Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Keynote Address, Godwin I. Emefiele Con

Economic and Financial Review

The theme for this year’s edition, “Food Security in Nigeria: Options for Policy” is apt and in tune with the existing realities of both the global and domestic economies, which have suffered heavily from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, the theme could not have come at a better time than now when issues of insecurity, climate change, and COVID-19 related disruptions are challenging food production and supply, not only in Nigeria but also globally. As a matter of fact, food security is critical for national security, economic stability and sustainable development.

Welcome Address, Itohan M. Ogbomon-Paul

Economic and Financial Review

The theme of this year’s Seminar is tagged “Food Security in Nigeria: Options for policy”. The central focus of the Seminar is to discuss policy options for tackling the challenges of food insecurity, with the resultant outcomes on poverty reduction, job and wealth creation, as well as overall growth and development of the Nigerian economy. This year’s Seminar provides a unique opportunity for us all, because food holds the key to quality human existence. Indeed, food security is at the core of every nation’s development agenda. The quantity and quality of food available to the citizenry is correlated with the …

Food Security, Economic Growth And Price Stability Nexus And Conceptual Issues, Park O. Idisi

Economic and Financial Review

A strong argument that encourages analysing food security and food price stability issues is importance to economic well-being. Nigeria is one of the most food insecure countries and highly affected by all three drivers. For one, the country is vulnerable to price instability and successively hit by environmental disasters, that impact people’s livelihoods. Furthermore, its economy is thriving, but around 48.0 per cent of its population lives below the poverty line (World Bank, 2020; World Poverty Clock, 2020). In addition to that, since 2009 northeastern Nigeria is struck by insurgency. Essentially, sustainability in economic growth is dependent on achievement of …

An Overview Of Federal Government Policies And Programmes For Food Security In Nigeria, Rasaq Oyeleke

Economic and Financial Review

Nigeria has a vast land area of 91.1 million hectares supported by 1.3 million hectares of water bodies, 3.14 million hectares of irrigated land and a coastal line of over 800 km that is viable for virtually all aspects of agro-allied sector (crops, agro-forestry, fisheries, poultry and livestock). Presently, only 32 million out of the 81 million hectares of arable land is under cultivation and typical farm size ranges between 0.5 hectares and 4 hectares in the southern and northern parts of the country, respectively.To this end, policies are enacted as a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and …

A Review Of Federal Government Support Policies And Programmes For Food Security: A Farmers Perspective, Muhammad A, Liman

Economic and Financial Review

To properly address the above topic, we need to examine how the farming community evolved over the years in Nigeria. We equally need to understand the impact of the support policies and programmes of the Federal Government, analyse them, identify which aspects of these policies and programmes require review, and then offer a way forward. We need to examine and define some terms and raise questions that will form the basis of our presentation. These include: Who is a farmer? What is food security? What are the current Federal Government support policies and programmes? How have these policies and programmes …

Socio-Economic And Environmental Issues: Implications For Food Security In Nigeria, Isaiah O. Olurinola, Evans Osabuohien

Economic and Financial Review

Socio-economic activities within the agricultural sector have witnessed significant changes in recent times. Two major factors account for this recent development. Available evidence shows that over the last four decades, environmental challenges (such as pollution, extreme weather, fire disaster and deforestation, among others) have been on the increase in Nigeria. This is complicated by a weak institutional framework to stem the tide (Egbetokun et al., 2018; 2020). Also, the information from Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) shows that the annual mean climatic conditions (that is rainfall and temperature) in Nigeria have witnessed huge variation (NIMET, 2020; Egbetokun et al., 2020), which …

Averting The Looming Food Crisis: A Clarion Call To Immediate And Near-Term Policy Action, Adeleye O. Oyebade Mni

Economic and Financial Review

Food is defined by Britannica, a web-based encyclopaedia, as any substance consisting of protein, carbohydrate, fat, and other nutrients used in the body of an organism to sustain growth and vital processes, and to furnish energy.8 In a similar definition, Wikipedia described food as any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for an organism; adding that food is usually of plant, animal or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients. The above definitions explain why food is viewed as an essential need of life. However, the production of food has been declining in recent times for some reasons, including the adverse …

Averting The Looming Food Crisis: A Clarion Call To Immediate And Near-Term Policy Action, Kabir Ibrahim Mnia, Fnim, Acc

Economic and Financial Review

This paper seeks to advise on how to tackle the skyrocketing prices of food being experienced today all over the nation and to get the Government to take urgent and proactive actions to avert the pain being experienced by the entire Nigerian people.

Averting The Looming Food Crisis: A Clarion Call To Immediate And Near-Term Policy Action, Gabriel S. Umoh

Economic and Financial Review

This paper reviews food crisis and its causes in Nigeria. It takes the position that food crisis has been simmering in Nigeria for the past couple of years and identifies policy instability, poor policy implementation and declining household purchasing power, among others as the major causes of food crisis. It recommends strong policy support and implementation, automatic indexation of wages and pensions and other measures to curb food crisis in the country.

Averting The Looming Food Crisis: A Clarion Call To Immediate And Near-Term Policy Action, Alwan A. Hassan

Economic and Financial Review

Nigeria suffers from food insecurity and poverty. It is estimated that the number of hungry people in Nigeria is over 53 million, which is about 25.0 per cent of the country’s total population of about 212 million. Also, about 43.0 per cent of Nigerians live below the poverty line. These statistics are worrisome, given that Nigeria, in the 1950s and 1960s, was not only self-sufficient in food production, but was also a net exporter of food to other regions of the continent (Ajayeoba, 2010). A nation is food secure when food is available and accessible in sufficient quantity and quality …

Special Remarks, Kingsley Obiora

Economic and Financial Review

The theme of this year’s Seminar, Food Security in Nigeria: Options for Policy, is apt, timely and consistent with the current efforts of this administration and the Bank in finding sustainable solutions to the food security challenges confronting us as a nation. As we all know, food is a basic need of every man and key to socio-economic stability. The ability of a country to feed its people, and perhaps extend the surplus to other countries, is one of the key indicators of good standing in the comity of nations. The World Food Summit (1996), defined food security as a …

Addressing Food Insecurity In Nigeria: Lessons From Jurisdictional Experiences, Biodun Adedipe

Economic and Financial Review

The challenge of food security transcends national or regional boundaries, and indeed became a global concern in 2015 when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were set. Goal 2 targets zero hunger by 2030, and that is, to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. While the entire world is not in shortage of food, there are wide disparities in food sufficiency and food security across nations, regions and continents. The SDG No. 2 is a 5x1 matrix of five targets and three actions as summarised in Table 1. The targets are five critical elements of …

Cbn Interventions And Food Security: Rationale, Experience And Challenges, Yusuf P. Yila

Economic and Financial Review

Prior to the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, conflicts, deteriorating socio-economic conditions, natural hazards, changing climatic conditions, prevalence of pest and diseases, etc., had led to reduced incomes, disrupted supply chains, and resulted in severe chronic and acute hunger across several countries, worldwide. These conditions were exacerbated by COVID-19 impacts, leading to severe and widespread increases in global food insecurity affecting vulnerable households in almost every country. These impacts expected to continue through 2021 and beyond as the Delta variant continues its spread (World Bank, 2021). Thus, the effects of the Pandemic on national food security systems becomes critical …

Socio-Economic And Environmental Issues: Implications For Food Security In Nigeria, Isaiah O. Olurinola, Evans Osabuohien

Economic and Financial Review

Nigeria has made many policies toward improving the contribution of the agricultural sector in the economy; however, there is a need to fine-tune some of the policies, particularly regarding food security.

There is a need for systemic intervention in the transformation of the agricultural sector including the modernisation/formalisation of the informal sector. T

Therefore, this paper sets out to, among others, investigate the state of food security in Nigeria, especially in relation to the current socio-economic and environmental issues affecting agricultural productivity, and then proffers some policy analytical models and recommendations for ensuring food security in the country.

Averting The Looming Food Crisis: A Clarion Call To Immediate And Near-Term Policy Action, Emmanuel A. Onwioduokit

Economic and Financial Review

Discussions on food security have gained traction in the recent past, especially in Africa and other developing economies. Several horrifying images of famished families, particularly around “The Horn of Africa” including Somalia, Ethiopia, and some parts of Kenya, projected globally in both the print and electronic media vividly illustrate the perils of food crises. In Nigeria, food constitute a substantial share of family budgets, particularly for low-income households. When prices of essential foods items increase poorer people suffer the adverse impacts more disproportionately. While clothing and shelter are basic necessities of life, food remains the most vital, given its centrality …

Board Of Directors' Structure And Corporate Tax Aggresiveness Of Listed Industrial Goods Companies In Nigeria, Muhammad A. Abubakar

Bullion

Taxation plays a vital role in financing all government projects and activities, as such the studies of tax agressiveness can assist policy makers and tax authorities in addressing companies illegal tax schemes and taxing business more equitable in the sense that every entity pays their fair share of taxes. The study examines the effect of board structure on tax agressiveness of selected industrial goods companies listed in Nigeria Stock Exchange from 2016-2020. Data were obtained from annual report and account of the companies under investigation. Descriptive statistics, ordinary least square regression technique were used to estimate the model. Hausman's specification …

Does Technological Innovations Affect Unemployment In Nigeria?, Ebunoluwa O. Oyegoke, Wasiu A. Yusuf

Bullion

The study examines the effects of technological innovations on unemployment in Nigeria using annual time series data 1980-2018, Autoregressive Distributed Lag and cointegration bound testing approach, Technological innovations was provided by the inflow of FDI; importation of Machinery and Equipment as indicator for process innovation (ETC), Patent represents product innovation, while Total Factor Productivity serves as the exogenous technical progress in line with Solow. The result shows that the coefficient of the inward Foreign Direct Investments (INFDI) is positive (3.85), which is significant at 5%, indicating a strong positive effect of process innovation on Unemployment, Machinery and Equipment was also …

Is The Heterogeneity Of Expenditure Relevant To Economic Growth? The Case Of Nigeria, Efayena O. Oba, Ngozi P. Buzugbe

Bullion

With the Nigerian economy oscillating around financial quagmire and fast moving towards fiscal unsustainability, this study analysed the impact of disaggregated expenditures on economic growth. Employing data from 1980 to 2019, the study established through the autoregressive distributed lagged technique that heterogeneity in expenditure is relevant to economic growth, with recurrent expenditure contributing insignificantly to economic growth, while capital expenditure negatively impact economic. Thus, among other policy option, the study suggested appropriate expenditure over recurrent expenditure and that government should engage more in the provision of capital projects in the economy.

Activity Series Of The Central Bank Of Nigeria's Development Finance Interventions, Xavier-Itam A. Okoh, George N. Ude

Bullion

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) aggresively pursues credit and interest rate policies to promote inclusive economic growth. Through this, it aims to expand availability, access, and affordability of financial capital for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) With a least 24 MSMEs financing programmes of its own, the Bank manages one of the largest suites of developmental programmes among central banks. This paper attempted to serialize and characterize these programmes, hence determine their activity status and discover patterns of implementation effort patronage, and responsiveness of target enterprises to available incentives. Applying Z-score and min-max methods of normalization and geometric …

Oil Price And Foreign Direct Investment In Nigeria: New Evidence From Structural Breaks And A Nonlinear Analysis, Shehu Muhammad

Bullion

The study employed Nn-Linear and Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) method to analyse the link between oil price and foreign direct investment (FDI) using annual data from (1970 to 2018 Bai-Perman (2003) test revealed two structural break periods (1989 and 1995 showing a long-run relationship between oil price and FDI in Nigeria. The findings after NARDL estimation (short and long runs), showed that oil price, exchange rate and trade, negatively and insignificantly influenced FDI while GDP positively impacted on FDI, through insignificant too. The study concluded that though these variables slow down FDI efforts should be geared towards channeling oil funds …

Central Bank Of Nigeria And The Developmental Function: Some Thoughts On Policy Measurement Perceptions, Xavier-Itam Antigha Okon, Igonibo D. Abili

Bullion

The developmental function is one prominent contribution of the Central Bank of Nigeria to the Nigerian economy. Routine reporting of this function focuses on volume of projects funded, disbursements, and repayments. Exploring the possibility of expanding the reporting scope, this paper conceptualized and illustrated handy measures of policy anchored on macroeconomic aggregates, to track this function relative to other macroeconomic policy ends. Descriptive and inferential analyses suggested that the financial, economic and market intensity measures were quite responsive to developments in the economy and could be useful tools for policy reporting purposes. The pricing intensity indicator suggested distortions in the …

Digital Only Banks The Changing Face Of Global Banking: Challenges, Opportunities And Aml/Cft Implications For Nigeria, David N. Odu

Bullion

The drastic digitization brought about by evolution of technology in the world has changed almost every sphere of human life with the most recent effect being moved to cashless economy, while the role of digitization in the banking sector is altering customer demand and preferences, banks are becoming digitally oriented to meet the forces of demand and supply. This has led to the birth of digital-only also called challenger bankers or branches banks as they operate without a physical location, only have a location for admin purposes or hosting their servers. This growing wave of consumer oriented banking institutions focuses …

Pass-Through Effects Of Standing Facilities On Bank Interest Rates In Nigeria, Victor Ezeora Eleam, Chinyelu Gloria Ekwom, Chibueze Charles Ariolu, Chukwubuzo Jackson Umebali, Adewale Timothy Balogun

Economic and Financial Review

The paper investigates the pattern of pass-through effects of standing facilities rates on commercial bank retail interest rates in Nigeria. Monthly data spanning 2007:06 to 2019:12 and the Gregory-Hansen cointegration method that accounts for structural breaks are used in the empirical analysis. The adjustment parameters for the standing deposit and lending facilities are found to be significant, but with a low speed of adjustment. This provides some evidence on the nature of the interest rate channel of monetary policy transmission in the country. Furthermore, the study could not confirm asymmetry in the adjustment of retail rates to their long-run equilibria. …

Effect Of Public Debt On Private Investment In Nigeria: Evidence From An Asymmetric Dynamic Model, A. B. Abubakar, S. O. Mamman

Economic and Financial Review

This study examines the effect of public debt on private investment in Nigeria. The linear and non-linear ARDL models are employed to analyse the series spanning the period 1981 to 2018. The estimation results show that an increase in total debt, external debt, and debt service payment adversely affects private investment, with the effects being symmetric. On the other hand, the effect of domestic debt on private investment is found to be asymmetric. Although a negative shock in domestic debt greatly improves private investment, a positive shock leads to a meagre positive effect on private investment. This finding indicates that …

An Empirical Assessment Of Liquidity Management Instruments In Nigeria, Ezra U. Kure, Shettima T. Zimboh, Damilola O. Okedigba, Itoro U. Ituen

Economic and Financial Review

The paper assesses the response of monetary policy target variables to liquidity management instruments, using a Non-linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model. The analysis focuses on the short end of liquidity management and provides evidence of long-run asymmetric effects of liquidity management instruments, notably, the monetary policy rate (MPR) and excess reserves of banks on the inter-bank rate. The findings show that the impact of discretionary and autonomous liquidity factors remains symmetric. In addition, the policy target rate is more sensitive to a monetary contraction than accommodation.

Asymmetric Trade Flows, Monetary And Business Cycle Asynchronization Among Ecowas Member Countries: Feasibility Of Ecowas Monetary Union Formation Beyond 2020, Joseph Okwori, Walter O. Ugwuoke

Bullion

The formation of the West African Monetary Union which was initially slated for 2003 was postponed severally in 2005, 2009, 2015 and 2020. This raises the curiosity of investigating the possibility of its formation beyond 2020. It is against this backdrop that this paper investigated asymmetric trade flows, monetary policy and business cycle asynchronization among ECOWAS member countries: Feasibility of ECOWAS Monetary union formation beyond 2020. The objective was addressed using Pearson correlation analysis on computed zscores and the seemingly unrelated regression estimation (SURE). The finding shows that the flow of trade within ECOWAS member countries were highly asymmetric indicating …

Fluctuations Of Macroeconomic Variables And Manufacturing Output: Issues, Challenges And Prospects Of The Growth Of Manufacturing Output In Nigeria, Chris Ac-Ogbonna

Bullion

The study examined the impact of fluctuations of macroeconomic variables such as exchange rate, lending rates and inflation rates on the manufacturing output in Nigeria. The paper used descriptive analysis to investigate the relationship between manufacturing output and macroeconomic stability in Nigeria. The findings revealed that macroeconomic instability impacted negatively on the manufacturing output. The paper therefore recommended that policies that will streamline the multiple and volatile exchange rates, interest rate and inflation control should be designed and implemented to ensure their predictability to aid planning and attract both domestic and foreign investors to the, manufacturing sector. This is expected …

Contemporary Issues In Nigeria's External Debt And Implications For National Sovereignty, Umar E. Mahmud, Yusuf A. Ogwuzebe

Bullion

The imperative of public borrowing to finance development, combat natural or artificial disasters, and for other reasons is incontrovertible. The diverse traumatic experience of debt-victim nations: Spain, Mexico, Egypt, Venezuela, et cetera, which narrowly escaped total loss of national sovereignty to foreign lenders, due to debt-induced bankruptcy, have been xr-ayed by literature: Magaji (2000) and Bature (2015), among others. The objectives of this paper are to examine the situation of Nigeria, vis-à-vis the nations which travelled the path of Nigeria's current adventure; and to proffer policy antidotes for averting the highly probable cataclysm which unsustainable external debt might precipitate, particularly …

External Sector Liberalization And Output Growth In Nigeria, Emmanuel A. Onwioduokit, Obong E. Effiong

Bullion

The paper investigates the impact of external sector liberalization (foreign direct investment, external debt stock, trade openness and exchange rate) on the output growth in Nigeria from the period 1981 to 2019, utilizing correlation analysis, Granger causality test and vector autoregression (VAR). The results indicate that foreign direct investment, external debt stock, trade openness and exchange rate all correlate positively with gross domestic product. Also, the granger causality test indicates that foreign direct investment, trade openness and exchange rate granger cause the output growth in Nigeria. From the VAR result foreign direct investment exerted positive and significant impact on the …

Non-Tax Incentives And Agricultural Output In Nigeria, Elias A. Udeaja, Elijah O. Akanni, Emomotimi M. Question, Peter F. Offum, Titoluwa P. Eyinla

Economic and Financial Review

This study investigates the impact of non-tax incentives on agricultural sector output in Nigeria from 1981 to 2019, using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Model/Bounds test technique. The findings of this study show that non-tax incentives have a significant positive impact on agricultural sector output growth in the long-run; however, the effect was negative and statistically insignificant in the short run. On the other hand, government expenditure on agriculture was negative and significant on agricultural sector output growth in the short-run, while its long-run impact was also negative but not significant. Therefore, the study recommends targeted expansion of non-tax incentives to …