This study unpacks the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on educational inequalities and related education policy measures in Nigeria. Focusing on primary education, the study aimed to: (i) outline the state and dimensions of educational inequalities in Nigeria before the pandemic; (ii) understand the impact of COVID-19 on student learning performance; (iii) evaluate education-related pandemic measures and their impact on educational inequalities; and (iv) provide policy recommendations on how existing policy responses can be improved to reduce educational inequalities.

Using both quantitative and qualitative data, the study shows that educational inequalities increased during the pandemic across vulnerable groups, particularly low-income families, and children in rural areas. The results reveal a distinct pandemic-related learning loss among students. The dip in performance during the pandemic can be attributed to factors such as prolonged school closures, increased student leisure time, compromised nutrition, and lack of guidance from teachers.

Five key recommendations are made to build resilience in the educational sector and restore progress towards achieving SDG 4 (quality education), namely to: (i) upscale the accelerated learning programme; (ii) increase investment in communication and digital infrastructure; (iii) integrate digital learning into teaching; (iv) invest in adult education programmes; and (v) upscale teachers’ skills.

This paper was first published by the Southern Voice. Click here to read more

Tobacco control policy refers to the efforts made to reduce the impact of tobacco use on public health. This can include measures such as increasing taxes on tobacco products, implementing smoke-free laws, running anti-smoking campaigns, and providing support for people who want to quit smoking. In Nigeria, the government played a critical role in the country's tobacco control efforts by ratifying the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which commits the government to take appropriate measures to reduce tobacco use and its associated health effects.

At the federal level, the government enforced tobacco control policies that apply to the entire country. The policies in this regard include higher taxes on tobacco products, Public smoking bans, regulations on tobacco advertising and sponsorship, and mandatory graphic health warnings on tobacco packages. Furthermore, the government allocated resources to support tobacco control programs and campaigns, monitor the impact of tobacco use and the effectiveness of tobacco control policies.

This brief highlights the importance of state involvement in tobacco control efforts. It seeks to provide evidence-based recommendations through the WHO MPOWER framework on how state governments can effectively implement tobacco control policies and programs that will protect their residents from the harmful effects of tobacco use.

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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