Maximizing the Gains of Public Procurement Act for Improved Sustainable Practices in Nigeria

Prior to the enactment of the Public Procurement Act, 2007, the Nigerian public procurement practice has been known to be unprofessional, inefficient and ineffective. This was premised on public expenditure management treasury circulars guidelines of 1958. This paper aimed to discuss the gains’ maximization and sustainable indices of the procurement act. It analyzed the modus operandi of this measure which brought into the economic landscape a myriad of short comings due to inadequacies of these guidelines. Against this background, the Obasanjo regime in 1999 commissioned the Country Procurement Assessment Report (CPAR)and its field report recommended the establishment of the Bureau of Price Monitoring and Intelligence Unit [BPMIU], among others. More so, its operations, the Procurement bill was sent to the National Assembly in 2003/2004. It was passed into Law on 30th May, 2007 and assented by the regime of late Alhaji Umaru Yaradua, on the 4th June, 2007. In all these, this Act has addressed little or no issues on sustainability ever since the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) has been the main driver. The results of the analysis of public procurement act yielded some maximized gains from sustainability indices ranging from environment, standardized norms, eco-friendly awareness, social, economic, innovation, circular, eco-products to health-related issues. It recommended a eurhythmic review of the current public procurement act by a rational juxtaposition process; of Nigerian public procurement act with developed nations’

Volatility forecasting with the wavelet transformation algorithm GARCH model: Evidence from African stock markets

The daily returns of four African countries' stock market indices for the period January 2, 2000, to December 31, 2014, were employed to compare the GARCH(1,1) model and a newly proposed Maximal Overlap Discreet Wavelet Transform (MODWT)- GARCH(1,1) model. The results showed that although both models fit the returns data well, the forecast produced by the GARCH(1,1) model underestimates the observed returns whereas the newly proposed MODWT-GARCH(1,1) model generates an accurate forecast value of the observed returns. The results generally showed that the newly proposed MODWT-GARCH(1,1) model best fits returns series for these African countries. Hence the proposed MODWT-GARCH should be applied on other context to further verify its validity

Comparison of forecasting performance between MODWT-GARCH(1,1) and MODWT-EGARCH(1,1) models: Evidence from African stock markets

Many researchers documented that if stock markets' returns series are significantly skewed, linear-GARCH(1,1) grossly underestimates the forecast values of the returns. However, this study showed that the linear Maximal Overlap Discreet Wavelet Transform MODWT-GARCH(1,1) actually gives an accurate forecast value of the returns. The study used the daily returns of four African countries' stock market indices for the period January 2, 2000, to December 31, 2014. The Maximal Overlap Discreet Wavelet Transform-GARCH(1,1) model and the Maximal Overlap Discreet Wavelet Transform-EGARCH(1,1) model are exhaustively compared. The results show that although both models fit the returns data well, the forecast produced by the Maximal Overlap Discreet Wavelet Transform-EGARCH(1,1) model actually underestimates the observed returns whereas the Maximal Overlap Discreet Wavelet Transform-GARCH(1,1) model generates an accurate forecast value of the observed returns

Some engineering properties of Palmyra palm tree (borassus aethiopum) germinating shoot

This study was carried out to determine some engineering properties of germinating shoot of Palmyra Palm tree (Borassus aethiopum) relevant to the design of an agricultural harvesting machine. Seed volume, sphericity, weight, surface area, aspect ratio and compressive strength were determined at three different moisture contents of 41.72%, 26.11% and 18.39% (wb) respectively. Standard methods and instruments were used to conduct the experiments. The results of the physical properties revealed that the major, intermediate and minor diameters, surface area and weight increased with the increase in moisture content. The maximum mean values of the major, intermediate and minor diameters were 280.00 mm, 33.00 mm and 25.90 mm respectively while the minimum mean values were 209.67 mm, 16.67 mm and 15.21 mm at the three moisture contents respectively. The mean coefficient of variation for the major, intermediate and minor diameters were 10.57%, 32.84% and 10.59% respectively. The statistical analysis carried out on the physical properties shows that the F value (38.77) is greater than the F-critical value and also the P-value 1.74×1032is less than the significance level (α= 0.05) which means there is a significant difference between the physical properties of germinating shoot within the range of moisture contents. The mechanical properties of the Palmyra palm germinating shoot revealed a mean force at break as 1247.10 N, 650.00 N and 707.10 N for longitudinal, natural and transverse loading positions respectively. The stress at break has mean values of 1247.10 N/mm2, 650.00N/mm2 and 707.10 N/mm2 for longitudinal natural and transverse loading positions respectively. The energy at break has mean values of 2.16Nm, 2.42 Nm and 1.80Nm, for longitudinal natural and transverse loading positions respectively. The mean values of the energy at yield for longitudinal, natural and transverse loading positions were 1.56 Nm, 1.03 Nm and 1.44 Nm respectively. The stress at yield has mean values of 1158.50 N/mm2, 627.67 N/mm2 and 734.25 N/mm2 for longitudinal, natural and transverse loading positions respectively. While the mean values for the Young’s modulus at longitudinal, natural and transverse loading positions were 15326.00 N/mm2, 5768.80 N/mm2, and 5010.90 N/mm2 respectively

Effects of Soil Properties and Operational Variables on the Compactibility of a Sandy Loam Soil

The evaluation of an empirical equation for the determination of degree of compaction of a sandy loam soil was carried out using seven soil physical properties and four compaction operational variables. The soil used was obtained from a borrow pit in Gombe. Five levels of compactive effort, E/A, using a drop-weight type compactor varying from 107.91 to 539.55 Nm was used to compact each of seven pairs of embankment and slice thicknesses (Z, z respectively) with Z varying from 210 to 450 mm and z from 30 to 210 mm. The developed empirical equation, π1 = Gπ2k in which π1 is the dimensionless degree of compaction and π2 is a dimensionless combination of the soil properties and the compaction operational variables, has a very high coefficient of determination, r2 varying from 98.8% to 98.9%. G and k are each polynomial functions of compactive effort per loading, eL. that is, G = αGeL2+βG eL + λG and k=αkeL2+βkeL+ λk. The values of the respective α, β and λ are highly statistically significant at 99.95 confidence level. The “dependent” variables (G and k) are highly correlated at 99.95% confidence level of statistical significance with the “independent” variable (eL). The multivariate expression of the degree of compaction obtained in this study shows that compaction depends, not only on cumulative compactive effort, E/A, but also on the compactive effort per loading (eL), embankment and slice thicknesses (Z and z respectively) as well as on easy-to-measure soil properties (i.e. soil texture, soil uniformity coefficient, antecedent soil moisture and antecedent bulk density)

The Effect of BudgetIng and Budgetary Control in Local Government Administration of Nigeria

The process of allocating resource to meet demand, as well as converting rhetoric to reality in the political system is termed budgeting. That process should link the past, the present and the future in standard and orderly way. Before the beginning of every financial year, Government at all level (federal, state, local government) announces their budget for the New Year. They state the objectives they anticipate in attaining through the period, and the plan of actions necessary. This study in tends to examine the effectiveness of budget and budgetary control in the local government system in Nigeria. This studied being a theoretical analysis, secondary data were used. As such, Available literatures on budgeting and budgetary control as they applicable to local governments in Nigeria were exhaustively used, relevant materials sourced from text books, Journal, newspapers and other official documents were taken into consideration to discover how local government can make use of a prepared budget to achieve effective and efficient results. It was observed that, local governments in Nigeria were confronting some challenges which includes; corruption and mismanagement, skilled manpower, state government interference and finance. This study recommends that, all the activities of the various departments of the local government should be planned and coordinated very well to ensure all departments are in harmony so that the effective budget will be realized. Keywords: Budgeting, budgetary control, Local government, Finance

The Limitations and implications of Training and Visit (T&V) Extension System in Nigeria

The paper reviews the limitations of the Training and Visit (T&V) system, which was vigorously promoted by the World Bank in the years 1975-1998 in over fifty (50) third world countries. The significant challenges facing the T&V system as discussed in this paper includes; poor linkages between research and extension, reduced frequency of regular training of extension staff and/or failure to hold such training(s), higher ratio of farmers -to- extension agent, increased use of mass media as a complimentary channel for technology diffusion along with the T&V effort and, high cost of implementing the system among other challenges. From the challenges highlighted, the paper deduced some implications for extension service delivery in Nigeria and concludes that development practitioners in Nigeria should always evaluate new approaches critically and, properly guide the Nigerian government to adopt only when such evaluation studies provide sufficient evidence that the nation has what it takes to fully implement and sustain the new approach

Correlation Between Students’ Attitudes and Mathematics Learning Achievements of High School Students in Yobe, Nigeria

Attitudes can affect the overall behavior of students in the learning process. This study aims to investigate the correlation between students’ attitudes and mathematics learning achievements among 367 senior secondary school students in Yobe state, Nigeria. A correlational design was used in the study. The research instruments used were questionnaires designed by the researchers to elicit responses from the students and end-of-term 3rd term mathematics examination scores of the students. The respondents were measured with a relevant standardized scale with Cronbach alpha reliability of 0.83. The data obtained was analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and t-test for independent sample. The result showed that there was a significant correlation between students’ attitudes and mathematics learning achievements of high school students’. In addition, there was a significant difference between male and female students’ attitudes toward mathematics learning achievements of high school students. Thus, it can be concluded that students' attitudes and learning achievement in mathematics are positively related. Female students are more prone to math phobia. In view of these findings, it is recommended that teachers should be wary of student attitudes toward learning mathematics and ensure that mathematics phobias are drastically minimized

Do Tax Policies in Nigeria Have Similar Implications for the Manufacturing Sector Output?

The study examines whether tax policies in Nigeria have similarimplications on the manufacturing sector’s output during the1994Q1-2020Q4 period using the ARDL bounds testing approach.The bounds testing result suggests the presence of cointegrationbetween tax policies and the manufacturing sector output. Further,the estimation results demonstrate that company income tax (CIT)and import tax are positively related to manufacturing sectoroutput. In contrast, value-added tax (VAT) has a negative effecton the manufacturing sector output, both in the short- and longterm.In addition, the results of the Granger causality test indicatea unidirectional causal relationship running from tax policies tothe manufacturing sector output and not vice versa. Thus, policiesand measures are recommended to prioritize the CIT and importtax, review the assortment in the VAT, and ensure accountabilityand transparency in the tax system.JEL Classification: C32, L60, H2

Impact of Gurara Dam on Land Cover in the Surrounding Communities of Kaduna State, Nigeria

This research focuses on the impact of Gurara Dam on land cover in the surrounding communities of Kaduna state Nigeria. The aim of the study is to assess changes land cover condition in communities surrounding Gurara Dam as a result of the Dam construction. This was achieved by analysing the land cover changes between pre-dam (2000) and the post-dam (2013) in terms of spatial extent and percentage coverage.To assess the impact, Landsat (ETM, TM and MSS) covering the area for 2000 (pre-dam period) and 2013 (post-dam period) was obtained. To interpret and verify the accuracy of the satellite imagery; ground truth observation was conducted on the land cover of the study area. Using ArcGIS 10.0 and AutoCAD Map 2013 software, different image processing techniques and analysis were undertaken to produce land cover maps of the study area for pre-dam and post dam period. The extent of area coverage of each land use/land cover was calculated in hectares and express in percentages. The study discovers that in the post-dam period (between 2000 and 2013) the impact of Gurara dam has resulted in substantial changes in the land cover, with losses in fadama land. Forestry, arable land and Rock outcrop by 58%, 9%, 7%, and 12% respectively. Whereas gains occurred in bare land (26%), water bodies (42%), circulation (28%).  Modern irrigation also witnessed gain by 100% and built up area 26%. It is there recommended that, modern technology (Geographic Information System) be provided as mitigation measure to land cover problems in communities surrounding Gurara Dam. Keywords: Dam Construction, Geographic Information System, land cover, Upstream and Spatial Exten