ANGEL INVESTING AND ENTREPRENEURIAL PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA

Many young people are becoming more innovative and have creative business ideas. Unfortunately, for new ventures, securing funding is often hard because of inadequate information between entrepreneurs and capital suppliers and partly because these entrepreneurs may have little business experience. As a result, different working relationships and contractual measures are used to deal with agency problems and to help the venture realize its potentials for value creation. The objectives of this study were to determine the extent to which new ventures have access to angel investors and to ascertain how angel investing can enhance the performance of new ventures in Nigeria. The studies used judgemental and convenience sampling techniques in selecting fifty (50) business owners in Calabar metropolis. Primary data were obtained with the aid of questionnaire. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree was developed. The study surveyed only the owners or managers of the selected firms. The analysis revealed that most entrepreneurs are not familiar with angel investing. Most of the entrepreneurs were not knowledgeable on the role of angel investors neither do they personally know some angel investors. The findings of the research suggest that most of the entrepreneurs in Cross River State are novice on the concept of Angel Investing. Based on the findings, it was recommended amongst others that more enlightenment should be created on angel investing for emerging entrepreneur

Evaluation of a quality improvement intervention to reduce anastomotic leak following right colectomy (EAGLE): pragmatic, batched stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized trial in 64 countries

Background Anastomotic leak affects 8 per cent of patients after right colectomy with a 10-fold increased risk of postoperative death. The EAGLE study aimed to develop and test whether an international, standardized quality improvement intervention could reduce anastomotic leaks. Methods The internationally intended protocol, iteratively co-developed by a multistage Delphi process, comprised an online educational module introducing risk stratification, an intraoperative checklist, and harmonized surgical techniques. Clusters (hospital teams) were randomized to one of three arms with varied sequences of intervention/data collection by a derived stepped-wedge batch design (at least 18 hospital teams per batch). Patients were blinded to the study allocation. Low- and middle-income country enrolment was encouraged. The primary outcome (assessed by intention to treat) was anastomotic leak rate, and subgroup analyses by module completion (at least 80 per cent of surgeons, high engagement; less than 50 per cent, low engagement) were preplanned. Results A total 355 hospital teams registered, with 332 from 64 countries (39.2 per cent low and middle income) included in the final analysis. The online modules were completed by half of the surgeons (2143 of 4411). The primary analysis included 3039 of the 3268 patients recruited (206 patients had no anastomosis and 23 were lost to follow-up), with anastomotic leaks arising before and after the intervention in 10.1 and 9.6 per cent respectively (adjusted OR 0.87, 95 per cent c.i. 0.59 to 1.30; P = 0.498). The proportion of surgeons completing the educational modules was an influence: the leak rate decreased from 12.2 per cent (61 of 500) before intervention to 5.1 per cent (24 of 473) after intervention in high-engagement centres (adjusted OR 0.36, 0.20 to 0.64; P < 0.001), but this was not observed in low-engagement hospitals (8.3 per cent (59 of 714) and 13.8 per cent (61 of 443) respectively; adjusted OR 2.09, 1.31 to 3.31). Conclusion Completion of globally available digital training by engaged teams can alter anastomotic leak rates. Registration number: NCT04270721 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)