UMYU Journal of Accounting and Finance Research

Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Financial Inclusion on Poverty Reduction in Katsina State, Nigeria

Abdulsalam Abubakar (PhD) — 2022-12-30

Financial inclusion holds the potential to reduce poverty by raising the levels of income and human capital. This study verifies this postulation in Katsina state by adopting quantitative research strategy and cross-sectional research design. Primary data was collected through field survey and using questionnaire in four local government areas of Katsina state, namely Batagarawa, Batsari, Katsina and Kaita. In all 480 questionnaires were distributed, but 388 were eventually used in the analysis. Results from the regression analysis show that access to and usage of financial services reduces poverty by improving people’s level of income. Against the backdrop of these conclusions, the study recommends that financial institutions in Katsina state in particular and Nigeria in general should diversify their financial services. Beyond deposit and withdrawal services they should introduce specific credit facilities, reduce the time taken to complete transactions and resolve customer complaints and reduce the cost of financial services being provided. More so, the Central Bank of Nigeria and other financial sector regulatory agencies should enhance the monitoring and surveillance of financial institutions to ensure efficiency in services delivery and that the rights of customers are protected. In addition, they should also strengthen and make the regulatory frameworks adaptable to the needs of various segments of the population and rollout more financial inclusion strategies.

Cryptocurrencies from Islamic Perspectives: A Systematic Literature Review

Baffa, I. Jibrin — 2022-12-30

This paper takes into view the conditions that render an investment or transaction forbidden in Islam and relates them to cryptocurrencies through a literature research methodology. Furthermore, elements that exist in the cryptocurrency ecosystem such as tokens, initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrency derivatives are assessed to check as to whether they are compatible with Islam. The difference between Bitcoin and its alternatives is also recognized by analyzing their underlying technology and how they could be a major tool in defining whether or not a cryptocurrency falls in the Islamic permissibility criteria. It concludes that although the technology of cryptocurrencies in itself is permissible; different aspects contribute in deciding whether the specific digital currency in question is permissible or forbidden. Future research is needed on a couple of key issues related to Proof of Stake protocol which has been discussed.

Scourge of Rural Banditry and Food Security in Nigeria’s North-West: The Economic Implications

Dr.Olusegun Kazeem Lekan — 2022-12-30

A considerable amount of research attentions on rural banditry-food security nexus have heavily underlined that rural banditry is a major threat to food security. Despite prior evidence and contributions, scourge of rural banditry is still very much pervasive particularly in the Nigeria’s north-west region. Plethora of studies lack economic implications and distinct recommendations capable of producing sustainable solutions to the scourge of banditry and food crisis in Nigeria. Consequently, the current study provides an anecdotal analysis of rural banditry-food security effect with a view to offer economic implications and clear-cut recommendations capable of generating lasting and sustainable solutions to forestall scourge of banditry and food crisis in Nigeria’s north-west region. Relying on exegesis of relevant secondary sources, the paper posits that rural banditry disrupts agricultural activities, creates food crisis and distorts economic activities of the rural dwellers in the study area. Therefore, this study recommends that government at all levels should declare war against bandits. The security forces together with the collaboration of vigilantes must confront the bandits, continuously hit hard their hideout, and crush them with their sponsors recklessly. Besides, death penalty should be meted out on any perpetrators and accomplices of banditry found guilty regardless of their economic and socio-political status while payment of kidnap ransom should be discouraged, and possibly criminalized, so as to discourage quest kidnapping. Above all, governments should pursue national food policy which seeks to assure all citizens access to food supply that is reasonably priced, relatively safe, adequate in quantity, and nutritious to meet dietary needs for an active and healthy life. When this is achieved, scourge of rural banditry and food crisis will become extinct in Nigeria’s north-west.

Tax Administration in Nigeria’s Local Government: Constraint of Internally Generated Revenue

Zakariya’u Gurama — 2022-12-30

The objective of this Paper is to determine the constraint confronting local government’s tax administration and internally generated revenue empirically. The scope of the study is Gombe State Nigeria. The study is quantitative study that employed survey questionnaire. Three Local governments of Gombe State which are: Gombe, Yamaltu Deba, and Billiri were randomly selected to represent LGs in the State. 150 questionnaires were self-administered to the respondents and 123 were duly completed and used for data analyses. Data was analyzed using SPSS. The findings of the Paper show that income level and tax avoidance are positively but not significant with ineffective tax administration. However, tax fairness, tax evasion, tax knowledge and corruption, are positively significant with ineffective tax administration. This signifies thatto enhance internally generated revenues in LGs there is aneed to restructuring the LGs tax administration in an attempt to restore taxpayer’s confidence in the LGs. The Paper therefore, recommend that there is a need for establishing new strategies and incentive that will create more enlightens among taxpayers to comply with tax payment voluntarily.

A Review of Patient Satisfaction with Queue Management During Covid-19 Pandemic. Empirical Evidence from Federal Medical Centre Gusau.

Shamsuddeen Suleiman(PhD) — 2022-12-30

The purpose of this study was to determine how well Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Gusau manage queue during COVID-19 pandemic in relation to patient satisfaction. The study used primary data through questionnaire where a sample of 270 registered patients in this hospital were randomly selected and provided with the questionnaires to answer questions but only 268copies of questionnaires were retrieved. The research was conducted between September, 2020 and October, 2020. Queue management was studied using waiting time for service, the waiting environment conditions and service quality in relation to customer satisfaction. Regression analysis was employed in analysing data for the study. The findings indicated that a significant percentage of the patients were dissatisfied with the way queues were managed at Federal Medical Centre Gusau. The results from the regression analysis shows that all the three dimensions of service quality have significant effect with the patient’s satisfaction. While service quality, and waiting environment were positively correlated overall satisfaction patients towards service provided at the hospital, but the waiting time had negative effect on the patients’ satisfaction.

Causal Nexus between Government Expenditure and Economic Growth in the Presence of Structural Breaks in Nigeira: A Bootstrap ARDL Approach

Hussaini Aliyu Jibril — 2022-12-30

Researchers all over the world have not agreed on the causal relationship between economic growth and government expenditure. Hence, this work re-examined the nexus between government expenditure and economic growth in the presence of structural breaks for Nigerian economy. It used time series annual data from 1981 to 2020 and the Bootstrap Autoregressive distributed lag model. The results show that economic growth has strong and positive impact on government expenditure in both short run and long run in Nigeria. The results also indicate uni-direction causality which runs from economic growth to government expenditure. This finding supports the Wagner’s law which posits that economic growth leads while expenditure follows. These results suggest that economic growth is the main driver of government expenditure both in the short run and long run in Nigeria. Consequently, government activities should be directed toward stimulating economic growth rather than increasing unproductive government expenditure.

Impact of Investments on the Performance of Manufacturing Sector in Nigerian Economy: An Empirical Analysis.

Sani Alfred Ilemona — 2022-12-30

The study examined the impact of investments on the performance of the manufacturing sector of the Nigerian economy from 1998 – 2021. Data for the study were obtained from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) annual reports and accounts and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) publications on Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) being the dependent variable, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Domestic Investment (DI) as the independent variables of the study. The analysis of the data was done using Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test, Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), Multiple regression and t-statistics techniques. The results of ADF revealed that the variables were non-stationary at different orders of Integration. Further, the ARDL result in a long-term relationship as the F statistics value of 11.43128 is greater than the lower and upper critical bounds values at 10 percent, 2.5 percent, and 1 percent levels of significance. The calculated t-statistics value of 2.550164 and 2.065759 for FDI and DI respectively are greater than the table value of t-statistics at 1.96 at a 5 percent level of significance and therefore all the null hypotheses of the study are rejected. The regression result showed that 42 percent variation in MVA is explained by the combined effect of FDI and DI implying a significant impact of the variables on MVA. The study recommended among others that government should encourage investment in the manufacturing sector of the Nigerian economy through the creation of an enabling environment in terms of adequate provision of electricity, water and tackling the issue of insecurity in Nigerian society. Enabling environment triggers confidence of investors in survival and growth of enterprises in the country.

Effect of Corporate Sustainability Disclosure on Financial Performance of Oil and Gas Firms in Nigeria.

Sherifdeen Olatunji (MSc. ACA) AMINU — 2022-12-30

The paper examined the effect of sustainability disclosure on financial performance of selected listed oil and gas firms in Nigeria. The population of the study comprises all the 12 listed oil and gas firms in Nigeria. The study used secondary data obtained from annual report of only ten (10) oil and gas publicly traded firms on the Nigerian stock Exchange covering a period of 5 years ranging from 2016 -2020. The research design that was adopted in this study was ex-post research design. The panel regression estimation technique was employed to investigate to what extent financial performance is affected by sustainability disclosure of the selected firms. Findings of this study revealed that environmental sustainability disclosure has statistically significant positive effect (P-value of 0.0227) on financial performance at 5% level of significant). Furthermore, economic sustainability disclosure and social sustainability disclosure has statistically insignificant effect on financial performance of selected listed firms in Nigeria. The study concluded that environmental sustainability disclosure has impacted positively on financial performance of companies investigated. However, economic social sustainability disclosure has no significant effect financial performance of selected listed oil and gas firms in Nigeria. Similarly, economic sustainability disclosure has statistically insignificant effect on financial performance of selected listed firms in Nigeria. Hence, the study recommends that, the management of oil and gas companies should improve on the environmental sustainability disclosure practices as it significantly affects their financial performance positively. Furthermore, the oil and gas firms in Nigeria should disclosure only material information regarding economic and social sustainability performance.

Policy Instruments, Administrative Expenses and Environmental Sustainability Accounting: An Analysis of BUA Cement Sokoto

Bala Sani ABDULARAHAMAN — 2022-12-30

Environmental policy instruments are measures put in place by the government to public or private organizations regarding the effects of human activities on the environment, particularly those measures that are designed to prevent or reduce harmful effects of human activities on ecosystems. This paper empirically examined the interaction effect of environmental policy instruments and administrative expenses on environmental sustainability accounting in BUA Cement Sokoto Plant. The paper used secondary sources of data from annual reports of BUA Cement Sokoto Plant, covering a period of 10 years (2012 to 2021). Auto regressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) Model was employed as the techniques of analysis using Eviews. The findings of the paper revealed that environmental regulation has negative and insignificant effect on environmental sustainability accounting in both the long run and short run with p-values of (0.1806 and 0.9541) respectively at 10% level of significance. A Decreased use of regulations effect the regulatory compliance on environmental sustainability accounting. The paper contributes to the literature on environmental regulations on environmental accounting. The study therefore recommends that environmental regulation should appropriately enforce in order to make polluters pay environmental damaged they might have caused.

Sustainability Reporting and Firm Financial Performance in Nigeria: A Review of Variables

M.Y. Abubakar — 2022-12-30

The study reviewed the Firm Financial performance measurement variables of empirical studies conducted on Sustainability Reporting and Firm Performance in Nigeria using a content analysis approach with the view to understand the inconclusiveness and mixed findings by the studies. The study reveals that the mixed finding is as a result of neglecting key performance ratios like Price-Earnings Ratio, Return on Sales, Expense to Assets, Cash to Assets, Sales to Assets, Expenses to Sale, Abnormal returns; annual stock return, Operating Cash Flow, Labor productivity, Critical business Return on Asset, Cost of Capital, Market Value Added, Operation Profit, Return on Investment, Market-to-book value, Log of market capitalization, Growth in Sales, Stock Repurchases, Sales Per Employee, Return on revenue, Output per staff, Cost Per Service Provided, and Cost per Client Served, Cumulative Abnormal returns, Profit Per Employee and Return on Fixed Asset. Model misspecification by combining two different variables, and ignoring other firm performances measurement variables and lack of focusing on ratios that best explain performances in a given sector like Reserve to Production Ratio, Reserve Replacement Ratio and Finding Cost per Barrel of Oil in the oil and gas sector and Return on Deposit in the banking sector. The study recommends that similar studies should be conducted using the measure of performance proxies that are ignored.