintained for two possible reasons; acute growth in population and lack of funds. The conditions of the available facilities are below standard and even were up to standard, they were considerably below the required capacity. It was also discovered that on individual opinion for each facility analyzed, the number of respondents who think that the facilities management operations need to be improved are a lot higher than those who do not. The study thus recommended that for the empowerment of facilities management in the university and the country as a whole; Formal training in facilities management should in incorporated in various tertiary institutions with necessary inputs from key staff organizations that have applied facilities management principles and theories; as funds are set aside for procurement of facilities, provision also be made for the efficient management of the facilities; better planning techniques should be adopted by the facilities managers, with this misappropriation of funds made available for facilities development and management will be avoided

Financing Higher Education in Nigeria: The Role of Internally Generated Revenues and How University Managements Can Maximize the Sources

This paper discusses the role of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) as inevitable alternative funding for higher education in Nigeria. The paper leverages on available literatures to revalidate the inevitability of IGR as long as the government (or other university proprietors) fail(s) to provide adequate funding for the universities’ operating and capital needs. Developed from the African Political Economy (APE) Model and Resource Dependence Theory perspectives, the paper concludes that IGR has a very significant role to play as a source of critical funding for all categories of universities in Nigeria. This paper, therefore, proposes that, in order to derive sustainable maximum contribution from IGR sources, university managements should seek professional and more efficient ways of developing their IGR initiatives. The paper further recommends that universities should restructure to accommodate an IGR co-ordination office to ensure that creative revenue generating initiatives are not stifled by long bureaucratic bottlenecks. The paper will be critically beneficial to all higher education managers in Nigeria and Africa in general.Key words: Internally Generated Revenue (IGR); Political economy; Traditional funding sources; Highly economically empowered persons; Critical funding; Funding ga

An Investigation of the Pattern And Environmental Impact of Oil Spillage in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria

Sequel to the threat posed by incessant oil spill in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, this work was conceived with the aim of examining the pattern of oil spillage in Etche Local Government, in Rivers State of Nigeria and the consequent impact on the environment. The study adopted the survey research design. Interviews, questionnaire and observation instruments were employed in data generation and collection. Graphic illustrations and percentage analysis were also employed to describe the relative ratio of each factor to other factors.  Result revealed that about 29 oil spill incidents occurred within the period under study (2001-2007). The volume of oil spilled cumulated to 4,270 barrels; with year 2003 having the highest (4171.5 barrels) and year 2005, having the lowest (0.1 barrel). The work concluded by recommending HSE Training (Staff/contractors), Improved asset integrity management (that may include: Flowline replacement, Flowline burial, Flowstation and facilities upgrade, Integrity testing and inspection), emergency response  to spill cases, Surveillance by communities, Awareness campaigns, Improved interaction with communities and Presence of Joint Task Force (JTF) for efficient and effective spill management law enforcement

Professional Behaviour of Accounting Academics: Fruits of Nonconcurrence

This paper studied how lack of professional behaviour by accounting academics impacts reputation of their employing universities in Ghana. We employed cross-sectional survey design to collect data from 1,225 accountants and analysed via Cronbach’s alpha, tests of differences-between-proportions, and one-way ANOVA. Generally, few academics lack professional behaviour, yet students would not recommend their universities to others. Consequently, lack of professional behaviour causes loss of reputation, and negative stakeholder relationships with appreciable financial cost consequences. The accounting profession, business schools, other accountancy training institutions and organisations must provide policies, practices, programmes and punitive measures that are capable of averting the situation. Keywords: Accounting academic, accounting ethics, non-adherence, cost consequence, professional behaviou

Principle of Professional Competence and Due Care: Sequel to Academics’ Defiance

This paper studied how accounting academics’ defiance of professional competence and due care (PCDC) threatens the existence of their employing universities in Ghana. Through cross-sectional survey, data collected from 1,225 accountants and analysed by Cronbach’s alpha, tests of differences-between-proportions, and one-way ANOVA showed that few academics defy PCDC yet students would not recommend their universities to others. Defiance threatens universities’ existence through reduction in enrolment, loss of accreditation/charter, and high labour turnover. The accounting profession and universities must provide activities, policies, practices, programmes and punitive measures that are capable of averting incidents of defiance of the PCDC principle. Keywords: professional competence and due care, cost consequences, accounting academic, accounting ethics, non-adherenc