Diversification In Nigeria Research Articles

EU Product Standards and Export Diversification in Nigeria and South Africa

The issue of export diversification has been receiving attention among scholars and policymakers. However, African countries face critical challenges in improving domestic capacity to meet production and quality standards required in the foreign markets.Premised on this, this study explores how standards affect agriculture and textile products exported to the EU market, by the two biggest economies in SSA between 1995 and 2004. Employing the Hirschman concentration index as a measure of diversification in the context of a modified poisson model of gravity trade theory, findings show that standards and harmonized standards are of no significant effect on South African agricultural export diversification while in Nigeria, standards have significant effect on agricultural export diversification but have no effect on textiles. Moreover, harmonized standards show positive effect on agricultural export concentration but have no effect on textile exports in South Africa. However, harmonized standards plays no role in the diversification of Nigerian agricultural and textile export varieties. The study therefore recommends that producers of agricultural products in South Africa should focus on single, country specific standards while producers of agricultural products in Nigeria should adopt harmonized standards to promote bilateral trade and develop quality products to improve competition in the EU markets.

Harnessing Insect Science for Sustainable Food Security and Economic Diversification in Nigeria

Agriculture despite its absolute dependence on rain has remained the backbone of food production as well as economy of many Nigerians especially the rural dwellers. However, the current global climate change and insect pests attack have led to decline in agricultural productivity. These have led to limited food availability, access and adequacy especially protein-mineral deficiency as well as decline in the economy of many Nigerians. This review is aimed at evaluating or appraising entomology which is the science of studying and manipulating insects to human advantages as a solution to the short fall in food production as well as a mean of empowering Nigerians in order to attain sustainable food security and economic diversification amidst continuous decline in revenue from the country’s petroleum products.

A Review of Bank Loans to Farmers: Implications for Agricultural Diversification in Nigeria

A Review of Bank Loans to Farmers: Implications for Agricultural Diversification in Nigeria

A Review of Bank Loans to Farmers: Implications for Agricultural Diversification in Nigeria

A Review of Bank Loans to Farmers: Implications for Agricultural Diversification in Nigeria

Monetary Policy and Export Diversification in Nigeria

Abstract This study examined the extent to which monetary policy has influenced export diversification in Nigeria for the period 1962 to 2014. The study employed descriptive and ordinary least squares techniques. The descriptive analysis revealed that the diversification exercise in Nigeria can only be expressed as average. The regression estimate showed that monetary policy was insignificant in influencing export diversification in Nigeria. The study concluded that monetary policy has not played a fundamental role in enhancing export diversification in Nigeria. The study recommended that monetary policy should be purpose driven towards the achievement of export diversification. This can be achieved by employing selective-sectoral monetary policy measures in accelerating investment in various non-oil sectors of the economy such as the mining, manufacturing and tourism sectors.

Diversify More or Less? Household Resilience and Food Security in Rural Nigeria

We provide new findings of rural livelihood diversification in Nigeria, using panel data from the Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). To a large extent, the patterns and the implications of livelihood diversification have been analysed using cross sectional data and a narrow definition of food security in previous studies. In some cases, analysis has been conducted in the absence of shock experiences. We find that some results about the determinants of income diversification in cross sectional analysis also hold true in the panel data setting, while others are only revealed due to the panel nature of the data set. We find that the relationship between wealth and income diversification in rural Nigeria is best categorized as upward sloping with diminishing marginal effect rather than a U shape or an inverted U shape as found in previous studies. We also find that income diversification favours food accessibility, food availability and food utilisation, and therefore resilience capacities overall. We do not find any evidence of income diversification in mitigating or aggravating the impact of shocks, as shock experiences appear to negatively affect food security in spite of income diversification.

Modeling the Construction Sector and Oil Prices toward the Growth of the Nigerian Economy: An Econometric Approach

This study empirically examined the interrelationship between the construction sector, oil prices, and the actual gross domestic product (GDP) in Nigeria. Using annual economic data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin, and econometric statistics, we found that although very strong positive and significant correlations exist between the construction sector output and total GDP output (0.934), the construction sector output and oil prices (0.856), and the total GDP output and oil prices (0.822), these linear relationships only exist for a short time. However, these relationships do not result in any direct causal influence on each other, except for the uni-directional Granger causal relationship that flows from the total GDP output to the construction sector output, which implies that economic activities of other major non-oil sectors stimulate the construction activities in Nigeria. Thus, we argue that neither the construction sector nor the oil prices directly influence the aggregate economy; rather, the other sectors’ activities stimulate the construction sector in Nigeria. Two policy recommendations for achieving the Federal Government’s medium term Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) are suggested: (1) the Nigerian government should de-emphasize overreliance on the oil sector through policy readjustment and (2) an urgent need for economic diversification in Nigeria exists, since we revealed that an increase in the aggregate GDP output is due to the activities of other non-oil sectors.

Enhancing agricultural value chain for economic diversification in Nigeria

This study examined how enhancing the agricultural value chain can contribute to rapid economic diversification in Nigeria within the period of 1981-2015. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was employed as the econometric method of estimation. The inferences were drawn at 5% significant level. The result revealed that the agriculture expenditure had positive and significant impact on agriculture sector productivity in Nigeria. The findings showed that agricultural raw material, agricultural machinery and agricultural land have direct impact on agricultural productivity in Nigeria. Agricultural machinery and agricultural land were found to be statistically significant at 5% significance level. The empirical results revealed that capital and labour have direct impact on economic growth. However, agriculture productivity had positive impact on economic growth in Nigeria. The study concluded that agricultural value chain contributed significantly to the diversification of the Nigerian economy. The study suggests that government should make deliberate efforts to create institutions that will make policy programmes on agricultural development not only to enhance its growth and the overall output growth but also make it inclusive. Keywords: Agricultural inputs, agricultural expenditure, credit, agricultural productivity, Nigeria

Economic Recession and the Need for Diversification in Nigeria: The Role of NGOs in Fighting Poverty

For the past two years now, Nigeria has been facing recession, which is a drop in the following five economic indicators: Real GDP, income, employment, manufacturing and retail sales. A recession is less severe than a depression and it breeds poverty. Nigeria as was said earlier have been on this problem for the past two years now. Hence, the aim of this study is to further create the awareness of the problem at hand and to make some practical suggestion on the role which NGOs can play specifically in the process to reduce poverty in Nigeria through diversification. To this end, the paper adopts historical, evaluative and current issues or perspectives to analyze the importance of non- governmental organisations to Nigerian economic diversification project, which will ultimately affect poverty in the country. Empowerment theory which states that there cannot be authentic development and improvement in the quality of life where empowerment is absent was adopted in this study. The study recommends government financial intervention and supports which include financial assistance and making enabling laws to guide them so that they can work properly.

What’s So Spatial about Diversification in Nigeria?

Summary Many households in developing countries allocate their productive assets among various income generating activities in order to develop a portfolio of income from occupations with different degrees of risk, expected returns and seasonal and liquidity constraints. The push and pull factors influencing diversification decisions of households are widely discussed in the literature; however, no study to date has taken into account spatial interdependence of household decisions in spite of various channels of neighborhood effects such as information flow, learning from others, social networks and agglomeration economies. This paper fills in the gap by incorporating spatial dependence in the choice model of diversification using a spatial auto-regressive probit model and an advanced Bayesian strategy to its estimation. Empirical analysis is run taking advantage of the Nigerian General Household Survey Panel, 2010–11 providing GIS coordinates for the surveyed households. The results imply endogeneity of the neighbors’ decisions to allocate their productive assets among various occupations and signal the importance of social learning and agglomeration effects favoring the spillover of diversification activities through neighbors’ networks and local markets. The households’ decisions respond to local environment factors such as weather shocks or infrastructural constraints. As shown by the regional differences, taking into account spatial interdependence is particularly important in the event of a wide divide of the data available into different zones, as for example in case of the Nigerian northern region where the states are larger.

Financial inclusion, financial development, and economic diversification in Nigeria

The current oil-induced fiscal crisis in Nigeria has, once again, brought the country into the headlines as suffering great economic hardship. As a result, economic diversification is currently at the center of the debate on how Nigeria can improve its economic performance and achieve higher incomes. This discussion, however, has most of the times lacked an explanation of how financial development and financial inclusion can help to drive economic diversification in Nigeria. The literature is scanty in this regard. The objective of this study, therefore, is to contribute to this empirical evidence to the understanding of the impact of financial development and financial inclusion on economic diversification in Nigeria. The data for the study is from CBN Statistical Bulletin and World Development Indicators, for the period 1981 to 2014. It is well-known in the literature that employing the standard OLS techniques on non-stationary data may lead to spurious results. This study, therefore, uses the fully modified least square (FMOLS) which is designed to provide optimal estimates of cointegrating regressions. The results show that financial development has a positive effect on economic diversification, though the effect is not statistically significant. Additionally, financial inclusion, in terms of financial access and financial usage, has positive and significant effects on economic diversification. In other words, financial inclusion has contributed significantly to the diversification of the Nigerian economy. As well, GDP per capita, capital formation, and human capital development have positive and significant effects on economic diversification. FDI has positive effects on economic diversification, though the effects are not significant. On the contrary, exchange rate and trade openness have negative and significant effects on economic diversification. Financial inclusion can, therefore, be seen as a potent accelerator of economic diversification, and can help realize the national objectives of building shared prosperity and abolishing extreme poverty in Nigeria.

Roles of Macroeconomic Variables on Agricultural Diversification in Nigeria

The study examined the trend in agricultural diversification index from 1960 to 2014 in Nigeria. It also determined the influence of some macroeconomic variables on the estimated index. Augmented Dickey-Fuller-GLS unit root test showed that all series were integrated of order one. The long-run and short-run elasticity of the agricultural diversification index with respect to the specified macro-economic variables were determined using the techniques of co-integration and error correction models. The trend analysis revealed that, the country has witnessed appreciable level of agricultural diversification with 0.3%, 0.5% and 2.3% annual exponential growth rate in entropy diversification index, Herfindhal diversification index and Ogive diversification index respectively. The estimation of the error correction model supported the long run stability of agricultural diversification index in Nigeria. The empirical results revealed that, in the long run inflation, viable manufacturing sector, credit to agricultural sector, external reserves, per capita income, unemployment and energy consumption are positive drivers of agricultural diversification; whereas, crude oil prices, lending capacity of commercial Bank, foreign direct investment in agricultural sector and non-oil import are long run negative drivers of agricultural diversification in Nigeria. However, in the short run, inflation, external reserves and non-oil imports stimulated agricultural diversification; while energy consumption and manufacturing capability retard agricultural diversification in the country. A ten-year forecast was made on the estimated diversification indices and the result showed a progressive growth. The empirical results were further substantiated by the variance decomposition and impulse response analysis of the dependent variable with respect to changes in the explanatory variables. Results obtained were in line with the previous results. It is recommended that, the Nigeria government should re-aligned its macroeconomic policies to achieve stability in inflation rate, external reserves, industrial production, electricity consumption, agricultural credit institution if sustainable agricultural diversification is to be achieved in the long run.

Economic Diversification in Nigeria: Any Role for Solid Mineral Development?

For over four decades, the Nigerian economy has mostly depended on proceeds from the sale of crude oil. This is at the expense of other sectors such as solid minerals and agriculture that hitherto, contributed significantly to the economy of Nigeria. Employing both qualitative and quantitative analysis, this paper shows that the solid mineral sector in Nigeria has the potential to contribute immensely to the economy of Nigeria. Specifically, the paper reveals that the development of the solid mineral sector could help to combat poverty in Nigeria via job creation; especially, given its forward linkage with other sectors of the economy. Most importantly, it could help alleviate some of the problems associated with “enclave” nature of the Nigerian economy that has for too long being vulnerable to fluctuations in global oil prices. To realize these potentials, the paper highlights the need for a strengthening of Nigeria’s existing solid mineral development policy. It also points out the need for the government to create an enabling environment for the private sector to take the lead in the sector. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n6p691

Energy Diversification Choices for Nigeria

This paper reviews the diverse energy options available to Nigeria, and presents some popular arguments for choosing certain energy options above others for large-scale development. These popular methods of making energy policy decisions may be prone to faulty reasoning and may not be quantitatively assessable. Using the criteria of availability, economy of energy conversion and environmental sustainability, a procedure of preference ranking based on expert opinions is suggested for optimizing decisions on the most suitable candidates for energy diversification in Nigeria in the coming decades. A test case utilizing three opinions on the criteria for nine energy options is used to show how the method works.