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This study was conducted to examine the implication of financial leverage on performance of quoted oil and gas companies in Nigeria. This is premeditated on the fact that debt capital is usually acquired by firm to finance assets with the expectation the returns from such investments will exceed the costs of the debt capital used. Often, this is always not the case either because of inappropriate management strategies or other reasons. Ex-post-facto research design was adopted involving use of panel secondary data as published by eight(8) oil and gas companies selected from the population of twelve(12) firms quoted on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the period 2006-2020. Descriptive and multiple linear regression statistics were used to analyze data collected. The dependent variable was return on Assets (ROA), proxy for financial performance and independent variables being financial leverage decomposed into Debt Ratio (DR), Debt-to-Equity Ratio (DER), Long-term Debt Ratio (LTDR) and Cost of Debt (COD,) Results Shows DR, LTDR and COD had negative and significant implications on ROA, while DER also had negative but insignificant implications on ROA of quoted oil and gas firms in Nigeria. Hence, it was concluded that during the period of the study, leverage had negative and significant implications on financial performance of oil and gas firm in Nigeria. It was recommended that oil and gas firm should minimize debt capital usage in their financial structure to shore-up returns.

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The study was conducted to comparatively analyse the effects of direct and indirect taxation revenue on economic growth of Nigeria. This was necessitated by the revenue shortfall from Crude oil sales which has been the main revenue earner of the government and the latent potentials of taxation as the most reliable source of revenue. The study was designed to find out which of the tax category affect economic growth most in Nigeria. Ex post facto research design was the research design involving secondary data extracted from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) published reports. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statically techniques using correlational and regressional statistics. Results reveal that direct taxation has more negative effect on the economy than indirect taxation as evidenced by the adjusted R2 (Direct taxes 80%; Indirect taxes 67%, case wise predictive residuals (maximum values: direct taxes 6.123, indirect taxes 5.893). It was therefore recommended that the government should review regulatory and operational guidelines at the oil and gas sector and tax reforms in the form of reliefs and other incentives to companies to encourage investors and boost productive activities to enhance economic growth of the country.

The study examined three determinants of voluntary compliance in self-assessment system of tax administration in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. This was motivated by the growing need to increase tax revenues generation in developing countries the tax revenue as a ratio of Gross Domestic Product is below the global average and tax administration machinery has been ineffective. Data for the study were collected using a structured questionnaire from respondents registered with the state Board of Internal Revenue determined using Taro Yamene’s Statistical Formula. Descriptive and Regression Analyses were adopted for data treatment. The model summary reveals that 80.8% of the variation in Tax compliance is accounted for the variables of perception of equity and fairness, income level and level of education of the tax payers. The ANOVA Summary justifies that the independent variables have significant influence on tax compliance with f-calculated value of 233.763 being greater than the critical f-value of 0.308451 at P<0.05. The regression coefficient indicates a positive and significant relationship between perception of equity and fairness (0.260), level of education (0.103) and tax compliance. Income level (-0.055) has negative influence on tax compliance. It is recommended that tax authorities should evolve a framework that will motivate, control, sensitize and educate tax payers on voluntary compliance in Self-Assessment system.