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With the rising trend in Nigeria’s debt profile, this paper investigated public debt and its potential consequence on economic growth through its impact on investment. The study cut across 1981 to 2019 with data from World Bank Development Indicators (WDI) and Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin. The Phillips-Perron unit root tested for stationarity, while the study estimated the model by adopting the Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The long-run estimated results report that external debt and investment have a strong positive link with economic growth, while domestic debt and external debt service are inversely related to growth. In ascertaining the threshold level of investment, the estimated result suggests that investment of domestic debt should not fall below 25.41% to avoid an economic downturn. However, investing more than 24.55% of external debt will leave the economy in shambles. Further findings suggest that increased investment of domestic debt and external loans in Nigeria is a blessing and curse, respectively. Therefore, it is recommended that external debt investment be closely monitored to ensure optimal use so that such debts would not be diverted to personal gain.

Ed uc at io n Ec on om ic s an d De ve lo pm en t

The outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic has brought with it stagnation in all sectors of the economy, unemployment and loss of jobs, threats of recession, and annihilation of industries across the world. This paper examined the impact of strategic interfirm alliance on small-scale industries (SSI) amid the threat of COVID-19 pandemic in Nsukka, a local geographic space in Nigeria. A survey research design and a questionnaire survey of 82 SSIs were used in the paper. The data for the paper were analyzed using descriptive statistics while tables and percentages were used to illustrate the results. Results in the study revealed that 15.47%, 22.45%, and 44.20% of the respondents have experienced relative increase, increased, and significant increase, respectively, in COVID-19-induced challenges on their operations. The paper also showed that 24.81%, 25.01%, and 34.64% of the industries have experienced relative increase, increase, and significant increase, respectively, in their operations following their use of alliance, while 5.06% and 10.48% have experienced relative and significant decreases. The paper suggests that SSIs in Nigeria should adopt/institutionalize the use of strategic interfirm alliance in their operations in order to survive the COVID-19-induced challenges which have distrupted their production flow.