Purpose This study aims to examine the effects of policy incentives and cost on the choice and use of renewable energy in North-Central Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach The data for this study are collected from a sample of 290 respondents drawn from across 6 states in North-Central Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory. This study uses descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression to analyze the data. Findings The findings reveal that there is a huge potential demand for renewable energy sources (particularly solar photovoltaic) in the rural communities in Nigeria. It also indicates a positive and highly significant relationship between the level of awareness, availability and income and the use (consumption) of renewable energy sources among the rural communities. Furthermore, the cost of installation and maintenance of renewable energy, its reliability and availability are significant determinants of renewable energy choices among rural inhabitants in Nigeria. Practical implications The authors submit that inefficient policy strategies, high cost of installation and lack of awareness remain the major hindrances to the use of more efficient renewable energy sources. From a policy point of view, a viable strategy for effective use of renewable energy sources is the involvement of government, development partners and agencies for the funding of renewable energy technology in the rural sector of the country. The usage of modern renewable energy would increase if policy incentives are aimed at covering parts of the maintenance and installation cost of renewable energy users. The authors recommend that apart from creating awareness on the benefits of renewable energy, policymakers should provide a desirable policy environment for private energy firms to supply renewable energy at an affordable cost to the rural communities in Nigeria. Social implications A majority of the rural households in Nigeria, as shown in this article, are poor and therefore use firewood as their main source of cooking energy because of the cost of renewable energy. Originality/value Despite the abundance of renewable energy sources and government effort at improving renewable energy use, more than 15 million people live without access to electricity and 54 million are without modern energy services for cooking and lightening in Nigeria. A total of 61% of these people live in rural areas. Therefore, this study is novel in providing energy policy insights for rural communities in North-Central Nigeria.

Abuse of drugs by youths and its detrimental effects on security in Lafia Metropolis have recently attracted public attention. Given this background, it is important to understand the factors that influenced youths to take to drugs and the extent to which involvement in drugs has affected security in the Metropolis and thus explore effective ways toward curbing it. A survey method was adopted with samples drawn from 10 political wards in the Metropolis. Questionnaires were administered on 520 respondents with a satisfactory response rate of 76.92%. Bivariate analysis, logistic regression, and multiple regression analyses were used to evaluate the responses. The findings revealed that drug abuse was significantly practiced in the Metropolis due to lack of parental control, easy access to drugs, and emerging street culture of gangsterism. The implications of these on urban security were noted on incessant scuffle and street fighting, increased confrontation with the police, accidents and injuries, and robbery and theft. The study, therefore, recommended the creation of awareness campaigns on the implications of drug use by youths, the strengthening of government institutions that are in charge of drug control to step up their strategies to curb illicit drug production and supply in the Metropolis, and ban the roaming of Almajiri boys and girls at night in the Metropolis.

This study examines the effect of trade openness and total factor productivity on industrial output in Nigeria. The data used for this analysis covers the period 1981-2015. The paper employs the VAR model in estimating the effect of trade openness on industrial output. The impulse response function and the variance decomposition are used to examine the response of industrial output to shocks in trade openness and total factor productivity. The results show that trade openness has a positive increasing effect on industrial output in Nigeria while the effect of total factor productivity on industrial output is found to be insignificant. The impulse response function shows over the long run period tfP negative effect on industrial output in Nigeria. The findings of this study certainly have important policy implications: it suggests that policies geared towards increasing trade openness should be encouraged as this tends to improve industrial output. This study contributes to economics literature by looking at the degree to which trade openness and total factor productivity influence industrial output in Nigeria.

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