Working Paper 136 - Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment Inflows to Africa, 1980-2007

The central concern of this paper is to respond to the question: what determines FDI inflows to Africa? An understanding of such factors will assist African policymakers to formulate and execute policies for attracting FDI. Our estimation results from a panel of seven five-year non-overlapping windows for the period 1980-2007 indicate that: (i) there is a positive relationship between market size and FDI inflows; (ii) openness to trade has a positive impact on FDI flows; (iii) higher financial development has negative effect on FDI inflows; (iv) high government consumption expenditure attracts FDI inflows to Africa; (v) higher FDI goes where international remittances also goes in Africa; (vi) agglomeration has a strong positive impact on FDI inflows to Africa; (vii) natural resource endowment and exploitation (especially for oil) attracts huge FDI into Africa; (viii) East and Southern African sub-regions appear positively disposed to obtain higher levels of inward FDI. The key policy implications are discussed.

Working Paper 73 - Economic and Political Causes of Civil Wars in Africa: Some Econometric Results

In this paper, we investigated whether civil wars in Africa have economic andpolitical causes. The model is based on the Collier-Hoeffler “greed” and “grievance”theory in which rebels will conduct a civil war for “loot-seeking” and “justiceseeking”reasons. Using logit models the propositions were tested empirically. Inparticular, six variables, GDP per capita growth rate in the preceding period, theamount of natural resources (proxied by primary commodity exports-GDP ratio),peace duration, democracy, social fractionalisation, and population size aresignificant and strong determinants of the onset of civil wars in Africa. The policyimplication is the combination of economic diversification, poverty and populationreduction, and political reforms so as to prevent conflict situations in Africancountries.

Why Does Foreign Direct Investment Go Where It Goes?: New Evidence From African Countries

The central concern of this paper is to respond to the question: why do FDI inflows go where they do in African countries? An understanding of such factors will assist African policymakers to formulate and execute policies for attracting FDI. Our estimation results from cross-country regressions for the period 1996-2008 indicate that: (i) there is a positive relationship between market size and FDI inflows; (ii) openness to trade has a positive impact on FDI flows; (iii) higher financial development has negative effect on FDI inflows; (iv) the prevalence of the rule of law increases FDI inflows; (v) higher FDI goes where foreign aid also goes; (vi) agglomeration has a strong positive impact on FDI inflows; (vi) natural resource endowment and exploitation (such as oil) attracts huge FDI; (vii) East and Southern African sub-regions appear positively disposed to obtain higher levels of inward FDI. The key policy implications are discussed.Foreign direct investment, Factors driving FDI, African countries

Economic analysis of a water recirculation system catfish farm

The operational costs and revenue generation of a catfish farm operating water recirculation system was analyzed from May 2007 to April 2008. The farm operated the Dutch Model system with annual capacity of 30 tons of African catfish for grow-out facility. It had a small hatchery using water flow-through system. Total operational cost for 12 months period was Nl, 058,288.00 ranging 48,400 to Nll6, 850.00 monthly. Similarly total revenue generated was Nl, 166,220.00 with a monthly range of N33.670.00 to N68.890.00. The gross profit for the period of study was N107, 932.00 which was very minimal. The highest expenditure item was salaries, accounting for 34% followed by fish feed which accounted for 32% of the total costs. The catfish farm was not operating at full at the time of this study. However the analysis has highlighted that payment of salaries and feed procurement were major items that will determine the profitability of this investment. Consequently, reduction in salaries and feed costs will reduce the operational costs and thus make the project more viable

The incidence of Nypa fruticans (Wurmb) and its impact on fisheries production in the Niger Delta mangrove ecosystem

Nypa fruticans occurs in Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River State, Nigeria; invading an estimated area of 821 Km super(2) mangrove dominated swamps. Human activities such as tree felling, urbanization, oil and gas exploration and exploitation and other activities led to the interference in the normal mangrove by the Nypa palm. Lack of utilization by the local population of the Nypa palm as in into-pacification has increased the population over the years. The effect includes the reduction in primary and secondary productivity, disruption of food chain and erosion of riverbanks. The eradication of the Nypa palm from the Niger delta mangrove ecosystem and replacement with red and white mangroves will restore the ecosystem health and enhance biological diversit