Joy Ugwu’s research while affiliated with Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike and other places

Even though the determinants of sustainability reporting have been highly studied, the influence of Board Governance characteristics on sustainability reporting has mainly remained understudied in Africa, especially Nigeria, despite the overwhelming Business opportunities in the country. This study, therefore, investigates the influence of Board Governance on sustainability accounting and reporting, drawing insights from large businesses listed in Nigerian stock exchanges. Using a sample of 167 reports drawn from three sources—annual reports, sustainability reports, and website over the period 2015 to 2020, this study employs content analysis to quantify three layers of sustainability disclosure and fixed effects regression estimation model to predict the influence of Board governance variables on sustainability reporting quality. Our results indicate that Board governance characteristics such as Board capacity, board independence and Board Incentives are significant factors that affect sustainability reporting quality. The results further suggest that although the number of directors on the board is positively associated with the quality of sustainability reporting, CEO duality is insignificant and has a negative association with the quality of sustainability reporting. This study provides evidence that setting up long-term incentive-based compensation affects sustainability reporting positively in developing countries, such as Nigeria.

This study investigated the influence of corporate governance (CG) on the performance of companies. The objectives of this study were to respectively analyze and determine individually and jointly, the influence of board size, board composition, audit committee size and board independence on corporate performance (CP). The study employed exploratory research design. Eight (8) listed firms on Nigerian Stock Exchange were chosen through a purposive sampling technique and data extracted from the annual reports of these firms from 2006 to 2017. A panel data regression was used to analyse the data. Data were also sought from published annual reports and accounts of the sampled. Data generated were analyzed using multiple regressions. Results showed that the corporate governance variables have effect on Solid State Technology Volume: 64 Issue: 2 Publication Year: 2021 8374 financial performance: specifically, there is a positive significant effect of board size on return on asset (ROA) of manufacturing firms in Nigeria. On the other hand, board composition has a negative and non-significant effect on return on asset (ROA), Again, Audit committee independence has positive and significant effect on return on asset of the manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Lastly, BOIND revealed the existence of strong negative correlation with ROA and the financial performance of firms in Nigeria. The implication of the finding is that companies that keep to the dictate of the corporate governance code has chances of improving their corporate financial performance particularly the return on assets while it will appear almost difficult for those companies that do not keep to the corporate governance code. Based on the findings, the study recommends that there should be concerted efforts towards improving the performance by focusing on the corporate governance code in Nigeria. Moreover, relevant authorities must intensify their monitoring potentials to ensure that firms comply with the relevant provisions of Nigeria Corporate Governance codes.

This study examined the relationship between petroleum products prices and consumer products prices between 1996 and 2018 in Nigeria. The relationship between automotive gas oil, premium motor spirit (petrol), dual purpose kerosene (household kerosene) prices and consumer products prices in Nigeria. Research design used in this study was expost-facto design. Secondary data were mainly drawn from National Bureau of statistics' consumer price index and Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin. The findings reveal that prices of automotive gas oil, petroleum motor spirit and dual purpose kerosene have significant and positive relationship with the prices of Clementina Kanu .Ph.D, Gabriel Idume .ACA, Johnson Nwokeiwu, Joy Ugwu, Isaac Monday Ikpor and Promise Edeogu http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/index.asp 250 editor@iaeme.com consumer products in Nigeria. It was inferred that prices of automatic gas oil, petroleum motor spirit and dual purpose kerosene affect the prices of consumer products significantly. The study recommends that government should provide alternative source of energy that will enhance accessibility by the poor, rural dwellers and every sector of the economy. The implication is that the reduction in the cost of petroleum products and the availability of power will boost the business in the economy and improve standard of living.

This study on the impact of reward management on employee’s performance in the Nigerian banking sector, specifically sought to assess the nature of the relationship between reward structure and employee motivation, examine how recognition of excellent performance affects employee’s job satisfaction and investigate the effect of promotion on employee’s commitment. The survey research design was adopted. The population for the study was 6,060 staff from fifteen (15) deposit money banks (DMBs) purposively selected from the five (5) states in South-East Nigeria. The sample size of 546 was obtained using Godden’s statistical formula for calculating sample size from a finite population. Proportional stratified random sampling formula was used to calculate the proportionate sample size for the clusters. The Questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents after being validated by experts from the industry and academia; out of the 546 copies of the questionnaire administered, 524 were returned and used for the analyses while 22 copies were not returned. Data were collected through primary and secondary sources. The hypotheses were tested using spearman correlation, ordinal logistic regression and chi square. After the analysis, the study revealed that there was a positive relationship between reward structure and employee motivation (r= .872, p=.002 < .05); recognition of excellent performance positively affected employees’ job satisfaction (β = 14.292, p= 0.007 < 0.05) and promotion positively affected employee’s commitment χ2 (1) = 124.239, p < .05. Based on the findings, the study recommended that human resource managers in every organization especially DMBs should ensure that they develop reward structures that are able to take care of the diverse motivational needs of their employees. DMBs should ensure that they fairly reward ethical behaviour and excellent performance. DMBs should make available variety of promotional opportunities in order to get their workforce committed to organisational goal.

This study focused on rural women empowerment and their entrepreneurship development. The research adopted the survey research design with a sample of 1410 women drawn randomly from 45 selected rural communities of the 15 senatorial zones in the south-east zone of Nigeria. The major instrument for data collection was a five point likert scale questionnaire titled women empowerment and rural entrepreneurship development questionnaire (WEandREDQ). The statistical tool used for data analysis was the chi-square using the 23.0 versions of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The results as obtained in the hypotheses tested showed an output of 7.560, 0.000, and 0.000 respectively. It was discovered that while providing skill acquisition programmes and business sensitivity training to rural women significantly promotes their entrepreneurship development through enhancing their commitment to take advantage of opportunities and strategic orientations, exposing women to mere earning opportunities does not necessarily help them to develop their entrepreneurial capability. It is the conclusions of this paper that rural woman empowerment leads to their entrepreneurship development. The study therefore recommends that for entrepreneurship abilities to be developed and entrenched among rural women in South-east Nigeria, government and indeed all concerned stakeholders must shift focus towards helping the rural women acquire marketable skills while availing them with trainings that exposes them to business opportunities and management skills

The overwhelming competitive strength of developed and industrialized countries across the globe has constantly challenged the up- and- coming industries in African nations in a cold and stiff competition. This has left these industries perpetually on their marks and unable to take off so as to compete favourably with their competitors in the global market place. The question of how industries in Africa can improve their competitiveness and hence industrialize the continent has been widely discussed by scholars in the recent past and yet this issue has not been adequately addressed. This paper on value chain management and industrialization in Africa is a qualitative study that addresses the issue of African industrialization with special reference to value chain management. Specifically, this paper reviews how industries in Africa can thrive amidst stiff global competition and the role of value chain management in industrializing the African continent. Through deductive reasoning, the study reviews the role of value chain management in the industrialization of Africa. In conclusion, this paper shed more light on how industries in Africa can leave their marks, take off and compete favourably amidst stiff competition with value chain management pointing out that one of the ways to make African industrialization a reality is to manage the industrial value chain effectively. This study recommends that government and private organizations should help by investing in research and development to help shed more light on innovative ways to improve on value chain management.