An Evaluation of Human Resource Accounting on Corporate Performance

The accounting component of human capital has not yet been fully adopted and implemented in corporate financial reporting of corporate organizations. Determining the impact of human resource accounting on turnover, earnings per share, and capital employed of corporate performance of the listed businesses in the Nigerian stock exchange is the goal of the current study. The results of the study demonstrate that (I) human resource accounting significantly influences business turnover, (ii) human resource accounting significantly influences earnings per share, and (iii) human resource accounting significantly influences return on capital employed. In conclusion, the financial reports would be more useful for making decisions if human resources were included as an asset rather than reported in the traditional manner. Therefore, the study suggests that the listed firms adopt a culture of valuing and disclosing education, training, and ongoing retraining of their human resources to enhance performance. &nbsp

The Economics of Network Reconfiguration and Shunt Compensation on a 33 kV Distribution Network

This work studies the cost benefits derivable from network reconfiguration and shunt compensation of a Nigerian 33 kV distribution network. The approach adopted requires that the base case power flow analysis of the distribution network was first carried out, after which a shunt capacitor was used for compensation. The introduction of a tie-line in the network and a combination of capacitor and tie-line on same network were also carried out. The costs analysis of compensation and reconfiguration was carried out to understand their financial worthiness. The results obtained showed that the payback period (PP) for the introduction of compensation only, reconfiguration only and combination of compensation and reconfiguration are 1286.89 hr, 328.58 hr and 1043.31 hr, respectively. Though, reconfiguration only gives the least PP, a combination of compensation and reconfiguration has a long time cost benefit. At time above 5147.57 hr, it generates more profit than others

Geochemistry and rare-metal bearing potentials of pegmatites of Gbugbu, Lema and Bishewa areas of North Central Nigeria

The authors acknowledge the immense supports received from the management of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA). Mr. Olufemi Ogedengbe, a retired Director of Economic Geology Department, NGSA was exceptionally supportive in all aspects of this research.   Abstract The pegmatites of Gbugbu, Lema and Bishewa areas belong to the pegmatite belt of North-Central Nigeria which has been prospected for minerals since the early 1940’s. Detailed geological mapping of the pegmatite bodies and sampling of muscovite extracts were carried out, while major, trace and rare earth elements geochemistry were achieved using ICP-OES and ICP-MS. Variation plots of major and trace elements were used to determine the geochemical characteristics of these pegmatite bodies. Structural features of the study area suggest fracture patterns in the Nigerian Basement rocks controlled the distribution of the pegmatites on a regional NW-SE, N-S and NE-SW and minor E-W trends. The pegmatites are peraluminous with major and trace elements pattern indicating similarities with granitic clan of igneous rocks. Qualitative assessment of the pegmatites using K/Rb vs Cs, K/Cs vs Rb, K/Rb vs Rb/Sr, variation plots suggest the majority of the pegmatites are mineralized with Na/K ratio>1 and  belong to the rare metal bearing class with a compositional variation suggesting regional zonation of the pegmatites. Furthermore, these plots suggest the Lema pegmatite field is highly evolved and belong to the Li-Be-Ta Type (III) and Li-Cs-Be-Ta Type (IV) while majority of those in Gbugbu and Bishewa fields belong to the muscovite bearing Type (I) and Be bearing Type (II). It is concluded from this study that the pegmatites of Gbugbu, Lema and Bishewa pegmatite fields have the potentials for rare metal mineralization with alkali and rare alkali fractionation playing significant roles in the mineralization processes. Furthermore, field evidence and Rb vs Sr plot, suggests the pegmatites were emplaced at variable depths of between 20-30km indicating that the Gbugbu and Bishewa pegmatite fields have been extensively eroded and are close to the roots of the primary mineralization exposing mainly the interior pegmatites of the Types I-II. On the other hand, the Lema field which suffered lesser degree of erosion has Type III-IV pegmatite still remaining at the center of a regionally zoned pegmatite body. The significance of this study is that the pegmatites of Gbugbu, Lema and Bishewa areas have potentials for economic mineralization of tantalite, wolframite, cassiterite and columbite. Keywords: Pegmatites, Pnuematolysis, Albitization, Rare-metal, Mineralization, Peraluminous DOI: 10.7176/JEES/9-3-15 Publication date:March 31st 2019

Application of Three-Phase Power Flow Analysis to the Nigerian Distribution Networks

Single-phase power flow analysis is used to study most distribution networks in Nigeria. The use of single-phase-power flow analysis assumes that the network is balanced and that the conductor phases act identically. However, Nigerian distribution networks are highly imbalanced because of untransposed lines, irregularly distributed loads in conductor phases, mismatched conductor sizes, and spacing. Consequently, single-phase modeling of the networks fails to reflect actual network behavior, resulting in an incorrect power flow solution. This research presents the three-phase modeling of radial distribution networks for a three-phase-power flow study of Nigerian distribution networks. Olusanya's 54-bus and Ajinde's 62-bus distribution networks in Nigeria were evaluated, both of which were very imbalanced. Without making any assumptions about the network components, these two distribution networks were properly modeled. Each network's three-phase power flow study was carried out in the MATLAB environment. The power flow solutions for each network demonstrated unevenness in the voltage profile for each network phase, as well as inequality in the real and reactive power losses in each phase, indicating that the deployed three-phase-power flow analysis properly mirrored the underlying network characteristics. Therefore, applying three-phase power flow analysis to distribution networks is critical for proper assessment of distribution network performance

Simultaneous network reconfiguration and capacitor allocations using a novel dingo optimization algorithm

Power loss and voltage magnitude fluctuations are two major issues in distribution networks that have drawn a lot of attention. Numerous strategies have been put forward to provide remedies to lessen the undesirable effects of these issues. Combining two of these approaches and dealing with them simultaneously to get more effective outcomes is essential. Therefore, this study hybridizes the network reconfiguration and capacitor allocation strategies using a novel dingo optimization algorithm (DOA) to solve the optimization problems. The optimization problems for simultaneous network reconfiguration and capacitor allocations were formulated and solved using a novel DOA. To demonstrate its effectiveness, DOA’s results were contrasted with those of the other optimization techniques. The methodology was validated on the IEEE 33-bus network and implemented in the MATLAB program. The results demonstrated that the best network reconfiguration was accomplished with switches 7, 11, 17, 27, and 34 open, and buses 8, 29, and 30 were the best places for capacitors with ideal sizes of 512, 714, and 495 kVAr, respectively. The voltage profile was significantly improved, and the power losses were significantly decreased. When compared to some of the different methods, DOA came out on top

E-Government, Information and Communications Technology Support and Paperless Environment in Nigerian Public Universities: Issues and Challenges

The move toward a paperless environment has become the driving force behind sustainable development and e-government usage in many public sector institutions. It is equally at the heart of the government campaign to make service delivery in public institutions cost-effective, seamless, and efficient. The universities are supposed to be at the front-line of this campaign due to their operations which involve the heavy usage of papers at huge costs. Thus, making it important for university management to provide ICT support in order to promote paperless exchange of information and presentations. It is, however, understood recently, that there are issues which surround the low usage of ICT among university management and ultimately paperless environment. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to conceptually discuss the mode of university operations and how paperless environment can be attained. The paper highlights the cyclical order of document generation, document management and document sharing as the process in which a paperless environment can take place within both the academic and the administrative settings in the university. The paper further discusses the challenges hindering the attainment of paperless environment among which are infrastructural gap, inadequate ICT support and attitudinal challenge. It is recommended that for the smooth operation of a paperless environment, the government must bridge the infrastructure gap especially power as well as train and retrain staff on the path ICT usage

An Investigation into the Level of Financial Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa

Financial inclusion is crucial for redistribution of economic resources between the deficit and surplus units in an economy. Despite the importance of financial inclusion, especially for economic growth of developing regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the prevailing level financial inclusion remain an open question. Against this background, this study investigates the level of financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2005 and 2015. This study employs secondary data obtained from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The data obtained was subjected to Principal Component Analysis to determine the level of financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings show that Sub-Saharan Africa has a medium level of financial inclusion during the observed period with Index of Financial Inclusion (IFI) value of 0.095023. The study concludes that Sub-Saharan Africa has high propensity to achieve a high level of financial inclusion in the region if more outlets of financial institutions are established.JEL Codes - G1; G

INFLUENCE OF INTERACTION BETWEEN INSTITUTIONAL QUALITY AND TAXPAYERS’ BEHAVIOURS ON TAX FRAUD MANAGEMENT IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

Tax fraud remains the greatest challenge to the government across the world, but the alarming rate at which it is being perpetrated in Nigeria is of concern to the government. The government has lost billions of naira as a result of this. The involvement of taxpayers in tax fraud depends on the level at which they perceive the institution of governance. Hence, this study examined the influence of interaction between institutional quality and taxpayers’ behaviors on tax fraud management in south-west Nigeria. The study employed a quantitative method to generate data from the total population of 504,263 respondents. The sample size consisted of 400 taxpayers (companies and businesses) registered with the Federal Inland Revenue Service in southwest Nigeria. The data were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM). The interaction of institutional quality and taxpayer behaviors on tax fraud management was found to have a significant negative relationship (= -0.066, t = -1.763, p = 0.039, 0.05). According to this study, the sets of exogenous latent variables (i.e., institutional quality and taxpayer behaviors) explain 78% of the variance in tax fraud management. The study concluded that the working together of taxpayers’ perceptions of both low institutional quality and taxpayers’ behaviors has a significant influence on the tendency for taxpayers to engage in tax fraud management in south-west Nigeria. It was recommended that the better the morale of a taxpayer, the lower the tax fraud. Therefore, the government is advised to adopt policies and measures that can boost the taxpayers’ morality, which will in turn enable them to see tax fraud as a negative to their principled value system as law-abiding citizens. It is also recommended that tax authorities should be seen as taxpayers' friends by making their interactions with taxpayers less bureaucratic.  Article visualizations

An Investigation into the Level of Financial Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa

Financial inclusion is crucial for redistribution of economic resources between the deficit and surplus units in an economy. Despite the importance of financial inclusion, especially for economic growth of developing regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the prevailing level financial inclusion remain an open question. Against this background, this study investigates the level of financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2005 and 2015. This study employs secondary data obtained from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The data obtained was subjected to Principal Component Analysis to determine the level of financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings show that Sub-Saharan Africa has a medium level of financial inclusion during the observed period with Index of Financial Inclusion (IFI) value of 0.095023. The study concludes that Sub-Saharan Africa has high propensity to achieve a high level of financial inclusion in the region if more outlets of financial institutions are established

Optimal Allocation of Photovoltaic Distributed Generations in Radial Distribution Networks

Photovoltaic distributed generation (PVDG) is a noteworthy form of distributed energy generation that boasts a multitude of advantages. It not only produces absolutely no greenhouse gas emissions but also demands minimal maintenance. Consequently, PVDG has found widespread applications within distribution networks (DNs), particularly in the realm of improving network efficiency. In this research study, the dingo optimization algorithm (DOA) played a pivotal role in optimizing PVDGs with the primary aim of enhancing the performance of DNs. The crux of this optimization effort revolved around formulating an objective function that represented the cumulative active power losses that occurred across all branches of the network. The DOA was then effectively used to evaluate the most suitable capacities and positions for the PVDG units. To address the power flow challenges inherent to DNs, this study used the Newton–Raphson power flow method. To gauge the effectiveness of DOA in allocating PVDG units, it was rigorously compared to other metaheuristic optimization algorithms previously documented in the literature. The entire methodology was implemented using MATLAB and validated using the IEEE 33-bus DN. The performance of the network was scrutinized under normal, light, and heavy loading conditions. Subsequently, the approach was also applied to a practical Ajinde 62-bus DN. The research findings yielded crucial insights. For the IEEE 33-bus DN, it was determined that the optimal locations for PVDG units were buses 13, 25, and 33, with recommended capacities of 833, 532, and 866 kW, respectively. Similarly, in the context of the Ajinde 62-bus network, buses 17, 27, and 33 were identified as the prime locations for PVDGs, each with optimal sizes of 757, 150, and 1097 kW, respectively. Remarkably, the introduction of PVDGs led to substantial enhancements in network performance. For instance, in the IEEE 33-bus DN, the smallest voltage magnitude increased to 0.966 p.u. under normal loads, 0.9971 p.u. under light loads, and 0.96004 p.u. under heavy loads. These improvements translated into a significant reduction in active power losses—61.21% under normal conditions, 17.84% under light loads, and 33.31% under heavy loads. Similarly, in the case of the Ajinde 62-bus DN, the smallest voltage magnitude reached 0.9787 p.u., accompanied by an impressive 71.05% reduction in active power losses. In conclusion, the DOA exhibited remarkable efficacy in the strategic allocation of PVDGs, leading to substantial enhancements in DN performance across diverse loading conditions