For several years, the Zambian economy relied on the mining sector, which has been affected by fluctuations in commodity prices. The new century enhanced the calls for economic diversification, with the agricultural, manufacturing, and services sectors amongst those pronounced. This article focused on the role of agriculture in supporting the economy, particularly, the effect of agriculture on economic growth. The data analyzed was reviewed for the period 1983–2017. The ARDL Bounds Test was applied in order to meet the said objectives. The ECM results suggest that agriculture, manufacturing, services, and mining converge to an equilibrium and affect economic growth at the speed of adjustment of 90.6%, with the effect from agriculture, mining, and services being significant. The impact of agriculture on economic growth was significant in both the short-run and long-run, with coefficient unit effects of 0.428 and 0.342, respectively. The effects are strong because more than two-thirds of the rural population rely on farming, and agriculture has stood as a catalyst for food security. For the effect of agriculture to be much more profound, farmers must be supported with adequate infrastructure, accessibility to markets, farming inputs, better irrigation techniques, which would address the problem of reliance on rain, all of which were inconsistent in the last decade. Additionally, governments must ensure the institutionalization of food processing industries which add more value to the national income.

This study examines the effect of carbon dioxide emissions on economic growth, including investigating whether the CO2-economic growth relationship is dependent on financial development in Nigeria between 1980 and 2020. Due to dwindling economic growth, Nigeria experienced two recessions in one decade. Besides poor growth rates, Nigeria remains a leading emitter of CO2 in the Sub-Saharan region. The motivation for this study derived from the rising level of carbon dioxide emissions in Nigeria which might affect economic growth by dwindling agricultural activities (low output) in some regions, pose health challenges and create a shortage of inputs to agro-allied industries. Hence, this paper attempted to see if there was a causal relationship between carbon dioxide emissions, financial development, and economic growth in Nigeria. The relationship between the variables was examined using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag estimation technique (ARDL) estimation method. The framework for this study has its basis in the endogenous growth theory and utilizes the growth and pollution stock model which showed that sustainable economic growth is influenced by a large stock of pollution (CO2 emission). The results of the boundaries test for cointegration showed a long-term relationship between CO2 emissions, economic expansion, financial development, and energy use. According to empirical data, CO2 emissions have little long-term impact on economic growth. However, there is evidence that the interaction of CO2 emissions and financial development promotes economic growth over the long term, suggesting that CO2 emissions only have an economic influence when there is financial development.

This study analyses the effect of ownership structure and performance of listed conglomerates on the Nigeria Stock Exchange. Over the years manufacturing firms in Nigeria had been faced with liquidity risk, risk of opportunity loss, overcapitalization, undercapitalization, and longer cash conversion cycle. The secondary data used is obtained from six selected manufacturing firms listed on the Nigeria stock exchange for the period of five years 2016-2020. The objective of the study is to analyze the effect of ownership structure and performance. Return on Assets is used as a measure of firm performance while the account receivable days, inventory days, account payables, and total sales are used as measures of ownership structure. The first and third hypothesis is tested using correlation and regression, and the second hypothesis is tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The study revealed that there is a positive significant relationship between total sales and return on assets and a negative significant relationship between account receivable days, inventory days, account payables, return on assets. This indicates that an increase in account receivable days, inventory days, and account payable will lead to a decrease in return on assets and vice versa. Therefore, to meet the firms' objectives, which are to increase profits and create better investor value, an adequate ownership structure should be maintained and each of its different components should be effectively and efficiently managed and controlled.

Empirical evidence proves that agricultural R&D expenditure and researchers attract high returns though the investments have long-gestation periods. Nonetheless, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) invests meanly in agricultural R&D and researchers. This study explores the impacts of agricultural R&D expenditures and researchers on food security in the region and across the sub-regions. The study applies Bootstrapped LSDV and two-step system GMM techniques to analyze the data on 23–24 SSA countries over the period 2000–2016. Our findings show that investments in agricultural innovation substantially increase food accessibility, availability, and utilization through food productivity growth. Indeed, the investments are more effective in enhancing food utilization than in boosting food availability and accessibility. The findings also reveal that the investments are effective in enhancing food security at least in Southern and Western African sub-regions while they instead exacerbate the problem of food insecurity in Central Africa. The policy implications are adequate resources should be channeled into proper agricultural research and development to introduce new crop varieties or significantly improved crops, etc. There should also be coordination between large and small countries in investments so that the countries can benefit from economies of scale. JEL Codes: A19, Q19, Q18, Q16, I23

This study sought to determine the effect of compensation on employee productivity in Albabello trading company, Unilever, Kano. However, the speci􀅫ic objectives of the study are: To determine the effects of reward system on employee productivity in Albabello trading company Unilever Kano, to identify the effect of motivation on employees' productivity in Albabello trading company Unilever Kano, and to investigate the effect of 􀅫inancial compensation on employees' productivity in Albabello trading company. The research design adopted in the study is a survey research design; meanwhile, the total population used in the study was three hundred and ninety-nine (399). The sample size derived from the population was two hundred (200), and a convenient sampling technique was used for the selection of the sample. A structured questionnaire was developed and used as the instrument for data collection. The biodata of the respondents was analyzed using simple percentage and frequency counts, while the formulated hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analysis, descriptive statistics, and correlation analysis. The major 􀅫indings include motivation is not effective in Albabello trading company Unilever Kano. The study recommends that Management should endeavor to apply an appropriate motivation system to improve and enhance employees' productivity.