Relying on the Nigerian case, this study uses the principles of public participation theory to show how faulty anti-corruption designs and implementation processes can exacerbate political corruption and breed ineffective anti-corruption regulations. Applying an exploratory research design and triangulating information from official sources and mainstream literature, the study reveals that the government's attempt to implicitly and explicitly implement whistleblowing regulations generated design lapses that prioritized monetary recovery above the need for public protection while at the same time worsening the risk of retaliation against whistleblowers. The study reaffirms the need for effective mechanisms to be put in place to guarantee protection against potential risks of retaliation and to discourage self-interested tendencies among potential citizens' participation. For example, the reward system inherent in explicit whistleblowing regulations can be redefined in non-monetary terms to make whistleblowing less susceptible to abuses by self-serving individuals.

This study involves a comprehensive survey of about 1500 micro and small businesses across three major cities in one of the smallest states in Nigeria (Ebonyi State). Based on the cross-sectional data generated, a linearized Tobit regression and a robust T-Test statistical technique are applied to comparatively examine how internal firm attributes, market attributes, and socioeconomic and macroeconomic conditions affect the growth of micro and small businesses in a typical small state and small cities. The results reveal a key challenge to be the dominance of the business space in small cities by micro and largely informal enterprises.

One of the biggest issues with public accountability in most federal systems is the payment of pensions to former public officeholders such as governors, which is arguably undermining ethical standards in the public sector and impeding socio-economic development. This is because of the arbitrariness of the policy, the huge financial burdens it imposes on subnational governments, and the fact that such practice is often uncorrelated with the fiscal realities of the federating states. The problem is more challenging in developing countries that are weighed by weak institutions and poor governance. Using the Nigerian case, the study shows how public officeholders' pensions are shaped by corruption-prone defective legislative processes configured to birth ex post facto laws that widen rather than narrow corruption and inequalities. Adopting a descriptive exploratory research design and document analysis technique, this study offers valuable insights into addressing the ethical and legal challenges surrounding public pension administration. It advocates for adopting a standardised model for regulating and administering pensions for public officeholders in developing federal systems. By advancing legal and ethical arguments against the prevailing ex-governors' pension practice in Nigeria, this paper contributes to the extant discourse on improving accountability and governance in the public sector.

Using the Third-party Cost Theory and the Pollution Haven Hypothesis as well as a comparative case study design, this study examined multinational companies' commitments to energy efficiency and responsive climate action in Africa. The study used cases of cement production in different African countries to benchmark the baseline operational context of Dangote Cement Plc. (a local MNC) and Lafarge Africa Plc. (a foreign MNC) in Nigeria. Although both companies operate in the same context, the findings show that their commitments are driven more by the strength of the host-country institutions and compliance with home-country standards. This negates the proposition that weak institutions in developing countries render foreign MNCs greater CO2 emitters than their local counterparts. Foreign MNCs of Western origin may be emitting less pollution because of the quality of their home country institutions. On the other hand, local MNCs may act less environmentally friendly because of the prevailing poor institutional quality. The evidence reveals that in institutionally lax jurisdictions, all MNCs in search of higher profit margins prioritize cheaper energy mixes. There is thus a need for African governments to strengthen their environmental governance frameworks and provide incentives to induce MNCs' commitments to cleaner energy.

The 1970 nationalisation of foreign businesses in Uganda was arguably the first time that a country would announce to pay compensation for nationalised businesses from the future profits earned by such businesses. Using two interrelated models, namely the Obsolescing Bargaining Model and Political Bargaining Model, and materials from three UK archives and the World Bank Archives, this paper critiques the negotiations between the nationalised businesses and the Ugandan Government during the period. It explores the role of the British Government in the entire episode, including the covert negotiations with international agencies such as the World Bank in order to ensure that UK companies got the best possible settlement from the Ugandan authorities. The result of this study shows that Uganda’s nationalisation programme was indeed hastily formulated and implemented, which joined to weaken the government’s bargaining powers and rendered the major clause of ‘paying compensation from future profit’ more idealistic than practical.

Climate change is a mounting pressure on private health financing in Africa – directly because of increased disease prevalence and indirectly because of its negative impact on household income. The sources and consequences of the pressure constitute an important area of policy discourse, especially as it relates to issues of poverty and inequality. Relying on a panel dataset involving 49 African countries and the period 2000–2019, as well as a random effect regression analysis, this report shows that climate change has a positive and significant impact on the level of out-of-pocket health expenditure (OPHE) in Africa, and an increase in the level of greenhouse (CO2) emissions by 1% could bring about a 0.423% increase in the level of OPHE. Indirectly, the results show that, compared with the regional average, countries that have higher government health expenditure levels, above 1.7% regional average, and face higher climate change risk may likely record an increase in OPHE. Alternatively, countries with higher per capita income (above the regional annual average of $2300.00) are likely to record a drop in OPHE. Countries with lower climate change risk and a lower than the regional average age dependency (above the regional average of 80.4%) are also likely to record a drop in OPHE. It follows that there is a need for policy alignment, especially with regard to how climate change influences primary health care funding models in Africa. Contribution: The results of this research offer policymakers in-depth knowledge of how climate change erodes healthcare financing capacity of government and shifts the burden to households. This raises concerns on the quality of accessible healthcare and the link with poverty and inequality.

This study examines the impact of armed conflicts on the fiscal capacity of African governments. It made use of a data set covering 1997-2021 for 50 countries, as well as the system dynamic generalized method of moment estimation technique. The results show that, in the short run, conflicts undermine tax revenue, mount pressure on military expenditure, and force governments to rely more on mineral resource rents for their fiscal needs. As conflicts persist, this fiscal feature changes to a pattern that reflects a decline in mineral resource earnings and an increase in tax revenue. The impact on public health expenditure also changes from an increasing to a decreasing pattern, whereas the positive impact on military expenditure and external borrowing persists over time. The findings suggest that African countries in conflict can address their fiscal challenges by observing these patterns and putting in place policies that protect public resources (e.g., the adoption of digital financial technology protocols to facilitate remote revenue collection and strategic protection of mineral resource-endowed zones from insurgents' control). Overall, enhancing government effectiveness and strengthening the institutions of governance is important to facilitate a quick return to normalcy in the event of conflict and to prevent future conflicts.

In this paper, we employed a blend of multiple and historical case study design, and a mix of institutional, behavioral, resource-based, and multinational theories, to examine the nature of multinational companies’ (MNC) engagements in local economic development and capital export practices in an African context. Evidence from our Nigerian case analysis (FrieslandCampina, Nigerian Breweries Plc. and Dangote Cement) confirms the proposition that, faced with a similar degree of uncertainty and constrained institutional environment and laying claims to differing sources of competitive advantage, both local and foreign MNCs would repatriate profits and limit exposures to local value chains (LVCs) mainly as a strategy for mitigating country risks and preserving corporate value. Such limited exposures detach MNCs, especially the foreign ones, from the LVCs, and by doing so push them to deeper reliance on the global value chains (GVCs). Linking local businesses to the GVCs is central in the inclusive development (ID) debate essentially because it allows for the redistribution of economic benefits, helps in building a complementary (rather than competitive) relationship between MNCs and local businesses, and facilitates local businesses’ access to international markets. We, therefore, recommend that in pursuit of the inclusive and sustainable development projects in Africa, industrial policies need to be tailored toward stabilizing the policy environment, protecting investments from risk of expropriation, and incentivizing MNCs’ participation in the LVCs.

This paper examines the earnings retention practices of incorporated firms in Africa. It hypothesizes that foreign and local firms operating in Africa have similar retention policies, and by extension similar tendency for capital exports. It makes use of robust descriptive and empirical methodology involving 444 (and 293 for the empirical analysis) listed firms, in 13 exchanges over the period 2005‒2018. The results show that corporate earnings retention is context sensitive; and that being foreign is indeed a deciding factor. The empirical evidence, based on the application of system dynamic GMM estimation procedure, further reveals that: firms with majority foreign interests are less likely to pursue aggressive earnings retention policies; earnings retention declines with increase in foreign interests; for foreign firms mostly, increase in the burden of effective tax payment significantly undermines earnings retention capacities of firms; and for local firms largely, increased investments in fixed assets provides a viable policy option for improving access to the external markets for corporate finance. The results also show that growth-oriented foreign and local firms are more likely to employ aggressive earnings retention policies to minimize their exposure to external capital markets. The paper concludes that, indeed being foreign matters in the earnings retention and internal capital markets debate in Africa, although firm-specific characteristics simultaneously play significant role in moderating the incentive of foreign companies (particularly the MNCs) to retain rather than repatriate profits. Evidence from this study therefore calls for the need for policy and capital control emphases to be shifted to deal with how firms (foreign and local) manage their internal capital market operations. The interactive impact also suggests that tax payment remains a functional mechanism for moderating the negative impact of tax on corporate earnings retention behaviour.

Using the case of Nigeria's Dangote Group and an exploratory research technique, we critique CSR practices in a developing country context based on a three-pillar model-traditional CSR, strategic CSR and strategic business engagements. Our paper makes a unique contribution by revealing how a company can transform its strategic CSR into strategic business engagements that permit it to circumvent public procurement laws and secure public contracts at non-competitive terms. We show how, in weak institutional and regulatory contexts, strategic CSR could be turned to a tool for rent extraction and profit maximization. We advocate for regulatory measures that impose ex ante and ex post limits on the extent to which firms can go in integrating CSR into their normal business operations. Based on the outcomes from this important African case study, we illustrate and propose the strategic business engagement model as a new framework for analysing the social benefits of strategic CSR practices in developing countries.

BACKGROUND:The aim of this study was to appraise the implementation of the National HIV guidelines and determine the effect of an educational intervention on health worker knowledge and practice of the guidelines.METHODS:A before and after study design without control was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire and key informant interviews. Data was also collected from client record cards. An educational intervention was carried out using pamphlets containing summarized information on the guideline. Data analysis was carried out using IBM-SPSS version 20.RESULT:Results showed that 54.5% of the respondents were males and 76% were medical doctors. Baseline knowledge level of respondents was high with 97% of respondents having good knowledge with a mean score of 3.9. This increased to 4.1 out of 5 post-intervention. All respondents had good practice of the guidelines before and after intervention with a mean score of 4.5 out of 5. Client records also showed good practice. Barriers to guideline implementation include: poor knowledge, inadequate training, guideline unavailability, poor functioning of the laboratory equipment, poor funding.CONCLUSION:HIV guidelines are being implemented in the clinic to a large extent; however, trainings, funding and provision of the guideline in the clinics are recommended.

Nigeria is arguably the largest importer of dairy products in Africa. Available statistics shows that up to 98% of the total dairy products consumed in the country are imported; and that about 75% of the entire dairy market is controlled by FrieslandCampina WAMCO (FCW). The purpose of this study is to examine the basis for the prevailing import orientation in the dairy industry since 1973. Is the orientation traceable to operations of multinational companies or the institutional and governance challenges in the country? Using triangulated data collected from FCW official reports and other relevant sources, and a content analytical technique, the study finds that the problem in the industry is multifaceted. Central to the challenges are persistent institutional and infrastructural defects, as well as faulty integration designs adopted by FCW. Based on this, the paper recommends that reversing the current trend requires government’s policies that dis-incentivizes importation. However, such policies can work only when the right atmosphere for cattle farming and local dairy production is put in place.

The theorized benefits of mobile phone and Internet penetration have not been sufficiently tested, especially on cross-country data. Using a dataset involving 48 regionally grouped African countries and a robust dynamic system GMM model, this study attempts to fill this gap. In carrying out this study, we adopted an empirical strategy that allowed us to estimate the specific and complementary impacts of mobile phone, Internet, and rural electricity on food security, from panel and regional comparative perspectives. The findings indicate that: the incremental and intra-temporal effects in food security situation linger awhile; the promotional effects of ICT development on food security are more induced by mobile phone development than by Internet development; mobile phone and Internet have a robust and stable synergistic effect on food security; contrary to expectations, there is no complementarity between ICT protocols and rural electricity, with the impact of the latter on food security being more distortive than promotional; and that the promotional benefits of ICT protocols on food security are dependent on a country's capacity to resolve inherent deficiencies in rural electricity energy supply, climate conditions and credit challenges. Policy-wise, the findings confirm how the convergence and complementarity between mobile phone and Internet connectivity can conditionally be enhanced in the case of Africa; and how such convergence can potentially facilitate the catch-up between the lagging Internet access and the booming mobile phone subscription and to enhance the quality, quantity and relevance of the information contents of the ICT protocols.

Using data covering the period 2000 to 2017 and sourced from 30 African countries, this study examines the intervening role of institution-based centres of excellence (CoEs) in enhancing the impact of R&D-related factors on industrial productivity. The study applies different panel quantile regression estimation models to arrive at the findings that: the impact of R&D spending and related elements on industrial sector growth is stably positive, but can also be sensitive to the presence or otherwise of internationally recognized CoEs. On its own, the significant impact of CoE presence only occurs indirectly through the leveraging influence of R&D expenditure, degree of innovations, and human capital development. Extrapolating the results to reflect specifically the case of Mozambique, the arising evidence shows that the country’s industrial output performance is below average, and the positive impact of R&D is yet to be optimized or taken strategic advantage to grow the industrial sector. The evidence goes further to support that the little industrial progress made in the country might be attributed more to investments in human capital development and innovative activities. At the below-average level, also, having centres of excellence turns out to be a viable and significant strategy for industrial output growth. Until the CoEs can serve industry needs, their sustainability beyond donor funding and local economic relevance remains doubtful. Specifically for Mozambique, increased funding flows to specific research studies that are capable of generating local evidence for industrial use are recommended. Building CoE models that target the development of the innovative capacities of domestic entrepreneurs might prove more optimal.

Background: Capacity constraints on implementation research among policymakers and researchers are a major challenge to the evidence to policy link. This study was designed to bring together senior policymakers and researchers in Nigeria to consider issues around research-to-policy interface and enhance their capacity on implementation research. Methods: The design was a cross-sectional study. A 3-day joint implementation research workshop was held for policymakers and researchers using World Health Organization/TDR Implementation Research Toolkit. Assessment of participants' capacity for evidence-informed policymaking and knowledge on implementation research was done using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. A postworkshop key informant interview was also conducted. Results: A total of 20 researchers and 15 policymakers participated in the study. The interaction/partnership between policymakers and researchers was generally rare in terms of priority-setting process, involvement as coinvestigators, and executing strategies to support policymakers' use of research findings. The mean ratings (MNRs) recorded mostly ranged from 1.80 to 1.89 on the 5-point scale. Researchers were rarely involved in the generation of policy-relevant research that satisfies policymakers' needs with MNR very low at 1.74. The MNRs for capacity to acquire, assess, and adapt research were generally considerably higher among researchers (3.16–3.82) than policymakers (2.27–3.20). There was a general consensus that the training tremendously improved participants' understanding and use of implementation research. Conclusion: Policymakers and researchers are increasingly recognizing their need to work with each other in the interest of the health systems. There is a need to create more capacity enhancement platforms that will facilitate the interface between them.

This article critiques the second-hand vehicle markets in the West African region, focusing on the triad trading arrangements among Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Niger. These countries are connected by a number of underlying conflicting interests in the second-hand vehicles trade. Benin and Togo are incentivised by the revenues derived from re-export trade and port operations. Niger provides a proxy market for the illegal re-export of these vehicles to Nigeria, with the latter suffering huge welfare losses as a major consuming nation. We conclude that by offering conflicting benefits to the West African countries, the second-hand vehicle market provides disincentives against true regional integration.

Background: There is need to strengthen institutions and mechanisms that can more systematically promote interactions between researchers, policy-makers and other stakeholders who can influence the uptake of research findings. In this article, we report the outcome of a two-way secondment model between Ebonyi State University (EBSU) and Ebonyi State Ministry of Health (ESMoH) in Nigeria as an innovative collaborative strategy to promote capacity enhancement for evidence-to-policy-to-action. Methods: This study was an exploratory design with a quantitative cross-sectional survey technique. A secondment memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between heads of EBSU and ESMoH. The secondment program lasted six months with ten researchers and ten policy-makers spending up to two days per week in each other’s organization. The secondee researchers got engaged in policy-making and implementation activities in ESMoH, while the policy-maker secondees got involved in research activities in EBSU. Secondees evidence-to-policy capacity enhancement meetings were held and questionnaires designed in 5-point Likert scale were used to assess their impact. Results: The secondee policy-makers and researchers admitted having considerable knowledge of secondment with mean ratings (MNRs) of 3.40 and 3.74 respectively on the 5 points scale. Secondment appeared to be more common in the policy-makers’ organization (MNRs: 2.80-3.07) than in the researchers’ institution (MNRs: 2.58-2.84). The secondee policy-makers participated in some academic and research activities including serving in research ethics committee in EBSU and provided policy-making perspective to the activities. The secondee researchers supported the policymaking process in ESMoH through policy advisory roles, and provided capacity enhancement for staff of the ministry on the use of research evidence in policy-making. There was a noteworthy increase on knowledge of policy analysis and contextualization among the secondees ranging from 20.7% to 50.4% and 31.3% to 42.8% respectively following a training session. A Society for Health Policy Research and Knowledge Translation was established by mutual agreement of secondees as a platform to permanently institutionalize the collaboration. Conclusion: The outcome of this study clearly suggests that secondment has great potential in promoting evidence informed policy-making and merits further consideration.

In this study, we investigated the impact of armed conflicts on intra-regional trade flows. We made use of panel datasets from 15 ECOWAS member and 19 COMESA member countries for the period 1997 to 2015. Applying a robust functional estimation procedure based on IV GMM principles, the results are found to be regionally comparable, with the evidence indicating that armed conflicts constrain intra-regional export and trade openness. The results indicate that the classical insurgency theory explains better the patterns of intra-regional export flows and trade openness; whereas the economic interest theory explains better the patterns of intra-regional import flows. The impact of armed conflict intensity on intra-regional trade flows is found to be sensitive to border proximity, trade diversification, mineral rents and national income levels. While border proximity on its own enhances intra-regional export and import flows, it also has the tendency of exacerbating the negative impact of armed conflicts. As armed conflicts intensify, for instance, member countries become more incentivized to implement secured border and trade policies as a way of guarding against counter flows of arms and illicit commodities. Our study confirms the need for regional economic communities to concentrate their integration efforts towards mitigating domestic and cross-border armed conflicts.

Ponte Academic JournalSep 2017, Volume 73, Issue 9 IDENTIFYING THE INTERDEPENDENCE BETWEEN SOUTH AFRICA’S MONETARY POLICY AND THE STOCK MARKETAuthor(s): Brian Muroyiwa ,Abel Ezeoha, Abbyssinia MushunjeJ. Ponte - Sep 2017 - Volume 73 - Issue 9 doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2017.9.16 Abstract:This study estimates the interdependence between South Africa�s monetary policy and stock market performance, utilising structural vector autoregression (SVAR) methodology. The study finds that a stock price shock which decrease stock prices by 100 basis points leads to 5 basis points decrease in interbank rate. A monetary policy shock that increases the interbank rate by 1 percent leads to decrease in real stock prices by 1 percent. This result for South Africa is similar to the result of other earlier studies which concluded that there was a high interdependence between interest rate setting and stock prices. However the magnitude of the relationship is relatively lower for South Africa compared to that of countries such as United States of America (USA). Nevertheless the SARB may have to consider watching movements in stock prices so that booms in stock markets do not defeat central bank monetary policy thrusts. The study concludes that stock price market is an essential source of information for monetary policy in South Africa Download full text:Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution Username Password

Why would the citizens of an oil-producing state continually resist reform-induced petrol price increases, even when subsidy payments are proved to be a serious threat to the capacity of the state to deliver its core constitutional mandates? In this paper, we tackle this question by contending that the difficulty in petrol subsidy implementation in a country like Nigeria has more to do with the clear lack of state legitimacy and public trust, and the recorded cases of political instability entrenched by forced attempts at reforms. By contextualizing the reform efforts in Nigeria within the framework of the relationship between state legitimacy and reforms, we are able to provide valid insights to a broader understanding of the "whys" of public resistance to the authority of the state to enforce reform. The Nigerian case, as revealed in this article, provides evidence of a shift in paradigm from the conventional and dominant Weberian emphasis of state legitimacy around the nature and sources of state authorities to a more functional context of citizens' perception of the governance process as a source of legitimacy.