Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate selected West African currencies/US dollar exchange rates for the evidence of volatility spillover. Specifically, the paper examines West African CFA franc, Gambian dalasi and Nigerian naira exchange rates in relation to the USD, for any evidence of shock and volatility spillover. Design/methodology/approach The author employs multivariate GARCH (1,1)–BEKK model which enables the evaluation of the interaction within the volatility of two or more series because of its capability to detect volatility spillover among time series observations, as well as the persistence of volatility within each series. Findings The major findings of this study are as follows: there is evidence of volatility clustering in West African CFA franc, Gambian dalasi and Nigerian naira exchange rates in relation to the USD. There is evidence of bi-directional shock and volatility spillover between the Nigerian naira and West African CFA franc/USD exchange rates, and uni-directional shock spillover from the Gambian dalasi to the West African CFA franc/USD exchange rates. There is, however, no evidence of exchange rate shock and volatility spillover between Nigerian naira and Gambian dalasi. Originality/value Although considerable literature exists on the volatility of exchange rate in West Africa and comparative analysis of exchange rates volatility in few countries of West Africa, there is absence of empirical studies on exchange rate volatility spillover among countries in the region. Since containing exchange rate volatility is one of the major objectives of monetary policy, understanding the nature and direction of exchange rate volatility spillover would propel formulation exchange rate policies that would minimise exchange rate uncertainty and entrench sustainable development. In addition, the nature of exchange rate volatility spillover between West African countries would provide basis for international traders and foreign portfolio investors to develop effective strategies for hedging against exchange rate shocks that are propagated across countries by designing appropriate risk management techniques.

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The direction and intensity of volatility transmission between the money and stock markets are important for portfolio selection and diversification, optimal hedging strategy, financial market regulation, and risk management. The purpose of this paper therefore is to examine the nature of volatility transmission between money and stock markets in a developing economy using Nigeria data. The results of the bivariate BEKK-GARCH (1,1) model show strong evidence of ARCH and GARCH effects for both the money and stock markets returns. The results also suggest unidirectional shock transmission from the stock market to the money but not otherwise. Further, the results indicate evidence of a unidirectional volatility transmission from the stock market to the money market. The findings of this study have implications for portfolio selection and diversification as well as financial market regulation.

This paper evaluated the insurance sector of Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) for evidence weak-form efficiency using daily returns from January 2009 to February 2016. The study employs descriptive analysis, non-parametric runs test and autocorrelation function as well as Ljung-Box Q statistics in conducting the evaluation. Descriptive statistics of the insurance sector return series showed negative skewness and leptokurtic distribution. Estimates from the Jarque-Bera normality test showed that the insurance sector returns did not follow normal distribution. Results of the runs test reject null hypothesis of randomness in the return series of the insurance sector in the period studied. Furthermore, the autocorrelation functions and the Ljung-Box Q tests provide evidence of serial correlation in the stock returns of the insurance sector. Overall results from the study suggested that the insurance sector of NSE is not weak-form efficient. Consequently, technical analysis on the insurance sector of the NSE may not be fruitless.

Infrastructure financing plays an important role in addressing chronic deficiency of infrastructural facilities in developing economies.Inadequate infrastructural facilities discourage investments and retards economic development. Traditional methods of financing infrastructure through budgetary provisions and execution by direct contract award has proven to be inadequate and most often unimplemented creating a financing gap for execution of infrastructure projects in developing countries. This paper assesses the nature of infrastructure financing in Nigeria and highlights the major models of PPP as well as some of the challenges encountered in the mobilizing this type of financing. The paper concludes with some suggestions on the policy measures to be adopted in addressing the identified challenges.