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PurposeThe bedrock of growth in education is at the primary/basic education level, hence there is need to ensure that the populace not only enrolls but complete their education as well as maintain gender balancing. Financial inclusion is essential in achieving financial development which if properly tailored should result in economic growth and development. Education is an important development parameter, therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess if financial inclusiveness enhances primary school enrolment, completion and gender balancing.Design/methodology/approachIn order to ascertain if financial inclusion (financial penetration, access and usage) enhances primary school education (primary school enrolment and completion) and gender balancing (primary school female-to-male ratio), the study employed the vector error correction modeling (VECM) to capture both short- and long-run dynamics of cointegration equations and also, ascertain how the long-run deviations are deemed corrected in the short run.FindingsThe findings of financial inclusion showed a significant positive effect on primary school enrollment but regarding primary school completion rate and female-to-male ratio, the responses to financial inclusion measures showed a completely negative effect. From the foregoing, it is not just sufficient to enroll school children but that they complete their basic primary education, and equally ensure that the males are not favored over the females so as to achieve gender balance literacy in the country.Originality/valueThe study focuses on how financial inclusion engenders admission, graduation and gender balancing in primary school education as the bedrock to formal education in Nigeria.

This study is aimed at determining the optimal portfolio in a three-asset portfolio mix in Nigeria. The research employed majorly two empirical methodologies which were Matrix algebra and Lagrangian method of optimization. Matrix algebra was used to compute the various portfolio weights. Lagrangian method of optimization was useful in obtaining the global minimum variance and the efficient frontier of the portfolio. In order to arrive at the best asset in the portfolio that is expected to yield maximum expected return, the study employed the utility function test. The data used for the study were daily stock prices for First Bank Nigeria Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc and Cadbury Nigeria Plc obtained from the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the period of January 2010 to December 2013 The result obtained from the analysis indicated that among the three assets chosen in the study, Guinness has the highest utility value of 0.031 with lowest risk of 4.268 and the investment opportunity point (μ,σ) which is (0.169, 2.065) lies on the Capital Market Line. The assets of Guinness and First Bank are located above the Global Minimum at point (μ,σ) which is (0.10, 1.84) and are said to be efficient assets with high expected returns and low risk. The study therefore concluded that First Bank and Guinness were the only efficient optimal assets in the three asset-portfolio mix and therefore, the preferred choice for every investor since they yielded a high return with minimum variance.

This study examines if the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) can be applied to the Douala Stock Exchange. The study utilized monthly stock returns from the three companies listed on the Douala Stock Exchange (DSX), for the period 30th April 2009 to 31st August 2017. Ordinary Least Square regression analysis was adopted for the study to examine if individual stocks can predict a better stock beta. The Black, Jensen, and Scholes (1972) CAPM version were also examined in this study to assess the validity of the zero beta estimate. The result of the individual estimates could not establish the validity of the CAPM theory. Further analysis showed that the Beta for the three assets combined portfolio was not statistically significant. However, when two securities were combined into a single asset portfolio, the portfolio bêta was statistically significant. The significant result of the two asset portfolio confirms that Beta was a linear function of security returns in the DSX market. The study concludes that there will be a need for the government of Cameroun to liberalize the DSX market and allow more firms to be quoted on the floor of the exchange. This decision will allow for the deepening of the DSX market, enhance the liquidity level of the market, and enable investors to reap adequate returns from their investment through holding a portfolio of assets.

Aim: The paper aimed at examining the asymmetric effect of oil price shock on exchange rate and domestic investment in Nigeria. Study Design: Country case study. Place and Duration of Study: Nigeria. Time series data ranging from 1970-2010. Methodology: This study utilised elaborate econometric analysis which tests the sensitivity of exchange rate, private investment, public investment, per capita income and industrial production to oil price shocks, using the Impulse Response Functions (IRFs) and Variance Decomposition (VDC) techniques within a Vector Autoregressive (VAR) framework. Results: The result clearly revealed that while government expenditure exhibited immediate positive response to oil price shock, public investment, private investment and industrial production exhibited negative response to oil price shock, further confirming the evidence of “Dutch disease” in Nigeria. The variance decomposition analysis further revealed that exchange rate, government expenditure and domestic investment were mainly affected by oil shock, particularly, in the short run. Conclusion: The study concludes that volatility in crude oil prices has negative impact on domestic investment and industrial development in Nigeria. It is recommended among other things in this study that the usual practice of sharing oil windfalls to the three tiers of government should be discouraged; rather, the central government should allocate these windfalls to priority sectors of the economy to enhance development.

This study utilizes the structural unrestricted vector auto-regressive (SVAR) model to examine the intertwining relationship between oil price volatility and S&P 500 returns on stock returns in Nigeria.The stochastic properties of the series considered in the model were analyzed using the sensitivity and innovation criteria. The result from this study confirms that US inflationary spillover exert a negative impact on the domestic market in Nigeria. Economic downturn arising from dwindling foreign global economic activity raises uncertainty about the stability of the markets and thus increases stock market volatility. This research has two important connotations. First, that domestic stock returns are vulnerably exposed to volatility from inflationary spillover and energy prices and secondly, international portfolio diversification and trading decision by foreign investors into the local markets could result in decrease stock returns if proper effective hedging strategies are not adopted, particularly, during crisis periods.

The aim of this paper is to identify the role industrial sector plays in driving the GDP of Nigeria. The paper further seeks to predict the long-run behavioral relationship between industrial production, non-oil exports and economic growth in Nigeria using data from 1970 – 2007. Vector Error Correction Mechanism (VECM) was utilized to establish the co-integrating relationship between industrial production, non-oil exports and GDP. The paper reveals the existence of a positive and significant uni-directional relationship that runs from industrial production to non-oil exports. It was further evident in the study that the current policies on industrial production in Nigerian do not sufficiently encourage non-oil export. The paper therefore predicts an imminent collapse of the Nigerian manufacturing industries in the nearest future if immediate remedial measures are not quickly taken to strengthen the ailing industries. The paper among other things encourages the government to strengthen the legislative and supervisory framework of the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, health indicators have continued to experience downward spiral movement despite government continued budgetary allocation to funding the health sector. This downward spiral movement seems to pose a question whether government expenditure on health alone is significant enough to provoke improvement in the health status of the population, or rather, if there are other social/economic factors necessary to cause this desired improvement in health status which have hitherto been neglected? The paper had utilized the Granger causality test and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to investigate the causal direction and long-run relationship between government health expenditure, poverty and health status, in Nigeria. The study established that there exists a strong causal uni-directional relationship running from life expectancy to poverty in Nigeria. This paper contends that health improvements/expenditure when concentrated among people living close to or below the poverty line, a “trickle-down” mechanism and redistribution of income will lead to poverty reduction and illnesses. Thus, increasing budgetary allocation to funding health sector alone without reducing poverty level, would not be sufficient enough to improve the health and social status of the population. A long-run relationship was also found to exist between poverty and health status. The paper did not find a significant long-run relationship existing between health status and government health expenditure. The paper therefore suggests that policies that can improve life expectancy should be such as would promote adult literacy level, reduce the poverty level, reduce income disparity and improve income distribution among the vulnerable and poor rural population of the society.

The study seeks to examine the relation ship between levels of government health care expenditure and health status in Nigeria. The paper utilized several estimation techniques (Cobb–Douglas production function, Semi-logarithmic function, exponential and semi-logarithmic function) using data from 1980-2003. The result of the research reveal that life expectancy and literacy rate were negatively correlated with health care expenditure both in the short and long-run, income elasticity of health care expenditure was below low unity both in the short-run and long-run. The study concluded that health is a necessary good in Nigeria. In other to improve the health status of the population the Government needs to increase funding for health, reduce the inequality in the budgetary distribution of health expenditure and fast track the implementation of the Primary Health Care bill.

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This paper examines the consumption pattern, trends and rate of poverty in developing economies with particular reference to Nigeria. Low level of income has impacted on the rate of consumption vis-a-vis economic growth and improved standard of living. The ordinary least square (OLS) technique was adopted with the use of time series data on consumption rate, unemployment, inflation, economic growth, dependency ratio, adult literacy as well as poverty. The study reveals that these macroeconomic fundamentals have relationship and impact on consumption rate. In view of the plagues associated with poverty, dynamic poverty alleviation policies devoid of conflict of goals should be sustained in line with meaningful income equality put in place by government so as to avoid the evils of poverty and poor standard of living. A negation of this, the paper argues, impacts on the consumption pattern of consumers and leads to poor standard of living.