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The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the development of cattle value chain can influence employment creation and income of both cattle farmers and merchants. The study focusses on cattle farmers in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States where there are the largest cattle farms and live cattle merchants in Southern Nigeria.

It employs a research approach that uses key informant interviews and structured questionnaire in garnering needed information from cattle farms, abattoirs and merchant.

The results suggest that with some minimal supports, employment creation and income generation can be improved.

None of the reviewed empirical studies is specific to the cattle value chain in South Western Nigeria. Among other values, the study identifies employment and income opportunities in corporate and non-corporate farms in the cattle value chain in South Western Nigeria.

This study aims to investigate how ICT adoption enhances the innovativeness of informal firms in West Africa, using the cases of Ghana and Nigeria.

The study used the World Bank Enterprise Survey data 2014 for Ghana and Nigeria with binary logistic regression analysis to achieve this. Four different innovations are modelled. They include: first, whether a firm has innovated based on producing a new product or significantly improved product; second, whether a firm has innovated in its methods of production or services; third, whether a firm has innovated in terms of its organisational structure; and fourth, whether a firm has introduced a new and improved marketing method.

The results show that the use of email, cellphone and website has a positive impact on the four types of innovations modelled. However, these effects varied markedly between Ghana and Nigeria. Firms’ spending on research and development (R&D), firm giving its employees the chance to develop their ideas and when firm competes with others; all positively impact the four types of innovations. Thus, the study recommends that policies should be geared towards making firms have more access to ICTs to enable them to be more innovative to serve clients and the economy.

This study differs by concentrating on how the adoption of ICTs could help firms to introduce innovations into their companies in two West African countries, namely, Ghana and Nigeria. Thus, it complements literature on informal firms’ innovation efforts in West Africa.

Interaction between environmental pollution and economic growth determines the achievement of the green growth objective of developing economies. An economy turns around the inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) when pollution is effectively dampened by social, political and economic factors as such economy grows. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the EKC considering the impact of institutional quality on six variables of environmental pollution (carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), suspended particulate matters (SPM), rainfall, temperature and total greenhouse emission (TGH)) using the case of Nigeria.

The EKC model includes population density, education expenditure, foreign direct investment and gross domestic investment as control variables, and it was analysed using the autoregressive distribution lag (ARDL) econometric technique, which has not been applied in the literature on Nigeria.

The results, inter alia, indicate that there is EKC for CO₂ and SPM. This implies that the green growth objective can be pursued in Nigeria with concerted efforts. Other environmental pollution indicators did not exert significant influence on economic growth.

Therefore, it is recommended that Nigeria’s institutional quality be strengthened to limit environmental pollution in light of economic growth.

Previous studies are yet to apply a more developed econometric method, like the ARDL, to estimate the EKC model for Nigeria. This study fills this observed knowledge gap.

The study aims to analyse the role of finance in the agro-industrialisation nexus in Nigeria using annual data on manufacturing value added, agricultural value added and volume of finance availed to the agricultural sector from 1981 to 2015.

To establish the presence of a long-run relationship, the error correction model and bounds cointegration techniques are employed. Likewise, the model is augmented to test whether the associated relationship between industrial output and agricultural output depends on access to finance by farmers with the inclusion of an interaction term.

Some salient contributions to the literature are as follows: agriculture and finance are strong and positive predictors of industrialisation in the long run; in the short run, past realisations of industrial output and finance have significant asymmetric effects on industrial output; the explanatory power of agriculture decreases with the growth of the financial system; and the long-run results validate the role of finance in the agro-industrialisation nexus.

Given these findings, achieving growth in the agricultural sector that will induce desired industrialisation should be prioritised by the government through agencies such as the central bank, financial intermediaries and other stakeholders with a view to making agricultural financing a major concern for sustainable domestic consumption and industrial growth.

This paper aims to analyse the extent to which households are deprived (or otherwise) of clean energy sources in Ghana.

It engages the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey data. Three different energy deprivation indicators were estimated: cooking fuel deprivation, lighting deprivation and indoor air pollution. The empirical evidence is based on logit regressions that explain whether households are deprived or not.

The results show that energy deprivation or access is contingent on the area of residence. Energy access and deprivation in Ghana show some regional disparities, even though across every region, the majority of households use three fuel types: liquefied petroleum gas, charcoal and wood cut. Increases in wealth and education lead to reduction in the likelihood of being energy deprived. Thus, efforts should be geared towards policies that will ensure households having access to clean fuels to reduce the attendant deprivations and corresponding effects of using dangerous or dirty fuels.

This study complements the extant literature by analysing the extent to which households are deprived (or otherwise) of clean energy sources in Ghana.

Following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, including the evolving health safety regulations, opening and closing of businesses, shortage of healthcare workers, especially nurses, restrictions on international travels, and the associated elimination of tourism services, it has been an unprecedented period for companies, communities and governments. These research chapters discuss socioeconomic shocks and development from Africa's experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. This book has presented national and regional issues that cut across selected United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), with a specific focus on public health systems, food security, peace or conflicts resolutions, gender diversity, state effectiveness, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), poverty alleviation, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade and its facilitation, environmental sustainability, green recovery plan and financial inclusion. Based on these coronavirus pandemic related development challenges as contained in this book, the purpose of this conclusion chapter is three-folds: (1) wrap up this edited book project; (2) suggest relevant preparedness strategies for Africa if similar pandemic occurs in the future; (3) propose emerging areas of future research.

The economic importance of palm oil produced by its producers in food requirement, income generation, production and consumption has led to a significant increase in its demand over the years. Thus, this chapter evaluates the effects of palm oil price fluctuations on the welfare of palm oil producers in Nigeria based on annual time series data (1980–2018). In achieving its objectives, the study employs Autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL). The result establishes the presence of a long-run relationship in the welfare of palm oil producers. The long-run estimates show that palm oil prices had a positive but insignificant relationship with the welfare of palm oil producers. In the short-run estimates, palm oil price and the exchange rate had adverse and significant effects on the welfare of palm oil producers, while the inflation rate positively and significantly influenced welfare. Therefore, the welfare programme should adopt policies that will stabilise the palm oil price and other foodstuffs to increase the standard of living of palm oil producers and raise their literacy levels.