The Level of Adoption Of Web-Based Business Reporting in Selected Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria

Reporting via the internet or web has gained popularity and acceptance in the advanced world but the same cannot be said of developing economies .The study therefore examined the level of adoption of  web-based reporting practices among selected listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The population for the study consist of all 90 manufacturing firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Forty five (45) firms were purposively selected. Structured questionnaire was the instrument used in sourcing primary data. The data was analyzed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results showed that the listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria are exploring the possibility of using or adopting fully web-based reporting. The exploration variables has the highest Eigen values of 4.4297784 and 2.0077 among the extracted components. The study however, recommended that law should be enacted to compel companies to adopt web based reporting and that companies should be encouraged to employ Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in reporting

Moderating effect of culture on the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies, entrepreneurial orientation and women entrepreneurs’ business success in North-Western Nigeria

The operation of women-owned businesses in Nigeria have been characterised by high rates of failure, despite the supports received from the successive governments. This study draws upon the twin theories of Microfoundations of the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Contingency Theory, to empirically examine the moderating effect of culture on the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and individual entrepreneurial orientation on the women entrepreneurs’ business success. Using a quantitative approach, data were obtained from a sample of 361 women micro-entrepreneurs through questionnaire survey. Partial Least Squares (PLS-SEM) technique of data analysis was employed to test the hypothesized relationships and findings showed that entrepreneurial competencies have a significant and positive relationship on the women entrepreneurs’ business success, whereas its relationship with culture was found to be negative and significant. However, the relationship between individual entrepreneurial orientation and women entrepreneurs’ success was also not significant. Similarly, culture was found to moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and women entrepreneur’s success, whereas its interaction with individual entrepreneurial orientation was not supported. The study further illustrates on how the reflective-formative model of higher order construct (HOC) is tested, which is an uncommon practice in the current literature of entrepreneurship. On the whole, the findings reveal the importance of entrepreneurial competencies in achieving women entrepreneurs’ success and suggest on the need to develop the individual entrepreneurial orientation of the women entrepreneurs. Additionally, it stressed on the need to develop the culture of entrepreneurship among the women entrepreneurs through national education policy, training, apprenticeships, and active participation in economic ventures. These findings have no doubt contribute to the mainstream of women entrepreneurship literature by expounding the female conception of success in business, highlighting the importance of human capabilities, and the influence wield by culture on the women entrepreneurs

Knowledge and behavior towards voluntary blood donation among students of a tertiary institution in Nigeria

Background: Blood donation is the only way of acquiring blood to meet emergency requirements in cases of road traffic accidents, complications of pregnancy and childbirth, various anemic disorders and surgical emergencies among others. Globally, 80 million units of blood are donated each year, but only two million units are donated in sub-Saharan Africa where the need is enormous. The objective of this study was to determine the behavior of the students of a tertiary institution in Nigeria towards voluntary blood donation.Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study, which involved students of a tertiary institution in Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was employed in selecting the participants for this study. A semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and factors affecting voluntary blood donation. The data obtained were analyzed using EPI-INFO 2005 software Version 3.3.2.Results: Less than two-thirds (61%) of total respondents had good knowledge of blood donation. More than three quarters (85%) of the respondents had never donated blood. Of the 15% that had donated, only 3% donated voluntarily. Among those that had ever donated, males (57%) were more than females. Many of the donors donated for relatives (57%). The majority of the respondents were compelled to donate because of emergency situations (75%). The reasons why many did not donate were lack of opportunity (45%) due to tight lecture schedule and inadequate knowledge (24%). Gift items such as hematinics, T-shirts and wrist bands (29%) would motivate respondents to donate.Conclusion: The Students’ Union body and other Organizations in the University should include a blood donation drive in their monthly/annual activities. The University authorities, the University health service centre and the Hematology Department of the Teaching hospital should collaborate in promoting voluntary blood donation among the students

The Level of Internet Adoption in Business Reporting: The Nigerian Perspectives

In recent years, a paradigm shift has occurred regarding the way firms report their activities. Instead of using the traditional approach, otherwise called paper-based reporting, the trend has switched into the use of a more sophisticated approach referred to as internet or web-based reporting. This study examines the extent of internet implementation in business reporting by emphasizing on the listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. For the purpose of this study, all manufacturing companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange constitute the population. The purposive sampling procedure was employed to select forty-five out of ninety listed companies. Primary data were obtained from a thematic questionnaire that uses validated scales. The data collected were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Specifically, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was the inferential statistic used to evaluate the extent to which manufacturing companies employ the internet in reporting their financial and non-financial activities. The results show that the listed manufacturing companies are at the exploratory stage. The internet is employed either as an extension activity or enrichment exercise to the hard copy business reporting model. This study offers a guide to stakeholders of the listed manufacturing companies to enhance their competitive advantage by employing technology in reporting their activities

Digitalisation of Zakat Management: A New Avenue for Enhancement

Zakat, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is a form of almsgiving that requires Muslims to give a small percentage of their saved capital to charitable causes to the poor and needy. Zakat is commonly determined as a proportion of a Muslim’s total saved wealth, which includes cash savings, harvested crops, cattle, and other forms of saved capital. The actual proportion is commonly estimated to be 2.5%. Zakat is usually collected and disbursed by the government or a charitable organisation every year. However, traditional methods of collecting and distributing Zakat may be obstructed by inefficiency or possibly corruption. In addition, Amil (Zakat manager) encounters several obstacles when attempting to collect Zakat, including technical obstacles such as great distances to travel to muzakki, lack of time, transportation problems, and expensive and inefficient processing costs. This conceptual paper debates the use of digital technologies to mitigate the aforementioned challenges and enhance Zakat administration. By digitising the collection and distribution of Zakat, it is possible to increase transparency, reduce administrative expenses, and enhance the process’s efficacy, as argued in this paper. Furthermore, this study sheds light on a case study of a successful zakat digitalisation project in a Muslim-majority country and discusses the challenges and opportunities of implementing similar projects in other contexts. Additionally, the framework proposes various Fintech tools such as applications, e-wallets, and accessible websites that have motivated the Muzakki (Zakat payer) to pay Zakat persistently because such platforms have ensured information availability, accountability, and transparency about the authentic collection and distribution of Zakat funds to the Asnaf (Beneficiaries). The article concludes by highlighting the potential of digitalisation to enhance the effectiveness of Zakat as a means of addressing poverty and inequality in Muslim communities

A Review of Sustainable Agroforestry Practices as Climate Change Adaption and Mitigation Strategy in Nigeria

Agroforestry is one of the most conspicuous land use systems across landscapes and agroecological zones in Nigeria. With food shortages and increased threats of climate change, interest in agroforestry is gathering for its potential to address various on-farm adaptation needs, and fulfill many roles in mitigation pathways. Agroforestry provides assets and income from carbon, wood energy, improved soil fertility and enhancement of local climate conditions; it provides ecosystem services and reduces human impacts on natural forests. Most of these benefits have direct benefits for local adaptation while contributing to global efforts to control atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. This paper presents recent findings on how agroforestry as a sustainable practice helps to achieve both mitigation and adaptation objectives while remaining relevant to the livelihoods of the poor smallholder farmers in Nigeria. Keywords: Review, sustainable, Mitigation, adaptation, climate change, strategy, Nigeria DOI: 10.7176/JEES/12-12-01 Publication date: December 31st 202

Reactions of commercial cultivars of okra, pepper, and tomato to cucumber mosaic virus disease

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), pepper (Capsicum spp.) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) are rich sources of minerals and vitamins required by humans for normal growth and development. However, the productivity of these vegetables is seriously constrained by Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) disease. To date, adoption of resistant cultivars is the most effective, ecologically sound and sustainable management strategy against the disease. Therefore, selected cultivars of okra (Clemson Spineless, Ex Bassawa -2 and NHAe 47 - 4), pepper (California Wonder, Cayenne and Yolo Wonder) and tomato (Roma Savanna, Tropimech, and UC82B) were evaluated for resistance to CMV. The experiment was conducted under screenhouse and field conditions in Minna, Southern Guinea Savanna zone of Nigeria. Completely randomised design with six replications was used in screenhouse while the field trial was laid out using randomised complete block design with three replications. Seedlings were inoculated with CMV at 10 days after emergence. Disease incidence, disease severity, growth and yield characteristics were recorded. Data were subjected to analysis of variance at p ≤ 0.05. Infected plants elicited mosaic symptoms but disease severity was cultivar dependent. Plant height, leaf area, fruit length, fruit diameter and fruit weight were all reduced by CMV. The lowest disease incidence ( < 35 %), severity ( < 3), reductions in morphological and yield parameters ( < 10 %) were found in Ex- Bassawa-2, Cayenne, and Roma Savanna. This indicated that they contained CMV tolerant genes. Therefore, the three most tolerant cultivars (Ex- Bassawa-2 cultivar of okra, Cayenne of pepper and Roma Savanna of tomato) are recommended to farmers in CMV prone areas.Keywords: CMV; Disease incidence; Growth and yield; Severity; Vegetable

Growth and yield variability of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) cultivars infected with cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus disease

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is a major legume crop with diverse uses in Nigeria. Its productivity is however threatened by Cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus (CABMV) in most groundnut producing areas, resulting in huge losses. This study was conducted to determine the resistance of some commercial groundnut cultivars under CABMV disease. The experiment was conducted in Minna, Southern Guinea Savanna agro-ecological zone of Nigeria. Twenty groundnut cultivars were evaluated separately as healthy and CABMV infected trials. The experiment was laid out in randomised complete block design with three replications. Seedlings were infected with the virus by mechanical inoculation at 10 days after sowing. The plants were observed for disease incidence, growth and yield attributes. The data collected were subjected to analysis of variance, principal component and cluster analyses at p≤0.05. One hundred percent infection was found regardless of the cultivar. The healthy plants exhibited significantly (p<0.05) higher morphological and yield parameters than infected plants. Principal component analysis revealed that 100-seed weight accounted for the greatest variability in healthy (eigen vector = 0.6239) and CABMV infected (eigen vector = 0.6005) plants. Cluster analysis showed that 18 (90 %) cultivars formed cluster 1, whereas one cultivar each was found in cluster 2 and 3. The top three cultivars for 100-seed weight: “SAMNUT 23” (56.0 g), “SAMNUT 25” (50.5 g) and “SAMNUT 26” (50.9 g) were the most tolerant to CABMV, whereas “ICG-92267” was identified as the best cultivar for dry matter production (24.0 g/plant). Planting of these tolerant cultivars is recommended in order to mitigate the stresses imposed by CABMV.Keywords: disease incidence, principal components, clusters, groundnu

RECRUITMENT PROCESS AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, NIGERIA

Effective organizational sustenance is predicated on employees’ job performance. Ability to have workforce that are suitable for global best practice is contingent on good recruitment, selection and placement strategy of the organization. The study population was the University of Ibadan, teaching and non-teaching staff, male (mean = 26.39, SD = 4.47), female (mean = 26.73, SD = 5.63). The covid-19 pandemic necessitated online questionnaire administration to the participants using Google form. It was found that there was significant relationship between recruitment, selection, placement and employee performance; there was significant joint influence of recruitment, selection and placement on employees’ performance; there was significant independent influence of placement and employee performance, there was no significant independent influence of recruitment and selection on employee performance. University of Ibadan should devise means of ensuring that the most productive workers are recruited, selected for employment and eventually given appointment for placement in the different departments and units within the university. The procedure for selection and placement of the would-be employees should be thorough, objective and devoid of sentiment. Gender consideration for employment into establishment should be discouraged, and the most qualified candidate should be considered ahead of gender or any other factors that might distort merit in the selection process.   Article visualizations