Women and Entrepreneurship in Nigeria: What Role Does Social Inclusion Play?

Women’s participation in business enterprises has attracted much attention from policy makers, researchers, NGOs, politicians, the government sector, and international agencies. This is because it has been identified that women’s involvement in income generation tends to boost family income, support children’s education, improve health of family members, provide food, build assets for the family, and contribute to general development of economies. However, women have not been performing these roles due to constraints placed consciously or inadvertently on women by society, limiting them from engaging in income-earning ventures, especially in developing countries like Nigeria. Even those who wish to venture into economic activities face both economic and non-economic challenges limiting their enterprise. These challenges exclude women from being involved in economic activities. This study is poised to: investigate the role of social inclusion on female owned businesses in Nigeria, examine the impact of economic factors that inhibit female-owned businesses in Nigeria, and investigate the non-economic factors affecting the involvement of Nigerian women in business entrepreneurship. The data for this study will be sourced from the World Bank’s Global Findex database (2017), while the logistic regression model will be used for analysis. Findings from the study shows that the number of female account holders, financial institutional accounts in rural areas, grants or loans to startup businesses, rural and household size were all found to be positively and significantly influencing women owned businesses in Nigeria It is recommended that the government needs to set up more viable grant and loans schemes targeted particularly to female entrepreneurs both at the rural and urban areas so as to encourage more female businesses in Nigeria

Disparity in Catastrophic Healthcare Expenditures Across Households’ Income Groups in Nigeria: The Lens of Foster-Greer-Thorbecke Poverty Indices

The Nigeria health care system seems to have continue in the downturn trend as a result of the decay in public health care system and this have continued to drive the rising health care financed by out-of-pocket expenditure health hence, the study examined the disparity in Catastrophic Healthcare expenditures across Households income groups in Nigeria using the Nigeria Health and Demographic Survey 2018. The study employed the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke indices and the logit model. Findings from the study showed that some household and individual characteristics are associated with catastrophic health expenditure in Nigeria. Many households experience catastrophic health payments due to factors such as age, education of household head, health insurance status, geo- political zone, type of health facilities visited, and type of illness suffered. Governments are yet to find fair and innovative ways of financing the health system so as to reduce the financial burden of out-of-pocket payments on households and individuals in Nigeria. There is also urgent need for increased financial protection as well as insurance coverage through small credit and rural households’ contribution scheme as an alternative to the National Health Insurance Scheme to enhance health financing option that could reduce the huge private health cost of out-of-pocket expenditure. There is need for pressure on the legislature to provide a bill that disallow health care tourism for public office holders abroad as way of checkmating the better health care system in Nigeria. Keywords: Health care, Inequality, Income groups, private health cost, households DOI: 10.7176/JESD/13-20-03 Publication date:October 31st 202

Women’s Labour Force Participation: Economic Growth Nexus in Sub-Saharan African Countries

Women’s labour force participation is an aspect of empowerment and a leeway to achieving the SDGs due to the contribution of women’s labour to economic growth. This study investigated the impact of women labour force participation on economic growth in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Important lessons were drawn from Israel as to how Israel has been empowering and currently improving women’s labour force participation and economic growth in general. The study employed a two-step system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) with panel data from 35 selected SSA countries. The findings showed a positive relationship between gross fixed capital formation, female labour force participation rate, economic growth in SSA countries, and a negative relationship between growth in the region and fertility rate. The study therefore recommended that governments should provide a policy framework to favour and encourage more women’s participation in the SSA region

DOES HIGHER EDUCATION REDUCE POVERTY AMONG YOUTHS IN NIGERIA?

ABSTRACT Poverty is a serious problem i

THE ECONOMIC COST OF MALARIA TREATMENT TO POOR RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN SELECTED COMMUNITIES IN ENUGU STATE

Malaria is one of the leading tropical diseases affecting majority of the rural population in Nigeria. This disease drains the insufficient income of rural dwellers and further reduces their socio-economic standards. This study examined the economic cost of malaria treatment to poor rural households selected from six communities in Enugu state using cost of illness approach. It found that ‘richest’ rural households on the average spentN6153 (28.41%) monthly while households from the poorest quintile spent 30.25% of their average monthly income on malaria treatment. This leads these households into large financial catastrophe forcing them to reduce other basic expenses. These poor households are likely to remain in poverty if measures are not taken to alleviate the situation. Policies that would consider the introduction of community-based health insurance scheme or reduction in user fees in the rural areas are recommended. &nbsp

Socioeconomic status and health shocks; analysis of coping strategies in rural households of Enugu State, Nigeria

Background: Health burden in rural areas of developing countries is worsened by the limited coverage of health insurance. With constrained access to quality healthcare and constituting two thirds of Nigeria’s poor, this study investigates how rural households cope with health shocks consequent on their socioeconomic status.Method: Data was collected from 600 households in Enugu using a questionnaire. Cross-tabulation, chi square and multiple regression statistical techniques were employed for data analysis. Findings: About 53% of the respondents were male household-heads while borrowing (47.65%), sales of assets (43.85%), diversion of funds (2.00%) and reduced expenditure (6.48%) were the main coping strategies. Education, occupation, and income statistically influenced the coping strategies (P < 0.005) and jointly accounted for 26.5% (R2 = 0.265, P < 0.001) of the variations in coping strategies.Conclusion: Having a rural healthcare policy and mainstreaming the informal sector into the national health insurance scheme will ameliorate health shocks among the rural poor

The Impact of social infrastructures on economic growth of Sub-Saharan Africa: implications for sustainable economic growth

Background: Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa has consistently remained the least when compared to any other region in the world. Countries in the region have received a lot of grants in form of aids to boost their capital accumulation; yet there is slow growth in most parts of the region. Many countries have implemented the World Bank and IMF suggested policies; and majority of the countries have adopted democratic political system. Yet growth in the region has remained very low. It then becomes pertinent to identify the causes of the low economic growth pattern in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The objective of this study, therefore, is to determine the impact of social infrastructure on economic growth of sub-Saharan Africa.Data and methods: The data for this study were 2001-2017 time-series data sourced from World Governance Indicators (WGI) and World Development Indicators (WDI). The standard panel data of fixed effect (FE) and random effect (RE) were employed in the analysis of the data, while Hausman test results guided the final choice of fixed effect estimation.Findings: The results show that corruption is statistically and significantly affecting economic growth of sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. This means that control of corruption will help boost the economies in the region as low corruption is a prerequisite for economic recovery and sustainable development. Besides, trade openness, labour supply, and general government consumption significantly affect economic growth in SSA.Conclusion: SSA countries should control corruption as well as open their economies so as to reap the positive effects of economy of scale derived from diversification