The study investigated the effect of fiscal policy on crowding out capital inflows in Nigeria using annual data between 1970 and 2011 by using the foreign direct investment (FDI) as proxy to capital inflows represent the dependent variable, budget deficit (BD), foreign borrowing (FL) and domestic borrowing (DL) as proxies to fiscal policy are placed as explanatory variables. Cointegration and ECM technique were employed. Our finding showed that in both the short and long run, BD does not crowd out but rather crowd in FDI. In the short run, DL averagely has significant positive impact on FDI.  However, in the long run, DL has significant negative impact on FDI. More so, in both short run and long run period, FL has significant negative impact on FDI, therefore, FL crowds out FDI. The speed of adjustment back to equilibrium showed that the explanatory variables have capacity to adjust FDI significantly. The study recommends that the government could try to be aware of the implication of its fiscal policy in running a budget deficit and making proper decision in sourcing for funds to finance the deficit. Foreign borrowing is less expensive in financing budget deficit, so if the government must borrow, it should give preference to this source. Generally, the government should reduce deficit because of the implications inherent in it.

Covid-19 pandemic woes have caught across almost every international activity in the world today, which makes many economies to be in a cross-road whether the COVID-19 pandemic is the cause of these woes or not. In this regard, this study investigated the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on international liquidity in Nigeria. COVID-19 pandemic was proxied by COVID-19 new cases and new deaths of the pandemic in Nigeria and a dummy which represented the period of the pandemic, and as such, stood in as the explanatory variables in the study, while international liquidity was put as the dependent variable. Daily data sets were sourced from National Centre for Disease Control in Nigeria and the Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin between February and October 2020, employing Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique. Findings of the study revealed that, in the short run, the COVID-19 pandemic period had a significant impact on Nigeria's international liquidity. However, the COVID-19 new cases and new deaths could not have any significant impact on the international liquidity. Moreover, none of the COVID-19 pandemic variables could have any long-run impact on the international liquidity in Nigeria. The study, therefore, suggests that Nigerians should know that the depletion of its foreign reserve is not due to policy deficiency but to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, the government should try to improve quality exports that will be demanded by foreign countries irrespective of any pandemic.

Research background: Interest rate as a stimulus to savings has been discussed by many scholars while ancient scholars kicked against the collection of usury (interest). Developing countries like Nigeria may not be stimulated with the rate of interest because of its insignificant level, which is presently causing financial exclusion against the opponents of interest. Purpose: This study examines whether interest rate really stimulates savings in Nigeria. Research methodology: The study covers the post-liberalization period between 1987 and 2021. The research employs the Vector Autoregressive/Error Correction techniques to analyze the data and make statistical inferences. Results: The results of the show that interest rate (deposit rate) has a positively non-significant effect on savings in Nigeria. On the contrary, the Treasury bill rate, Insecurity and Inflation rate have a significant impact on savings in Nigeria. Novelty: No existing study has been made to investigate if the interest rate (deposit rate) has the ability to stimulate domestic savings in the Nigerian economy. None has included the Insecurity index and none has used the vector autoregressive error correction tools to analyze this inquiry so “Does Interest Rate Really Stimulate Savings in Nigeria?

Research background: Health outcome such as infant mortality rate is an important measure of the standard of living. It is a part of Millennium Development Goals, which all countries of the World strive to achieve, by allocating enormous economic resources to the health sector respectively. Purpose: The study assessed the impact of government expenditure on health and on health outcome (infant mortality rate) in the West Africa Sub-region. Research methodology: Secondary data were collected from 2000 to 2015 on thirteen countries in the Sub-region. Owing to the fact that the nature of the data involved is macro-panel data, the study performed the pre-estimation test (such as panel unit-root test and co-integration test) to ascertain the time series properties of the series. Based on the results of the pre-estimation tests, the work employed the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS). Results: It is found in the study that public health spending has an indirect impact on infant mortality rate in the West Africa Sub-region. Novelty: No extant study examined the impact of public expenditure on health and on maternal mortality rate using the West Africa Sub-region as an area of coverage. This study employed a fully modified OLS (FMOLS) to assess the impact of public expenditure on health and on infant mortality rate in the West Africa Sub-region.

Background:The health care workers (HCWs) hitherto are considered to be one of the vulnerable groups when compared to the general population due to the nature of their day-to-day workplace activities. However, in spite of the high seroprevalence level nationally, the level of awareness and knowledge about viral hepatitis amongst the general populace including the public health workers is non -uniform. Aims and Objective: To determine the knowledge, awareness and prevalence of viral hepatitis as well as to raise awareness among HCWs. Study design: cross sectional survey. Setting: Federal Medical Centre, Bida Niger State, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A structured questionnaire was administered to Two Hundred and forty eight HCWs of the Federal Medical Centre, Bida. Blood samples were collected from individual participants and screened for Hepatitis B surface Antigen (HBsAg), Antibody to Hepatitis C Virus and Antibody to Hepatitis B core antigen using rapid ELIZA technique. Statistics: Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 20 software to obtain descriptive statistics for all participants with respect to demographic distribution, prevalence rate for HBV and HCV. Chi-square test was used to obtain relations between various categorical data. The statistical significance of the data was based on a p-value of ≤ 0.05 at the Yates' continuity correction line. Results: Of the two hundred and forty eight participants, 41.1% were males and 58.9% were females, M: F 1:1.4. The mean age was 33.7 (SD 6.9) years (range 20 -54yrs). Occupational distribution was based on four main categories of health care workers; Doctors, Nurses, Allied health workers (AHWs) and Admin Staffs with frequency of 23(9.3%), 52(21.0%), 100(40.3%) and 73(29.4%) respectively. With regards to the educational level of the participants, 20(8.1%) were in the category of lower level education, 58 (23.4%) had middle level of education and 170(68.5%) were highly educated. The overall seroprevalence of hepatitis among the health care workers (HCWs) were as follows: HBsAg (11.3%), HCV (2.4%) and HBcore antibody (46.0%). Overall Awareness of the various types of hepatitis was 70.6% with a marked trend over educational levels. Conclusion: This study provided prevalence data, relevant information on the magnitude of disease burden and the significance of education on awareness of hepatitis B and C in this settings. There is paucity of awareness and knowledge among certain category of HCWs. Therefore concern Authorities should provide more HBV / HCV interventional information impact measures to raise awareness and knowledge among this group. Policies and guidelines of critical preventive protocol to ensure safety in a workplace environment including pre and post-exposure vaccination intervention for HBV to the staff should be in place.