Public and private sectors across the globe formulate and implement policies that target growth of their operations. It is of essence therefore that economic managers and other stakeholders identify and engage key factors that promote economic activities in policy formulation. The connection between economic performance and energy utilization is acknowledged in the literature, but empirics on the nature of this relationship produce mixed outcomes thereby suggesting the need for more research. Using the auto-regressive distributed lag method, this study estimates the effect of energy consumption on economic growth in Nigeria between 1981 and 2017, incorporating financial development, gross fixed capital formation and inflation for enhanced robustness. The results indicate that energy consumption and gross fixed capital formation (proxy for infrastructure) significantly determine growth of economic activities in Nigeria. The study also presents empirical support for delayed response of an endogenous variable to its own shocks as well as shocks to explanatory variables. It therefore asserts that energy consumption is a major determinant of economic growth in Nigeria, and aligns with the energy-led hypothesis. The observed positive impact electricity and capital consumption provides empirical support for the endogenous growth theory. Increased government and private sector investment in energy and infrastructural development is strongly advocated.

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This study aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 7 which aims at "ensuring access to affordable, clean energy, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all". The Gazetted Flare Gas Regulations 2018 provides a legal framework to support the policy objectives of the Federal Government for the reduction of Green House Gas emissions through the flaring and venting of natural gas. The Regulations provide the legal basis for the implementation of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme. This study investigates the factors contributing to gas flaring activities in Nigeria from 1970 to 2019. Using the autoregressive distributed lag error correction representation and cointegration techniques, findings reveal, among others, that in the long-run: (1) gas flaring activities is persistent; (2) economic growth induces flaring activities; (3) gas prices exert asymmetric impact; (4) gas utilization and fossil fuel are negative predictors. The result shows that gas price contemporaneously exerts positive and statistically significant impact at the 1% level. Gas price contributes 0.187 percent increase to gas flaring while its first lag induces significant reduction in gas flaring by 0.293 percent at 1 percent level of significance. This study also provides sufficient evidence on the persistency of gas flaring activities in Nigeria.

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To address the Sustainable Development Goals of poverty eradication, hunger elimination, unemployment and inequality reduction, it is pertinent to pursue a sustainable all-inclusive financial growth that will be delivered on digital financial platforms. With the revolution in the financial technology space occasioned by competition among financial market intermediaries, there is no doubt that more unbanked and under-banked citizens will be captured into the formal financial net of the economy. This study investigated the dynamic causality amid digital finance and financial inclusion using ten years (2007-2017) secondary data obtained from the World Bank data base in 27 sub-Saharan African countries. The analysis was done using Granger Error Correction Method (ECM) with General Methods of Moments (GMM). The result showed a positive long-run correlation between digital finance and financial inclusion. Thus, for the overall sample the ECM coefficient (−0.30) has probability value of 0%. It therefore recommends amongst others that monetary authorities of emerging and developing economies in sub-Achugamonu Bede Uzoma ABOUT THE AUTHORS Achugamonu Bede Uzoma, is a Lecturer in Covenant University with research interest in Development Finance, Strategic Financial Management and capital market. He has to his credit several publications in high impact journals and conference proceedings.