Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the role of institutions and policies on growth convergence in Africa. Design/methodology/approach This study uses different methods of panel modelling on a panel of 50 African Countries covering a period of 1990-2014. Findings The results confirmed the presence of conditional convergence among countries in the region. On the average, technology accumulation and fiscal policies indicators are positive function of growth, while human resources, monetary policies indicators and ineffective institutions partly necessitated by poor level of development negatively impact growth. The study concludes, though traditional growth variables and policies are imperative in achieving growth in income, they remain insufficient in an environment characterize by extractive and absolutist institutions. Therefore, institution remains the link that bridges the gap in between proper mix of resources and policies. Research limitations/implications Based on the results, policy-makers in the region should allocate certain percentage of their resources (on a sustainable basis) towards building a qualitative institution. Also, future studies on Africa should be focused on the rate at which poor level of economic development determines the quality of institutions which in turn impacts the level of growth in income. Originality/value The study contributes to the existing literature on institutional convergence with particular focus on African countries using system GMM to capture the endogeneity among the series.

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COVID-19 pandemic infests every sphere of life, including the economy, thereby accounting for tremendous economic calamities on a global scale. Some of such calamities are still evolving. This paper examines the economic impact of COVID-19 with particular emphasis on Nigeria within the early days of the pandemic. The article established its theoretical foundation through a marriage of both AK-type of endogenous growth theory and endogenous growth model with an assumption of increasing returns to scale. Using a simple descriptive technique, the article identified the devastating economic impacts of the pandemic on the oil-dependent economy in the short run. The paper identifies four fundamental COVID-19 economic shocks; the declined price of oil; unplanned increase in health spending, temporary shutdown of the local economy; and unanticipated palliative needs. Some of these impacts also include loss in income and output, increasing rate of unemployment, and poverty contributing to the disruption of the previously steady growth rate. In the longer term, COVID-19-related damages will have no or insignificant negative impact on growth. The economy is bound to bounce back on a steady growth path provided the quality of institutions is strengthened to the extent of surmounting the disruptive shocks.

Purpose. Industrial development is crucial in converting all resources to humanity’s use and benefits. Economists observe that the development and utilisation of the industrial sector are essential in a country’s economic growth. Disaggregating the industrial sector into various components, this paper empirically analyses the performance of the industrial sector on economic growth in Nigeria over the 1970-2015 period. Hence, to evaluate the relationship between industrial development and economic growth in Nigeria. Design/Methodology. The paper adopted autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) as the technique of data analysis. Findings and implications. The results further revealed that the coefficients of all industrial subsectors, such as manufacturing, solid minerals and crude petroleum and gas, have positive and statistically significant influences on economic growth in both the short and long run. Among the industrial subsectors, the crude petroleum and gas sector appears to be the highest driver of Nigerian economic growth compared to other industrial subsectors, showing that the Nigerian economy is still far from diversified. Limitations. Limitation emanates from the problem of missing data from the source of data on the variable labour. However, effort has been made to overcome this challenge by applying a two-year moving average gap for periods of missing data. This method conforms to the rational expectation hypothesis (Muth, 1961). Originality. The development of the industrial sector of any economy can be measured by the contribution of various components (Isiksal & Chimezie, 2016). It is expected that as an economy becomes transformed, the share of industrialisation should be increasing (UNECA, 2011). The examination of industrial sector performance involves its sectoral components.

This study empirically analyses the impact of corruption on economic growth in Nigeria, using time series data for the period 1980-2015 analyzed through the ARDL technique.  The result of the Bound test confirmed the existence of Cointegration among the variables. The ARDL results revealed that corruption has a significant negative influence on economic growth both in the short run and long run. It was further confirmed that external debt, agricultural output, and human capital development positively impact growth while FDI and inflation rate endanger growth, in both the short and long run. The result of the interacting term revealed the damaging influence of corruption on the positive impact of human capital expenditure and external debt on economic growth. Based on the findings of the study, it is obvious that achievement of growth that is sustainable will remain elusive in a corrupt environment. The study, therefore recommends that government should strengthen the activities of the anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria to reduce the rate of corruption.