One of the contending issues in Nigeria in the recent time is external debt and exchange rate fluctuations. In view of the above, this study examined the relationship between external debt and exchange rate fluctuations in Nigeria over the period of 1981 to 2018. Consequently, the study employed Autoregressive Distribution Lag Model to address the objective of the study. The major findings that originated in this paper are as follows: external debt, debt service payment and foreign reserve have a significant positive impact on exchange rate fluctuations in the short run in Nigeria. Furthermore, based on these findings, recommendations are made for the policy makers that external debt as a means of financing budget deficit should be minimized if not totally discouraged in Nigeria because its servicing in particular and repayment put pressure on foreign exchange market in the short run and thereby leads to exchange rate fluctuations in terms of depreciation of naira in the country. Also, country’s foreign reserve should be strengthened through the implementation of aggressive export promotion policy in Nigeria.

In this study, we find savings deposits have contributed significantly to the effectiveness of regulation induced consolidation within the banking sector in so far as improvements in banking system structure, output, profitability and competitiveness are concerned. Specifically, we find savings deposits are key parameters in the transition from a banking structure within which profitability is primarily determined by liquidity during the pre-consolidation period (2007–2008) to a banking structure within which profitability is primarily a function of loan portfolio growth (output) during the post-consolidation period (2010–2012). In spite of the increase in importance of savings deposits for banking system competition, output, or profitability during the post-consolidation period, savings deposit rates have decreased by about 50% between the pre- and post-consolidation periods. Interest rates on savings deposits also do not lie on the efficiency frontier for loan production. Combined, our findings indicate the benefits of consolidation that accrue from savings deposits have yet to translate into social welfare benefits for banks' retail customers.

This study has provided an empirical answer to the question whether globalization promotes human development in emerging economies using the case study of BRICS countries. The study subjected the annual data between 1990 and 2019 extracted from the World Bank and UNCTAD databases to econometric analysis. It is important to stress that, in the light of the empirical analyses, the study establishes the following findings; the existence of a co-integrating linkage between globalisation and human development was confirmed in BRICS countries. In the same vein, globalization components-FDI inflows as percentage of GDP and trade openness had a positive and significant relationship with human development in BRICS countries. Moreover, both capital formation and internet users had positive and significant relationship with human development. This is strong evidence that that globalization promotes human development in BRICS countries in the long run. As a result of this finding, this study makes the following recommendations for the policymakers in BRICS countries, and by extension other emerging economies that since the economic components of globalization promote human development in these countries, any time the goal of the policymakers is the achievement of human development in the long run, promotion of policies that would facilitate FDI inflows and trade surpluses simultaneously should be of the priorities by these policymakers.

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