This study investigated the effect of government debt on Nigeria's economic growth using annual data from 1980 to 2018 and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag technique. The empirical results showed that external debt constituted an impediment to long-term growth while its short-term effect was growthenhancing. Domestic debt had a significant positive impact on long-term growth while its short-term effect was negative. In the long term and short term, debt service payments led to growth retardation confirming debt overhang effect. The findings suggested that the government should direct the borrowed funds to the diversification of the productive base of the economy. This will improve long-term economic growth, expand the revenue base and strengthen the capacity to repay outstanding debts when due. Fiscal improvements that encourage domestic resource mobilization, efficient debt management strategies and reliance on domestic debt rather than external debt for increased deficit financing to engender greater growth are the main contribution of the study.

In spite of government counter-terrorism expenditure and efforts, the prevalence of insecurity in Nigeria appears to be rising and fast evolving into an existential crisis that is shaking the foundation of its nationhood. The current study used annual time-series data from 1980 to 2019 and the ARDL methodology to analyse the fiscal and socio-economic consequences of insecurity on economic growth in Nigeria. The empirical findings demonstrated that high unemployment rate, domestic capital formation, foreign direct investment, government spending on education and security are negatively affected by the growing level of insecurity and consequently retarded growth in the long and short run. Conversely, improved health services, equitable income distribution and productive use of public borrowing were positively correlated with security and, therefore, stimulated growth in the long and short run. Government revenue and inflation rate accelerated growth in the long run whereas their short-run effect was deleterious. The findings suggest that good governance, provision of a safe and secured environment for human capital development and businesses, improved access to social and economic services will curb violent tendencies, create jobs, reduce poverty, increase government revenue and engender long-term inclusive growth.

The study investigated the effect of public debt on Nigeria’s economic growth using annual time series data from 1980-2018. In collecting, evaluating and interpreting secondary data relating to the study objective, the quantitative and ex-post facto research design was adopted. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag method was applied to assess the short and long-term linkages between economic growth and public debt indicators. The empirical results showed that external debt stock constituted an impediment to long-term growth but a short-run growth-enhancement effect. Domestic debt accretion had a noteworthy positive impact on long-term output growth, while its short-term effect was negative. In the long and short-term, debt service payments led to growth retardation, although the amount of foreign reserves greatly improved growth both in the long and short-run. The diagnostic tests results indicated no problems with non-normality, serial correlation, heteroscedasticity and error in the predicted model specification. The findings of this study suggest that concerted efforts should be made to boost domestic revenue generation and execute fiscal transformations that reduce public debt and deficit financing to a sustainable level, while ensuring that borrowed funds are deployed to support growth through productive and self-liquidating investments in principal sectors of the economy.

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Background: Antioxidants are critical for maintaining optimum health and wellbeing and they protect the body against the development of diseases caused by oxidative stress. Nutraceuticals are foods or part of food that have medical benefit. The present study formulated and nutritionally evaluated an antioxidant rich nutraceutical. Materials/Methods: Nutritional analysis of proximate composition, amino acids and fatty acids profile, antioxidants vitamins and minerals were determined using standard methods. Tomatoes, ginger, garlic, onion, watermelon seed, lemon juice and palm oil were used to formulate the nutraceutical. Results: Proximate composition analysis

The efficacy of fiscal policy as a tool for promoting growth has remained a controversial issue and needs further investigation. The aim of the current study is to conduct a disaggregated analyses of the impact of fiscal policy variables on economic growth in Nigeria using annual time series data spanning the period 1980-2017. The empirical investigation is based on the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) modelling technique. The bound test results revealed that there exists a unique long-run relationship between fiscal policy variables and economic growth. The empirical results confirmed that corporate and personal income taxes, government capital expenditure, fiscal deficit, domestic and external debt affect economic growth negatively whereas government recurrent expenditure, customs and excise duties showed a significant positive effect on economic growth both in the long and short run. The structural break dummy variable had an unexpected positive effect on economic growth that was significant only in the short run while petroleum profit tax, being the most important tax element in Nigeria showed a negative impact on growth that was not significant both in the long and short run. The study recommended expanding the revenue base through an efficient tax administration and collection system, increased investment in productive sectors of the economy by increasing capital expenditure and reducing recurrent expenditure and curtailing excessive deficit financing.

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Motivated by the need to avoid potential parameter bias associated with previous empirical researches, the current study conducted a disaggregated inquiry of the individual impact of fiscal policy variables on private investment in Nigeria. The empirical investigation adopted the Autoregressive Distributed Lag method which allows for the simultaneous estimation of the short and long-run relationships between variables, removing the problems associated with excluded variables and the existence of autocorrelation. The method was applied to time series data spanning the period 1980-2017, generated using the quantitative and ex- post facto research design. The bounds test results established a co-integrating relationship between private investment and its selected determinants. The empirical findings confirmed that various components of direct taxes retarded the growth of private investment while indirect taxes stimulated the growth of private investment. Government capital spending had a favourable and statistically relevant impact on private investment while public external debt suggested a deleterious effect of inhibiting private investment both in the long and short run. The study recommended harmonizing tax policies to curb multiple taxes and high cost of doing business; and major investment in infrastructures to improve private investment and affect long-term growth positively.JEL Classification Codes: A22, E62, F16, G18, H26.