To "end poverty in all its forms everywhere" and "reduce inequality within and among countries", this study aligns with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 10. It uniquely contributes to the growth-poverty-inequality discourse by using per capita consumption expenditure growth (poverty), Gini index (inequality) and GDP growth (economic growth). It is a comparative analysis of 58 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Latin American (LAC) countries (from 2000 to 2015) to determine whether economic growth reduces the incidence of poverty and if its interaction with income inequality enhances or alters its impact on poverty. Consistent findings from a multianalytical approach using pooled ordinary least squares, fixed effects and system GMM reveal that: (1) economic growth exhibit poverty-reduction properties; (2) the growth rate of inequality intensifies poverty, (3) inequality aggravates the impact of growth on poverty, and (4) the growth-poverty-inequality trilemma differs across income groups and regional samples. Furthermore, this study submits that the interaction of income inequality dampens the positive impact of economic growth on the incidence of poverty and supports the argument that the extent of inequality lessens the effect of inclusiveness. Hence, income inequality is a crucial determinant of poverty. Policy implications are discussed.

The study examines the relationship between electricity consumption and economic development using an extended neoclassical model for the period 1970-2013. The study incorporates the uniqueness of the Nigerian economy by controlling for the role of institutions, technology, emissions, and economic structure in the electricity consumption-development argument. The study adopted a cointegration analysis based on the Johansen and Juselius (1981) maximum Likelihood approach and a vector error correction model. In order to ensure robustness, the study adopted the wald block endogeneity causality test to ascertain the direction of causal relationship between electricity consumption and economic development. The study found an existence of long-run cointegration equation with electricity consumption inversely related to economic development. Likewise, the vector error correction model failed to reject the null hypothesis of non-convergence in the long-run. Finally, the study found evidence supporting unidirectional causal relationship running from economic development to electricity consumption.

Agricultural research programmes driven by agricultural innovation system concepts usually aim to change the way in which low income rural agrarian households in a nation like Nigeria communicate with the market and the decisionmaking strategies pertaining to development of their agri-business and the scarce resources which are at their disposal. We assess the extent to which the use of these innovative agricultural research interventions impact upon the livelihood and productivity outcomes of rural smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan African using a case study of Nigeria. Using propensity score matching as a means of establishing a valid counterfactual and single differencing to measure impact, the study establishes that rural incomes and output are significantly impacted by agricultural research interventions that are driven by agricultural innovation systems concepts. The study finds that participating households had better livelihood, productivity and more diversified income portfolios during the implementation of innovative research intervention as a result of greater linkages to markets and capacity building opportunities; phasing out of the research programme reduced the diversity of income portfolios and led to the erosion of livelihoods. Therefore, agricultural innovation system concepts should be mainstreamed in all public agricultural extension and research programmes.

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PurposeOne of the challenging factors in achieving sustainable growth is the inability of the Nigerian government to diversify the country's revenue base. This study aims to investigate the relationship between cash crop financing and agricultural performance in Nigeria.Design/methodologyFour crops were considered, namely, cotton, cocoa, groundnut and palm oil. The impact of cash crop finance shock on agricultural performance was investigated using the vector error correction model (VECM), while the long-run relationship was examined through the identification of long-run restrictions on the VECM.FindingsThe variance decomposition showed that financing shock is more sensitive to cause variation in aggregate employment than aggregate agricultural output in palm oil, while for cocoa, cotton and groundnut showed otherwise. The long-run structural equations exert a positive relationship between cash crop financing and agricultural performance, except for oil palm and cocoa financing that has a negative connection with agrarian employment.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to the unavailability of data for agriculture sector capital utilisation, which was not used.Practical implicationsThese results show that long-run benefit can be maximised by appropriate funding in cotton and groundnut production to promote sustainable growth.Originality/valueThe study examines the impact of cash crop financing on agricultural performance with the aim to promote sustainable growth in Nigeria using identified VECM.