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The Chinese Model Of Infrastructure Development In Africa

Infrastructural development is a key step in providing a competitive business environment for African economies. It provides the backbone for poverty reduction strategies and programmes designed to improve the livelihood of the poor. Africa is in dire need of infrastructural development. The absence of quality infrastructure in the continent holds back per capita economic growth by 2 percentage points each year and depresses firm productivity by as much as 40 percent (Escribano et al., 2008 and Kelly, 2012). Estimates suggest that around USD 90 billion is required to close Africas infrastructure gap annually until 2020 (AICD, 2010).
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Economic Growth And Job Creation (2012 Q3 To 2013 Q4)

This report examines the pattern of economic growth and employment generation in Nigeria based on quarterly data. It also analyzes the quality of job creation, dynamics of output and employment and establishes the link or absence thereof between economic growth and labor demand.
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Increasing Female School Enrollment In Nigeria: Some Policy Options

This brief examines two policy alternatives which government can adopt in order to increase the enrollment of girls in the primary school and also help eliminate gender disparity in Nigerian schools: Provide free primary education with Stipends or provide free primary education with Transportation.
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Increasing Measles Immunization Coverage In Borno State Nigeria: Some Policy Options

This brief examines two measles immunization programs for children of age 9-23 months in an effort to boost measles immunization coverage in Borno State: free immunization against measles with media awareness campaign and free immunization against measles with house to house campaign.
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Green Economy in Africa: Concerns and Way Forward

The green economy agenda promoted as part of the Rio+20 policy framework is indeed important to Africa for many reasons. With favorable national policies and institutions in place, the opportunities offered by a global green economy can enhance economic growth and contribute significantly to national environmental and development objectives. In fact, green economy may be a panacea to the major development challenges presently facing the continent in areas of climate change and poverty as there is a consensus that climate change represents the greatest threat to national and international efforts towards poverty reduction in Africa. Further benefits of green economy includes; provision of pathway to sustainable economic growth and employment creation, expansion of volume and value of exports from agriculture sector, and diversification of the African economies away from natural resources, among others. However, the extent to which African countries can successful transit to a green economy will depend on their level of human and capital investment, access to technologies, and institutional capacities.

The transition to a green economy is not hitch-free as it involves certain risks and costs that always accompany such paradigm shift. For instance, green economy will require outright changes in the production processes in developing economies away from the use of non-renewable and environmentally unfriendly resources to more sustainable ones, say replacing fossil fuel with renewable energy in power generation. Unfortunately, these economies have comparative disadvantages in terms of technical and human capital in the sectors that promote sustainable development. There are also other concerns on the likely tradeoff between national development plan and industrialization programs and the tenets of green economy, the effects on the tense North-South trade and the policies, global inequality and several other issues.


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