Developed nations continue to invest heavily in the development and training of their human resources. Huge budgetary allocations show it to education and health, yet Nigeria’s human capital development policy has only been effective on paper. This study examined the impact of human capital development on the macroeconomic performance of Nigeria. Using the autoregressive distributed lagged (ARDL) model, this study shows an insignificant negative relationship between human capital development and per capita GDP in the short run. The results also showed that only the tertiary enrolment rate significantly and positively improved per capita GDP within the period under review. The study concluded that the government’s efforts aimed at boosting human capital have been insufficient.JEL Classification: O47, J11, J24

While developed and most developing nations have seen the need and continue to invest heavily in the development and training of her manpower as shown by huge budgetary allocations to education and health, Nigeria continues to play politics with her human capital development policy which has been poor and only been effective on paper despite the huge outlay of human capital available at our disposal. This study therefore examined the impact of human capital development on the macroeconomic performance of Nigeria. Using autoregressive distributed lagged model, the study proxied human capital development using government expenditure on education, government expenditure on health, secondary school enrolment rate, and school enrolment rate at tertiary level, while per capita GDP was used as proxy variable for measuring macroeconomic performance. The results of the estimated short and long run ARDL models indicated, an insignificant and negative relationship between human capital development and gross domestic product per capita (GDPPC) in the short run. Another result of this study is that, only tertiary enrolment rate (TER) has a significant and positive impact on gross domestic product per capita (GDPPC). This finding was an indication of relatively good but insufficient efforts by government to boost human capital. The study concluded that while human capital development is crucial for accelerated macroeconomic performance, government efforts aimed at boosting human capital has had a depressing effect on macroeconomic performance. On the strength of this, the study recommended that government and economic policy makers in Nigeria should place greater emphasis on human capital development.

This work empirically established the moderating effect of perceived organisational support on learning organisation and company reputation in Nigeria’s SMEs. This study employed a quantitative research design with an adopted questionnaire to collect data from the Four Hundred and Seventy-Eight (478) managers or owners of small and medium scales enterprises in Lagos, Nigeria. SmartPLS-SEM 4 was used to analyse the data collected. The results of the structural models showed a significantly positive statistical relationship between learning organisation and company reputation. However, perceived organisational support does not moderate the relationship between learning organisation and company reputation. This study's purview lies in Nigeria's small and medium-scale enterprises. Thus, it limits the generalisation of results to big or blue-chip firms. However, further research could be considered in the big establishments or specific industries to support the findings. The study's conclusions have specific applications for owners, managers, and corporate organisations. Business organisations must be deliberately placed to compete in today's intensely dynamic and competitive business environment; as a result, they must ensure that a learning environment is provided and that employees are constantly learning on the job to foster worthwhile delivery and improve firm’s reputation.

PurposeWith heterogeneous findings dominating the growth and natural resources relations, there is a need to explain the variances in Africa's growth process as induced by robust measures of factor endowments. This study used a comprehensive set of data from the updated database of the World Bank to capture the heterogeneous dimensions of natural resource endowments on growth with a particular focus on establishing complementary evidence on the resource curse hypothesis in energy and environmental economics literature in Africa. These comprehensive data on oil rent, coal rent and forest rent could provide new and insightful evidence on obscure relations on the subject matter.Design/methodology/approachThis paper considers the panel vector error correction model (PVECM) procedure to explain changes in economic growth outcomes as induced by oil rent, coal rent and forest rent. The consideration of the PVECM was premised on the panel unit root process that returns series that were cointegrated at the first-order differentials.FindingsThe paper found positive relations between oil rent, coal rent and economic development in Africa. Forest rent, on the other hand, is inversely related to economic growth in Africa. Trade and human capital are positively related to economic growth in Africa, while population growth is negatively associated with economic growth in Africa.Research limitations/implicationsShort-run policies should be tailored towards the stability of fiscal expenditure such that the objective of fiscal policy, which is to maintain the condition of full employment and economic stability and stabilise the rate of growth, can be optimised and sustained. By this, the resource curse will be averted and productive capacity will increase, leading to sustainable growth and development in Africa, where conditions for growth and development remain inadequately met.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper can be viewed from the strength of its arguments and methods adopted to address the questions raised in this paper. This study further illuminated age-long obscure relations in the literature of natural resource endowment and economic growth by taking a disaggregated approach to the component-by-component analysis of natural resources factors (the oil rent, coal rent and forest rent) and their corresponding influence on economic growth in Africa. This pattern remains underexplored mainly in previous literature on the subject. Many African countries are blessed with an abundance of these different natural resources in varying proportions. The misuse and mismanagement of these resources along various dimensions have been the core of the inclination towards the resource curse hypothesis in Africa. Knowing how growth conditions respond to changes in the depth of forest resources, oil resources and coal resources could be useful pointers in Africa's overall energy use and management. This study contributed to the literature on natural resource-induced growth dynamics by offering a generalisable conclusion as to why natural resource-abundance economies are prone to poor economic performance. This study further asks if mineral deposits are a source or reflection of ill growth and underdevelopment in African countries.

The pharmaceutical industry is key to the survival of human race, but equally becoming increasingly susceptible to global disruptions. In Nigeria, records have shown that the industry is plagued with several problems, inclusive of low innovation performance, which may be due to lack of strategic flexibility in the face of increasing environment turbulence and intense competition. This study examined the effect of strategic flexibility on innovation performance of quoted pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria. The study adopted survey research design. The population comprised 642 management and senior staff employees of the six quoted pharmaceutical firms in Nigeria. Findings showed that strategic flexibility has positive significant effects on innovation performance (Adj. R2 = 0.425, p = 0.000, Q 2 = 0.409) of quoted pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria. Specifically, coordination flexibility (β = 0.124, t = 2.688), futurity (β = 0.191, t = 3.788), proactive flexibility (β = 0.197, t = 3.57), reactive flexibility (β = 0.232, t = 4.192), and resource flexibility (β = 0.103, t = 2.867) all have positive significant effects on innovation performance. The study concluded that strategic flexibility enhanced innovation performance of quoted pharmaceutical firms in Nigeria. The study recommended that management of quoted pharma companies in Nigeria should pay serious attention to strategic flexibility as organizational capability that can help enhance innovation capacity of the firms, in the face of increasing uncertainties in and unpredictability nature of the business environment.