A vast study has shown a mixed result on the implications of a natural resource on growth and poverty. Theoretically, the Resource Curse Hypothesis stresses that natural resource serves as an obstacle for growth. However, the connection between human capital and poverty in OPEC member countries remain under-researched. To ensure inclusiveness in growth, it is essential to focus on human capital models that incorporate the components of poverty reduction. As a result, this study investigates the interactive relationship between human capital components and poverty reduction in OPEC member countries. It is a cross-country study of a panel fully modified least-squares of 12 countries within the OPEC region. The interactive effects of the components of human capital development have a long-run impact on poverty reduction in OPEC member countries. Besides, human capital components confirm a positive effect on poverty reduction. Thus, since human capital is a crucial determinant of improving economic growth, OPEC member countries should invest more on the quality of human capital through education and health to improve the living standard of people and societal welfare.

Background. The reports and information on coronavirus are not conspicuously emphasising the possible impact of population density on the explanation of difference in rapid spread and fatality due to the disease and not much has been done on bicountry comparisons. Objective. The study examined the impact of population density on the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in two sociodemographic divergent countries. Methods. The study conducted a scoping review of published and unpublished articles including blogs on incidences and fatalities of COVID-19. The analysis followed qualitative description and quantitative presentation of the findings using only frequency distribution, percentages, and graphs. Results. The two countries shared similar experience of “importation” of COVID-19, but while different states ordered partial lockdown in Nigeria, it was an immediate total lockdown in Italy. The physician/patient ratio is high in Italy (1 : 328) but low in Nigeria (1 : 2500), while population density is 221 in Nigeria and 206 in Italy. Daily change in incidence rate reduced to below 20% after 51 and 30 days of COVID-19 first incidence in Italy and Nigeria, respectively. Fatality rate has plummeted to below 10% after the 66th day in Italy but has not been stabilised in Nigeria. Conclusion. The authors upheld both governments’ recommending measures that tilted towards personal hand-hygienic practices and social distancing. Authors suggested that if Italy with its high physician/patient ratio and lower population density compared to Nigeria could suffer high fatality from COVID-19 pandemic under four weeks, then Nigeria with its low physician/patient ratio and higher population density should prepare to face harder time if the pandemic persists.

This study examines the relationship between technology, human capital and economic growth and also attempts to establish their implications on knowledge based economy in Nigeria. The data used for the study are from secondary sources while the new growth model was also adopted. The dependent variable in the model is the level of real output while the explanatory variables are gross capital formation and government expenditure on education. The result of the causality test shows that is a uni-directional relationship running from gross capital formation and real output, human capital formation and real output growths do not Granger cause each other while causality runs from human capital to capital formation and vice versa. The implication of the result; the increase in economic growth has not improve the rate of capital formation in Nigeria. The study concluded that Nigeria has been slow to identify the strands of global knowledge due to the following: Weak institutions; limited awareness and disincentives preventing them from taking the root to the knowledge and information based-economy. Based on the findings the study recommended; strategies in which education can be incorporated into the growth system. Research and development should be encouraged as well and polices that promote output through savings.

Background: Nigeria’s population is the seventh largest in the world and is projected to be the fourth largest by 2050. The demographic scenario is akin by persistent high fertility and low contraceptive use. This paper examined factors influencing contraceptive use among women in marital relationship in south-west region which has the highest percentage of use compared to other regions.Methods: A sub-sample of 3,784 women in marital relationship in the south-west region aged 15-49 was extracted from the 38,945 nationally representative samples of the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). The dependent variable was contraceptive use, and key predictors include fertility behavior, employment, agents of modernity, and background factors. Logistics regression techniques were used in modeling the multivariate relationships.Results: Results showed that contraceptive use varied significantly by state of residence. It increased (odds = 3.6, p-value=0.000) for respondents with higher education compared to the uneducated. Also it increased (odds = 2.84, P-value=0.000) for the richest sub-group compared to the poorest/poorer category. The odds of using contraceptive increased (odds=2.20, P-value=0.000) for respondents who preferred no other child compared to their counterparts who preferred to have additional; and it decreased (odds=0.37, P-value=0.000) for those who had two or fewer children compared to those who had three or more.Conclusions: Policies and programme intervention should consider education, wealth status, and preference for additional child, and number of living children as key to increasing contraceptive uptake in the region.

Empirical evidence on the role of individuals' and group tacit and explicit knowledge in driving performance, is clearly missing in organisational knowledge literature. To fill this gap, a survey of 504 Managerial, technical and administrative employees of organisations in the Nigerian telecommunications industry form the sample for this study. Based on the multiple regression analysis, the relationship between organisational knowledge and performance was established. The results indicate that managers should focus on group-tacit knowledge, individual-explicit knowledge and individual-tacit knowledge as the most strategic types of organisational knowledge for enhancing performance.