A nation cannot develop in the face of endemic corruption. The fight against corruption cannot be won unless the rationale (how and why) for the act of corruption is understood and intensive strategies to block those channels are implemented. The fight against corruption in Nigeria has always been focused solely towards its cure (aftermath) while ignoring its prevention (the how and why), which has resulted in no discernable success over the years (Onyekwere et al., 2020).

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has made repeated attempts to contain the inflationary spike by gradually raising the monetary policy rate to 18.5 percent. However, the inflation rate is still persistently high in May 2023. According to the report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the inflation rate increased by 0.19 percent on a monthly basis, from 22.22 percent to 22.41 percent in May 2023. 

Following the new government’s plan to unify multiple exchange rates in the foreign exchange (forex) market, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has taken the monetary policy decision of floating the Naira. In its latest press release, the apex bank declared some operational changes in the forex market. This includes the abolishment of segmentation and collapsing of all segments in the market into the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window, thus, granting commercial banks and other authorised dealers the green light to sell forex at free, market-determined rates.

The World Bank's Global Development Prospect report for June 2023 has maintained Nigeria's projected growth rate 2023 at 2.8 percent. According to the report, this growth will primarily be driven by the non-oil sector as the oil sector grapples with structural challenges, resulting in output levels below the assigned quota by OPEC. Foreign exchange shortages, exchange rate volatility, security challenges, rising living costs, and limited fiscal capacity are anticipated to impede growth.

Dozens of studies point to evidence of significant reductions in carbon emissions driven by climate agreements, such as the Paris climate agreement. However, these studies fail to answer a pertinent question, that is, are global carbon emission reductions due to reduced production activities or are production processes becoming more efficient as less carbon is emitted per unit output due to technical progress? Such an understanding is important to evaluate the tension between environmental quality and economic growth. 

This journal was first published on Science Direct by David Iheke Okorie and Presley K. Wesseh Jr

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In its first administrative steps, the new government of the federation has declared the removal of the country’s controversial subsidy on fuel. Welfare advocates have defended it, but it has also come under heavy fire for its macroeconomic and budgetary lapses. For instance, subsidy costs, which totalled over N10 trillion between 2006 and 2019, consumed N4.39 trillion ($9.7 billion) in 2022 alone and nearly N3.36 trillion ($7.5 billion) in the first half of 2023, have been a contributing factor in budget deficits in recent years.

This study examines the effect of ICT on tax revenue mobilisation in 23 sub-Saharan African countries between 2000 and 2020. To address our objectives, it utilises a feasible generalised least squares approach that accounts for both heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation challenges. Particularly, six measures of ICT (import of ICT goods, export of ICT goods, ICT trade, internet penetration, mobile phone penetration, and aggregate ICT index) and six tax measures (total tax, direct tax, indirect tax, taxes on income, profit, and capital gains, taxes on goods and services, and taxes on international trade) are explored in the study.

This article was first published by the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) Journal of Economics and Sustainable Growth.

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Young people under the age of 30 account for nearly 70 percent of the population of Africa, making it the world's youngest continent (United Nations 2021). While this trend provides exciting opportunities for enhancing creativity and innovation, it comes with a high burden, as the formal education system and apprenticeship programs cannot adequately prepare a large number of young people for the future of work. As a result, the continent may have a large share of youths without high quality jobs for their desired quality of life. The future remains bleak as projections show that the number of youths in Africa will increase by 42 percent by 2030 (United Nations, 2015), further indicating the need to close the youth skills gap on the continent in order to actualize improved employment.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country with over 200 million people and has the largest labor force in the continent (Macrotrends 2022; Global Business Service 2021). The most recent national labor force population survey shows that over 69.7 million Nigerians are within the working age group and are willing to work (NBS 2020a). Out of the 69.7 million people, over 42 percent of young people (aged 15-34 years) are unemployed (NBS 2020a). In this regard, Nigerians are found in the web of the informal economy, self-employment, and underemployment, which leaves many Nigerians, mostly youths, to experience vulnerable employment, poor working conditions, and high poverty (World Bank 2015). Indeed, in 2020, about a third of the youths (28.2 percent) were underemployed (NBS 2020a). Put together, Nigeria will need to deliver a large number of quality jobs for youths.

The manufacturing sector, which was long assumed to play a central role in generating considerable employment in Nigeria, has remained relatively stagnant over the years (Itaman and Awopegba 2021). Recent estimates show that the manufacturing sector accounts for less than 10 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP), and as a result, it employs only a small cohort of the labor force (World Bank 2022a). Accordingly, the contribution of the manufacturing sector to formal sector employment has remained stagnant, averaging 11.4 percent between 2011 and 2021 (World Bank 2022a). The situation
is further worsened by minimal employment opportunities in the public sector (World Bank 2015). A considerable share of young Nigerians who graduate each year with a degree, certificate, or diploma seem to prefer working with the government due to the perceived job security; however, public sector jobs have been in short supply over the past two decades (World Bank 2015). On the other hand, the private sector, which has been active in creating jobs, has been unable to adequately absorb the large number of people entering the labormarket (World Bank 2019b)

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In Nigeria, women’s labour participation has begun to pick up in recent years after many years of stagnation. However, women's entry point into labour has been mainly through the informal sector or at the bottom pyramid of the formal labour market. Promoting women's inclusion in the top echelon of the labour market remains a knotty policy issue. This has become more important with the Nigerian government increasing priority around MSMEs as a tool for poverty alleviation and economic development.