This paper use the dynamic growth framework to model the relationship between trade liberalization policy and economic growth of 42 African countries from 1995 to 2018. Banking on the heterogeneity of income and socioeconomic factor affecting trade policies in African countries, the paper opted for the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) technique which is sufficient for inference in a dynamic heterogeneous environment. The result tells that trade liberalization policy is beneficial to economic growth of African countries up to a certain threshold, beyond which it begins to cause the economy to under-heat. Thus, a confirmation of nonlinear relationship between trade liberalization policy and economic growth in African countries. The paper estimates a threshold value of 139.94% of total Trade to GDP; 345.32% of Export to GDP and 62.80% of Import to GDP. These findings champion that, for countries in Africa to benefit largely from trade, trade openness, export openness, and import openness should rover around the estimated threshold values. The paper documents certain conditions required to moderate the effect of trade liberalization policy on economic growth in African countries.

Purpose: This paper is motivated by the dearth of domestic savings required for inclusive economic growth in Nigeria. The paper examines the impact of financial literacy and socio-economic factors on Nigerians saving behaviour. Methodology: The models are estimated with linear probability and probit estimators. There are three categories of variables in the models; the independent variables, which are the computed scores of financial literacies; control variables, which are the measures of demographic and socioeconomic factors and; the dependent variables, which are the measures of frequencies of saving in three financial institutions in Nigeria. Findings: Our finding resonates with policy debates suggesting that improving Nigerians knowledge about finance and financial services would foster Nigerians saving behaviour. We observed also that households with 1 – 4 persons have tendency to put away more money as savings. The paper documented that the optimum household size for accelerating saving is 5-6 persons beyond which enforces financial exclusion or dissaving, among others. Unique contributions to theory, practice and Policy: This paper provide fresh evidence on the influence of the newly financial literacy scores variables designed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Nigerians saving behaviour. It equally, expanded the saving literature by considering differently level of household sizes to explained Nigerians saving behaviours. Consequent on the findings the paper suggested that the Federal Government of Nigeria in collaboration with the States governmant reenforce the National Financial Inclusion Strategy framework and include a finance course to be made mandatory and taught at all levels of education in Nigeria. The paper also suggested a rethink on the Nigerian population policy to an aggressive campaign on family planning aimed at reducing fertility level to about 2 – 3 children per family.

This paper examined bank-specific performance indicators and macroeconomic factors affecting the short-term financing obligation of Nigerian banks from 2010 to 2019. The data for the study are sourced annually from the financial statements of the selected Deposit Money Banks and the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin. The panel unit root and co-integration tests are employed to ascertain the sustainability of the bank-specific performance indicators. The models for the industry were cast in a host of panel frameworks such that we estimated the static and dynamic panel models. The study observed that the capital adequacy ratio, which is the short-term financing obligation of Nigerian banks was elastic to bank profitability positively. In addition, interbank call rate, bank size, and oil price positively influence the capital adequacy ratio over time, whereas loan-to-deposit ratio, inflation and exchange rate exacerbate the capital adequacy ratio. Consequently, we canvass that Nigerian banks should reduce dividend payouts and increase retained profits as a buffer against exposed risks.

This paper is driven by the vast influence oil money have on the current account balance of major oil producing countries in Africa and the role policy measures could play to soften these effects. Dwelling on the nonlinear techniques, two types of Threshold Regression were used to estimate data on 8 African countries from 1995-2019. The results show evidence of nonlinear impacts of oil revenue on the current account balances of the 8 countries. The nature of the impact relies significantly on the levels of the threshold variable. Precisely, the estimated threshold benchmark for financial development was 33.34; below this threshold the sensitivity of current account balance to crude-oil shocks is higher and the probability of policy measures to mitigate the effects is low and, beyond the threshold the sensitivity of current account balance to crude-oil shocks is low and the probability of policy measure to mitigate the effects is higher. The finding suggested among others that crude-oil shocks is not the primary problem of the current account imbalance of oil-exporting countries rather the nature of the domestic economic policy environment.