PurposeOne of the challenging factors in achieving sustainable growth is the inability of the Nigerian government to diversify the country's revenue base. This study aims to investigate the relationship between cash crop financing and agricultural performance in Nigeria.Design/methodologyFour crops were considered, namely, cotton, cocoa, groundnut and palm oil. The impact of cash crop finance shock on agricultural performance was investigated using the vector error correction model (VECM), while the long-run relationship was examined through the identification of long-run restrictions on the VECM.FindingsThe variance decomposition showed that financing shock is more sensitive to cause variation in aggregate employment than aggregate agricultural output in palm oil, while for cocoa, cotton and groundnut showed otherwise. The long-run structural equations exert a positive relationship between cash crop financing and agricultural performance, except for oil palm and cocoa financing that has a negative connection with agrarian employment.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to the unavailability of data for agriculture sector capital utilisation, which was not used.Practical implicationsThese results show that long-run benefit can be maximised by appropriate funding in cotton and groundnut production to promote sustainable growth.Originality/valueThe study examines the impact of cash crop financing on agricultural performance with the aim to promote sustainable growth in Nigeria using identified VECM.

Numerous studies have examined the relationship between human capital and productivity. However, the implications of human capital channels-the 'basic channel' and 'advanced channel'-were discounted from most of the empirical studies in Africa. This study, therefore, uses Vector Error Correction Model to examine the joint short-and long-run causality, as well as long-run behaviour of human capital channels on productivity within the period from 1980 to 2017. Evidence from the joint short-and long-run causality shows that there is no long-run one while joint short-run causality was observed in the basic channel, in the advanced channel there is both joint short-and long-run causality. For the long-run equation, primary school enrollment/secondary school enrollments have insignificant effect on productivity growth while tertiary institution enrollment and government expenditure on education have a positive effect on productivity growth. However, contribution of both effects is less than one per cent, thus showing low responsiveness of the inputs on productivity. The implications from this result are that human capital formation through education and investment in research and development have not promoted productivity in Nigeria. Investment in research and development is imperative to promote productivity and enhance the skills needed to adapt and diffuse new technologies.

Due to the recent financial scandals, there has been a growing need and debate amongst researchers on variables to strengthen the corporate governance of a firm. This study examined the relationship between foreign expatriates on board and financial performance of deposit money banks in Nigeria. Applying panel methodology for the period of 2008 to 2016 as well as other econometric analysis such as descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and Hausman test, the findings revealed a positive but insignificant relationship exist between foreign expatriates on board and financial performance of sampled deposit money banks in Nigeria. The study recommends that banks should ensure that they have an appropriate number of foreign directors on their board who have diverse skills and wealth of experience in order to make their performance on the banks significant. Also, developing countries who don’t have access to foreign directors can train their local directors in foreign countries so as to gain access to the benefits of global knowledge and experience.

Foreign and domestic debts have raised questions about fiscal sustainability and implications for sustainable development. One of the major problems in the agricultural sector in developing economies is inadequate capital, despite its centrality to growth and development. This study examines the long-run relationship and the casual relationships between domestic revenue mobilization and agricultural productivity in Nigeria using Auto Regressive Distributed Lag and Granger Non-causality. Using agricultural productivity as the dependent variable, the result revealed that agricultural productivity has a negative long-run relationship with government recurrent expenditure on agriculture and tax revenue, while agricultural credit is not statistically significant. This result indicated that supplementary resource such as foreign aid could be embarked on in the long-run. Reliance on foreign aid may be volatile to the economy, and as well not suitable to achieve long-term goals. So, there is a need to maximize benefit from tax revenue and ensure that resources are allocated to prioritizes right sectors such as the agricultural sector. The causality test revealed that there is a bi-directional relationship between agricultural productivity and tax revenue. The study recommended among others, the need for public finance reforms to increase government revenue and promote growth in the agricultural sector by enhancing the quality of the tax system.

There has been an increasing trend in the unemployment rate despite the growth rate witnessed. Monetary policy is presumed as one of the ways to improve the situation. Likewise, the relationship between monetary policy and employment has generated controversial debates in the literature. Though its connection has been extensively studied, however, the implications of monetary policy in respect to time frame perspectives on employment and output have not been widely addressed in the literature. This study provides evidence on shock effects, long and short-run impacts of monetary policy transmission through the credit channels on output and employment in Nigeria within the period of 1981 to 2016 using the Structural Vector Autoregression and Autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL). Evidence from the forecast error shock showed that variations in monetary policy indicators affect output more than employment in the first two periods; however, it affects employment more afterwards. The ARDL results show no evidence of co-integration when output is used as the dependent variable; conversely, cointegration exists when employment is used as the dependent variable. The monetary policy indicators: money supply, bank deposit liability and interest rate are statistically and economically significant with employment in the long run. In the short run, money supply and interest rate are economically and statistically significant. The findings revealed that the Nigerian government can maximize the long-run benefits of monetary policy through the credit channels on employment. Hence, there is a need for policymakers to look beyond short-run gain and promote long-run employment via monetary policy among others.

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.

Smallholders farmer's productivity has be declining due to many problems ranging from declining soil fertility to lack of basic inputs for their production. Hence, this study examined the determinants of Maize farmers' productivity among smallholder Farmers in Oyo state Nigeria. A three stage sampling procedure was used to collect data from rural maize farmers in Lagelu Local Government area of Oyo state. Descriptive statistics, productivity analysis and Ordinary Least Square Regression Model were used to isolate the factors that affect maize farmers' productivity in the study area. The socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents showed that majority of them are male (68.3%), the age distribution showed that 56.1% are between ages 41-60 years, a very good productive age for maize production. Majority of the respondents are married (86.6%), while only 4.9% are youths, an obvious albatross to maize production in Nigeria, with less youth population in farming. The distribution of the Total factor productivity (TFP) indicated that, 72(50.7%) of the respondents having TFP <1, 58(40.8%) having TFP 1.01-2.00, 09(6.3%) and 03(2.1%) having TFP>2 and TFP=1 respectively. The result of double log production function showed that the coefficients of labour, farm size (hectares) are statistically significant at 1% p>1, while that of farming experience is significant at 5% (p>5), with positives coefficients. The adjusted R-squared of 0.8572 explained the coefficient of variation of the maize farmers productivity model. It's recommended that farmers in the study area should be provided with tractors and other farm implements that can help increase their productivity, also increasing the farm size and land hectarage used for maize production should be prioritize. There is also the need to train the farmers adequately on new and improved farm practices; this will be like a boost to their experience in maize production.