This paper aims to examine the influence foreign and indigenous directors have on determining firms’ dividend payout structure. The population for this study is the fifteen deposit money banks listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Using a random sampling technique, a sample of 14 deposit money banks for the 2010 to 2017 period was taken. The total observations used for the work was 112. The study adopted a panel data methodology, which was estimated with a random-effect model. It was observed that a significant relationship exists between foreign directors and the dependent variable (dividend payout structure). The dividend payout structure by dividend per share of sampled firms was measured. This study will improve analysts and investors’ understanding of dividend policy by giving them insights in identifying the main determinants of dividend policy. For policy makers, this study reinforces the fact that good corporate governance is important to develop financial markets and improve the firm value.

Reduction in oil price in the international market, coupled high demand of foreign goods and wide swings of oil prices in the international market has posed different challenges for policies to promote growth and development. This study investigates the impact of oil shock on macroeconomic performance in Nigeria using Structural Vector Autoregression and normalized equation was used to establish the long-run equation. Evidence from the long-run relationship showed that employment has a negative relationship with aggregated output, exchange rate and oil prices. The interest rate and consumer price index has a positive relationship with employment. Variation in oil shock affects most of the macroeconomic variables. More explicitly, the oil price shock shows more variation across the time horizon for employment. The consequence of the result is that dependence on the oil sector has not promoted employment generation over time; there is a need to consider an alternative means to ensure sustainable growth and development.

This study examined the impact of regional economic integration on economic upgrading in global value chains (GVCs), of the East African Community (EAC), Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), from 2000 to 2015. Using the Least Square Dummy Variable (LSDV) technique, the results showed that regional economic integration is not a significant driver of the economic upgrading of their Members, in GVCs but one-period lagged backward participation in GVCs is. Considering labour productivity as an alternative measure of productivity in the place of productivity linked with participation in GVCs (economic upgrading), regional economic integration turned out to be a weak positively significant determinant. At a disaggregated level, regional economic integration significantly determined labour productivity in both EAC and SACU but not in ECOWAS. More regional efforts are needed to sufficiently aid the contribution of these African RECs to their Members' economic upgrading in GVCs.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the development of cattle value chain can influence employment creation and income of both cattle farmers and merchants. The study focusses on cattle farmers in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States where there are the largest cattle farms and live cattle merchants in Southern Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach It employs a research approach that uses key informant interviews and structured questionnaire in garnering needed information from cattle farms, abattoirs and merchant. Findings The results suggest that with some minimal supports, employment creation and income generation can be improved. Originality/value None of the reviewed empirical studies is specific to the cattle value chain in South Western Nigeria. Among other values, the study identifies employment and income opportunities in corporate and non-corporate farms in the cattle value chain in South Western Nigeria.

This study examines the impact of fiscal policy on agricultural output in Nigeria using the most recent official data. The metrics for fiscal policy is government capital expenditure and custom duties on fertilizer. The study used annual time series data obtained from CBN annual statistical bulletin, NCS, and FIRS which was found to be stationary at the order of I(1) and I(0). The order of unit root test led to the use of ARDL estimation method employed in the empirical analysis of this research work. The study found evidence of both short and long run relationship between the variables (VAO, GEX, IDMF, and ACGSF) using both Johansen co-integration and ARDL Bounds test. Although government expenditure (GEX) to agricultural sector was found to be statistically insignificant which recommend that government should increase agriculture capital expenditure to ensure that its contribution is significant. Consequently, custom duties on fertilizer (IDMF) was found to be negatively signed and significant indicating a negative impact on agricultural output. This demands that the policy makers should be prudent in the use of fiscal policy instrument in achieving its desired objective.