Journal of Economics, Management and Trade

This paper investigates the effect of foreign capital on poverty reduction. For our analysis, we used recent panel data for ten West African countries* for the period 2000 - 2014. Results of the empirical test of the simultaneous equation model indicate that foreign capital affects poverty through growth and inequality. The total effect on poverty reduction is negative when the inequality effect outweighs the growth effect. Thus, foreign capital inflows promotion policies should necessary account for receiving countries socioeconomics mutations.

University students are not graduating with relevant skills in preparation for the labour market. The Federal Government of Nigeria in recognition of this, introduced entrepreneurship centres in universities. However, it is not just the students who need to be encouraged to have entrepreneurial mindset but the teachers as well. The objective of the study was to assess the readiness of teachers in the development of students’ cognitive skills to foster entrepreneurial mindset. The study area was in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. All the 22 lecturers in the entrepreneurship centre were purposively selected while Multi-stage sampling procedure was used in sample selection of students. Out of 10 colleges in the University, 5 were randomly selected, followed by random selection of 50 final-year students, giving 250 respondents. Data collected with questionnaire and focus group discussion were analysed using descriptive statistics like frequencies, percentages and regression model. Findings indicated students were exposed to different skills; bead-making (8.4%), poultry production (9.2%), hairdressing (12%) confectionaries (26.4%) and tailoring (3.2%). On level of knowledge skills exposed to them, about 38% of the respondents had high knowledge while 62% had low knowledge. The findings revealed about 82% of the course lecturers lacked adequate training to help them teach effectively, while 18% had acquired the skill through self-sponsored training and conferences. Therefore, the paper concludes that the students were ill equipped to succeed in work places and teachers were not properly trained to meet the challenges. The paper recommends government should train teachers to make employability skills the top priority, to enable graduates make a success of their working life.

Aims: This paper examined the impact of unemployment on economic growth in Tanzania and causal relationship between unemployment and economic growth in Tanzania.

Methodology: The study utilized co-integration and Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) Approach to test the relationship between unemployment and economic growth and granger causality test to examine the causal relationship between variable.

Results: The unit root tests showed that the all variables were integrated after taking first difference, the Johansen co-integration result showed that the variables were co-integrated. The DOLS estimate showed that unemployment rate has positive impact on economic growth in Tanzania but insignificant influence over the study period. In addition, granger causality test revealed that, there is a unidirectional causal relationship between unemployment and economic growth with direction from economic growth to unemployment.

Conclusion: We suggest that there is the need for government to take urgent steps against the rising unemployment rate, because unemployment is a major impediment to social progress and results in waste of trained manpower.

The relationship between interest rate and investment has been a largely discussed and controvertible one across different economic climes. It is in the light of this that this work was set out to investigate the influence of interest rate on outstanding money market instruments in Nigeria.   The study adopted the quasi-experimental and analytical method using secondary data drawn from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin covering the period 1981 to 2014. Basic Descriptive Statistics were used to expose the data characteristics while linear association was tested using the bivariate correlation Matrices. Basically, the Ordinary Least Squares form of regression was adopted as the principal estimation method. It was found out that interest rate positively and significantly impact on the investment in both public Money Market instrument (Treasury bill) and corporate money market instrument (Commercial Papers) in Nigeria. On the basis of the above, it is expected by way of policy implication, that the government should dutifully manage the interest rate regimes to allow for a purposeful driving of the money market to the advantage of the economy and market players alike.

Effective credit risk management is very important to the health of banks because it has the possibility of either ruining or ensuring the sustenance and growth of the bank. This study assessed the impact of credit risk management on the profitability of 6 selected commercial banks listed on the Ghana stock exchange. Secondary data was gathered from the annual reports of the six selected banks and Ghana banking survey for the years under consideration. The study adopted the Random Effect Model within the panel estimation technique framework. The study used return on equity (ROE) to measure profitability of bank, non-performing loans, loan loss provisions ratio, loan to asset ratio and capital adequacy ratio as credit risk. The findings showed that indeed credit risk management have significant relationship with the profitability of banks. While capital adequacy ratio had positive relationship with a bank’s profitability; non-performing loans, loan loss provisions ratio and loan to asset ratio shows statistically significant negative relationship with the profitability of a bank. The study recommends that banks should assess and manage credit risk indicators vigorously in order reduce their exposure to these risks.