Purpose Enhancing household consumption and reducing inequality are among the fundamental goals of many developing countries. The purpose of this study therefore is to disaggregate household consumption expenditure into food and non-food and, thus, decompose inequality into within- and between-groups. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts generalised entropy (GE) measures. Second, the study uses regression-based inequality decomposition to ascertain the determinants of inequality in food and non-food expenditure using household demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as covariates. Findings The results show that non-food expenditure is the major source of inequality in household consumption expenditure in both urban and rural areas with inequality coefficients of above 0.6 compared to about 0.4 for food expenditure. The decompositions also show that within-group inequalities for non-food and food expenditure are, respectively, 0.97 and 0.365 using the Theil index, while between-group inequalities for non-food and food are, respectively, 0.016 and 0.035. Furthermore, the regression-based inequality decompositions show that variables such as living in rural areas, household size, household dwelling and household dwelling characteristics account for the significant proportion of inequality in food and non-food expenditure. Originality/value The policy implication of the findings, among others, is that policies should focus on addressing inequality within rural and urban areas, especially with respect to non-food expenditure than in inequality existing between urban and rural areas. These non-food expenditures include expenditure in education, health, energy, accommodation, water and sanitation.

Inadequate availability of credit access is one of the major problems facing household enterprises in developing countries, especially Nigeria. Despite various government interventions aimed at solving this problem, it is still perceived that credit access is a serious challenge facing these enterprises in Nigeria. Hence, this study examined the impact of credit access on the performance of total stock of input supply of non-farm household enterprises in Nigeria. Unlike the bulk of existing studies, we employed multinomial logit regression and used the 2018 General Household Survey data. The stylised facts from the data revealed that non-farm household enterprises in urban areas have greater access to credit than their counterparts in rural areas. Interestingly, the findings indicate that even though a large chunk of the non-farm household enterprises in our sample face the challenge of access to credit, credit access nonetheless impacts significantly and positively on total stock of input supply of non-farm household enterprise in Nigeria. Among others, we recommended that credits to non-farm household enterprises should be adequately monitored not only to enhance the performance of these enterprises but also to ensure that the funds are not diverted to other uses.

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Introduction: Educational achievement has remained the common yardstick for assessing human capital development across the world. However, it has been observed that Nigeria is one of the developing countries facing the challenge of low level of academic achievement by employees in the university system, which in turn has grave implications for the overall performance of the Nigerian university system in terms of efficient work delivery. Methods: This study adopts a robust and stratified sampling technique to select 4,122 employees in selected federal universities in the southeast of Nigeria and uses structural questionnaire and binary logistic regression to analyse the effect of employment status on academic achievement in South East Nigeria. Results: The findings show that employment status negatively and significantly influences the academic achievement of employees in Nigerian universities. Discussion: The major focus of this study is to examine the impact of employment status on educational achievement in the universities for southeast, Nigeria. To drive more effective and efficient service delivery in the universities, there is need for adequate salary enhancement for employees in order to motivate them to strive for higher educational attainments. Limitations: The study was carried out in federal universities in Nigeria. It is expected to expand the study to cut across both private, states in Nigeria for effective and efficient comparison among the universities found in southeast geopolitical zones. Conclusion: The study concludes that government should continuously motivate these employees so that they can strive for higher educational attainments.

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