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The Nigerian government has implemented a comprehensive spectrum of policies and programmes to diversify the economy and encourage broad-based growth through investment in the agricultural sector. However, the steady increase in the poverty and unemployment rate has raised controversial issues among scholars. In light of this, the study investigates the impact of selected macroeconomic variables on Nigeria’s agricultural performance using two models for output and employment. The Error Correction Model (ECM) approach was used to establish the short and long-run behaviours. In the first model, output in the agricultural sector was used as the independent variable, while in the second model, employment in the agricultural sector was used as the independent variable. The study’s findings showed that output positively relates to credit to the agricultural sector and exchange rate. However, it was depicted that output and employment in the agricultural sector in both the short-run and the long-run are not statistically significant. The implication drawn from the study is that credit granted to the agricultural sector can foster aggregate output in the sector, which will promote long-term employment. The study suggests considerable investment in the agricultural sector and the need to strengthen institutions for proper management of resources to ensure effective evaluation of funds disbursed for improving the agricultural sector, among others.

Recently, much attention was paid to the application of renewable energy in environmental issues. Meanwhile, the fuel cell industry, which is considered an environmentally friendly industry, is one of the important components of this project. They are in fact devices for the direct conversion of chemical energy into electrical energy by an electrochemical reaction without the need for any mechanical parts. In this study, it is attempted to model one of their important types, called proton exchange membrane fuel cells, so that it can be used in predicting the behavior of the fuel cell and examining various parameters affecting the performance of the cell. The main idea is to optimal parameters estimation for the proton exchange membrane fuel cells by minimizing the total Squared Error value between the empirical output voltage and the approximated output voltage. For giving better results in terms of accuracy and reliability, a new design of a metaheuristic called the balanced Water Strider Algorithm is utilized. The results of the suggested method are finally validated by comparison with several latest optimizers applied on a practical test case. After running all of the optimizers 30 times independently, the proposed method with minimum absolute error equals 3.4831e−4 shows the best results toward the others.

In contemporary discourse, Nigeria's reliance on its oil sector is proving insufficient for sustained economic growth. The volatility of oil prices, geopolitical tensions, technological advancements, and environmental sustainability concerns have exposed the vulnerabilities of an oil-dependent economy, emphasizing the need for diversification and a renewed focus on agriculture. This study investigates the relationship between technological innovation and agricultural productivity in Nigeria, contrasting it with the oil sector. Using the ARDL estimation technique, our findings reveal a significant negative influence of immediate lagged agricultural productivity (AGTFP(−1)), indicating technological constraints. Technological innovation, proxied by TFP, shows a substantial impact on agricultural productivity, with a negative long-term effect (−90.71) but a positive, though insignificant, impact on agricultural output (0.0034). The comparative analysis underscores that the agricultural sector tends to benefit more from technological innovation than the oil sector. This highlights the critical need to prioritize technological advancements in agriculture to drive sustainable growth and economic resilience in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stock market operates on informed decisions based on information gathered from heterogeneous sources, encompassing diverse beliefs, strategies, and knowledge. This study examines the validity of rational bubbles in stock market prices, focusing on eight African stock markets: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritius, Ghana, and Botswana. Utilizing newly developed econophysics-based unit root tests and the Dynamic Conditional Correlation Multivariate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (DCC MGARCH) models, the authors analyzed daily data from 1996 to 2022. Our findings indicate that these markets experienced bubbles at various points, often followed by bursts. These bubbles coincided with significant economic changes, suggesting a strong link between stock market behavior and economic growth. For instance, financial crises, political instability, and global economic downturns significantly influenced bubble formation and bursts in these markets. The study reveals that market-specific events, such as regulatory changes and shifts in investor sentiment, also contributed to the occurrence of bubbles. Three key policy options are proposed to address bubbles in the studied markets including, enhancing regulatory frameworks to monitor and mitigate bubble formation, improving financial literacy among investors to promote informed decision-making, and strengthening economic policies to stabilize macroeconomic conditions and reduce vulnerability to external shocks. By implementing these measures, policymakers can enhance market stability and foster sustainable economic growth in African stock markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at investigating the link between fraud and business cycle in Nigeria using primary data sourced from questionnaires administered on both fraudsters and fraud managers. This is premised on the ground that Nigeria is in recession and has been recently described as fantastically corrupt. Understanding the link between fraud and economic behaviour would give an in depth understanding of fraud levels in the different phases of the Nigerian economy and would help the fraud management system in Nigeria which is believed to have great consequences on the nation's economy. Our result shows that though there is a significant relationship between fraud and business cycle in Nigeria, the level of fraud committed does not solely depend on either expansion or recession exists in the economy, rather, there is an identified range of fraud that might be increased in adverse economy.

This study examined the relationship between macroeconomic variable volatility and stock market return within the context of Blanchard (1981) extension of the Hicks (1937) IS-LM hypothesis, using EGARCH estimation techniques to analysis monthly data sourced on the Nigerian economy from January 1985 to December 2013. Our result shows that stock prices responds significantly to innovations in the interest rate and the RGDP, we therefore recommends that policy makers on the one hand should consider volatility in both the interest rate and the RGDP when making policies aimed at enhancing stock market development. On the other hand, market practitioners are expected to make provisions for volatility in interest rate and the RGDP when making portfolio decisions.

Purpose: The issues of ineffective accountability have affected the performance of banks, which led the Nigerian government to introduce various reforms and policies. However, despite these attempts, the Nigerian banking sector experiences setbacks due to mismanagement of funds, fraudulent activities and lack of proper accountability, which negatively affects employment and income. Design/methodology/approach: The dynamic least square was employed to investigate the selected indicators of Nigerian banks' accountability, income and employment. Likewise, the study examined the causal effect using the Granger non-causality approach. Findings: In the income equation, the total amount of fraud, deposit, total bank asset has a negative relationship with the income, while loan advance and operating expense depicted a positive relationship. In the employment equation, demand deposit, operating cost and bank total asset practices negatively affect employment. In contrast, loan advances and saving deposits have a positive relationship with employment in the long run. Practical implications: Based on the findings, this study suggests, among others, the need for long-term systematic policies and reforms to improve the level of accountability in the Nigerian banking sector. Originality/value: To the best of our knowledge, empirical studies examining the nexus between employment and accountability in the banking sector remain scarce in the literature. Therefore, this study examines the causality and long-run relationship between accountability and employment in Nigerian Banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the nexus between economic growth, energy consumption, and the environment with the moderating role of agricultural value addition and forest in Africa based on data sourced from 1980 to 2019. We employed both the time domain and frequency domain panel Granger causality estimation techniques to compare results across the different horizons. Extant literature suggests the inability of time domain estimation techniques to account for causality at different frequencies. The study also accounts for the nexus among our variables both at the single-country and multi-country levels. The results at the single-country level are at best mixed. The results of the panel Granger causality at the frequencies domain suggest that a bi-directional relationship exists between energy consumption and economic growth, and that energy consumption Granger causes carbon emissions in Africa. The results align with the feedback hypothesis on the one hand but contradict the conservation hypothesis on the other hand. The study has some policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]