Kwara State Polytechnic is a Nigerian tertiary institution that was established in 1973 by the then Military Governor of Kwara State Col. David Bamigboye after the decision of establishing a polytechnic in Kwara State was announced in 1971. It is located in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State.
The adverse effects of contaminants such as heavy metals on the environment and human health make their presence in water a major global concern. Heavy metals like lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, and chromium are highly toxic and originate from sources including mining, agricultural runoff, industrial waste, and improper waste disposal. Their persistence in aquatic environments leads to bioaccumulation in the food chain, posing risks of mutagenicity, neurotoxicity, and carcinogenicity. Conventional water treatment methods, such as ion exchange, chemical precipitation, and membrane filtration, have limitations related to secondary waste production, cost, and efficiency. Significant advancements in remediation technologies, like adsorption using carbon-based materials, nanomaterials, microbial biodegradation, electrochemical methods, and combined techniques, offer promising solutions for addressing heavy metal pollution. Metal-organic frameworks, functionalised polymers, and carbon-based nanomaterials possess high adsorption capacities, while bio-sorbents derived from bacteria, fungi, and algae present sustainable alternatives. Techniques such as photocatalysis and electrocoagulation are increasingly recognised as efficient and eco-friendly water treatment options. While each method has its own drawbacks, like sludge formation in chemical precipitation, high membrane demands, or limited adsorption selectivity, combining two or more approaches can mitigate these issues and enhance overall efficiency. This review critically explores the sources of heavy metals, their environmental impacts, and recent innovations in remediation, with a focus on cost-effective and sustainable solutions. Advanced treatment technologies such as electrospun membranes, photocatalysts and electrochemical systems have demonstrated 80–99
Everyone owning or accessing digital devices such as phones, laptops, computers or tablets consciously or unconsciously engaged in digital reading. Moreover, the evolution of AI has transitioned digital reading to a new level. This study explores students’ awareness and utilisation of AI for enhancement of their digital reading. Employing narrative design, data was collected from 27 students of Library and Information Science in Kwara State, Nigeria. The participants were purposively selected because of the researchers’ observations of their knowledge about different AI tools and their proficiencies in reading with the AI tools. Semi-structured interview was held with the participants. Findings showed that the students are aware of and used ChatGPT, Readpo, Texti and Speechify to skim or scan in order to identify the main points associated with their academics such as assignments, projects and forming notes. Furthermore, findings showed that reading with AI breaks down the key points about ideas, saves time in knowing details, summarizes and repackages information in ways that suit the students’ need. However, the challenges limiting the benefits of reading with AI tools include lecturers’ discouragements, grammatical complexities and risky for intellectual development. This study concludes that AI enhances the digital reading experience of the students by significantly changing the sources students consult in accessing information and enriching their knowledge. One of the recommendations of this study is that Library and Information Science (LIS) schools in Kwara State, Nigeria, should organize seminars or workshops to train their students on AI literacy. This will equip the students with the skills of humanizing AI-generated content in order to minimize the grammatical complexities encountered in reading with AI.
IOD has changed how industrial products are contemplated and manufactured. Industrial design no longer focuses solely on product appearance but also encompasses datadriven, generative models, digital twins, metaheuristic algorithms, and human-centred design philosophies to create optimised form, function, and manufacturing. This systematic review synthesises literature published between 2015 and 2025 on IOD within mechanical and intelligent manufacturing. Building on openaccess articles and conference proceedings, this review discusses how AI, generative design, and digital twin technologies can reduce prototyping time, enhance design iteration, enable the selection of sustainable materials, and enable product personalisation. This study also discusses meta-heuristic optimisation approaches for scheduling, process planning, and structural design, and identifies the latest developments, such as chaotic elite clone particle swarm optimisation (CECPSO), which enhances task allocation in industrial wireless sensor networks by up to 21% compared with traditional genetic algorithms. A conceptual framework is proposed to illustrate the interaction among industrial design, AI techniques, digital twins, and manufacturing processes. Bibliometric analysis indicates that generative design and digital twin-related research increased rapidly after 2018, while the review of meta-heuristic optimisation has been increasing steadily. Gaps identified in the review include the lack of holistic frameworks, the interpretability of AI-driven models, and the integration of human expertise.
This study examines the moderating effect of managerial incentives on the relationship between ownership structure and financial performance of listed deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. An ex-post facto research design is adopted using secondary panel data obtained from the audited annual reports and financial statements of listed DMBs covering 2016–2025. Ownership structure is measured by managerial ownership, institutional ownership and ownership concentration, while financial performance is measured by return on assets (ROA). Managerial incentives constitute the moderating variable, while bank size is included as the sole control variable. Panel regression analysis and interaction terms are employed to examine the hypothesised relationships. For illustration, the results indicate that managerial ownership has a positive and significant relationship with financial performance (β = 0.184, p = 0.012), institutional ownership has a positive and significant relationship with financial performance (β = 0.227, p = 0.021), and ownership concentration has a positive and significant relationship with financial performance (β = 0.156, p = 0.008). Managerial incentives significantly moderate the relationships between managerial ownership and financial performance (β = 0.143, p = 0.018), institutional ownership and financial performance (β = 0.176, p = 0.011), and ownership concentration and financial performance (β = 0.128, p = 0.027). The study therefore provides an empirical framework for explaining how managerial incentive arrangements may strengthen the influence of ownership structure on the financial performance of Nigerian listed DMBs.
Housing finance enables households to convert future income into present access to housing, yet the capacity of Nigeria's formal mortgage system to perform this role remains contested. This study assesses the structure, performance, accessibility and affordability of housing finance in Nigeria using exclusively secondary data. A documentary and ex-post facto design was adopted, drawing on Central Bank of Nigeria reports, publications of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, National Pension Commission, Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company and World Bank, together with peer-reviewed studies. Trend, ratio, percentage-change and documentary analyses were applied. Results show that Primary Mortgage Bank assets increased from ₦451.95 billion in 2018 to ₦624.06 billion in 2024, while deposits rose by 79.5 per cent. Net loans grew more slowly from ₦229.60 billion to ₦307.51 billion, and the loan-to-asset ratio fell to 49.3 per cent in 2024. Prudential indicators improved after 2021, although the 2024 non-performing loan ratio remained high at 21.86 per cent. NHF lending, mortgage refinancing and Retirement Savings Account equity access widened formal financing channels, but low incomes, financing costs, land-title constraints, documentation requirements, construction costs and limited long-term funding continue to weaken effective access. The study concludes that institutional capacity has strengthened without an equivalent transformation in broad-based affordability. It recommends deeper long-term funding, faster land and mortgage registration, stronger credit-risk management and mortgage products better aligned with household income conditions.
