This study aims to ascertain the relationship between inventory management and operational performance of quoted manufacturing firms in the south-east; one of the geographic regions with high industrialization prospects in Nigeria. To achieve this, operational performance of manufacturing firms and their association with components of inventory management; inventory cost, just-in-time approach, materials requirement planning and strategic supplier partnership, was examined through a questionnaire. Three hundred and seventy-one copies of a questionnaire issued to five hundred and thirty-eight sampled respondents of four quoted manufacturing firms in the south-east region of Nigeria were properly filled and found relevant to the study. The study used SPSS and Excel-based descriptive statistics to analyze the data collected. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses of the study. Study results conclude that there is a positive significant relationship between; inventory cost, just in time approach, materials requirement planning and strategic supplier partnership and operational performance of quoted manufacturing firms in the south-east region, Nigeria. The study recommends among others that, manufacturing firms in south-east Nigeria should adopt inventory practices such as strategic supplier partnership, just-in-time approach, materials requirement planning and inventory cost control due to the significant effect these practices have on operational performance.

This study aims to identify the relationship between electronic banking and performance of small and medium scale enterprises in Anambra state; one of the states with the highest number of SMEs, entrepreneurial skills, informal enterprises and a suitable business environment in Nigeria. To achieve this, the researcher examined performance of SMEs and their association with components of electronic banking; automated teller machine, point of sale services, transaction alerts via short message services (SMS) and mobile banking, through a questionnaire. Three hundred and seventy (73.1% response rate) copies of questionnaire issued to five hundred and six sampled respondents of 50 SMEs in Anambra state were properly filled and found relevant to the study. The study used SPSS and Excel to identify the descriptive characteristics of the variables of the study and analyze the data. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses of the study. Study results concluded that there is positive relationship between; automated teller machine, point of sale services, transaction alerts via short message services (SMS), mobile banking and performance of SMEs in Anambra State, Nigeria. The result also showed that SMEs continuous usage of electronic banking services could be attributed to cost effectiveness, convenience, security, accessibility and diversity of the services. The study recommends among others that, security of electronic banking services should be upgraded by a conjunction between SMEs and banks and that government should provide adequate regulatory framework to protect customers and security of transaction. Furthermore, policy makers in Nigeria should take advantage of the positive revelation of this study to make policies that will increase number of SMEs in Anambra state and Nigeria at large especially from the large number of informal enterprises in Anambra state and Nigeria.

The study aimed at investigating entrepreneurship education and youth empowerment in selected states in south-east Nigeria. Relevant literature on entrepreneurship education and youth empowerment were reviewed. The human capital theory formed the theoretical framework while the cross-sectional research design was adopted for the study. The sample size for this research was 400. Simple percentage was used in analyzing the research questions while the Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) method was used in testing the hypotheses. The study revealed that skill acquisition has a significant effect on youth empowerment. Innovation and Opportunity recognition significantly influence youth empowerment. The study concluded that entrepreneurship education creates employment among the youth thereby boosting their self-teem. Skills are acquired in recognizing business opportunities and inculcating innovative culture, which contribute to the development of the economy. The study recommended that the government should provide enough training facilities where skill acquisition programmes will be held. The youth should be granted credit facilities and loans to enable them put their creative ideas into practice.

This study attempts to investigate the link between bank credit and private sector investment in Nigeria from 1980 to 2014 using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression procedure. The study also employs other preliminary investigations which include, unit root, cointegration and Granger causality test procedures. The OLS result indicates that the coefficients of the variables which include, banks credit to the private sector (CRPRIVAT), trade openness (OPEN), exchange rate (EXCHR) and total bank saving (BSAVING) exhibit positive signs to the dependent variable, private investment (INVEST) during the period under review, while the coefficients of two other variables, capital expenditure (CAP) and interest rate (INTR) indicate negative signs to the dependent variable. The stationarity test result shows that all the variables under consideration are stationary and integrated of order one at 5% significance level. Also, the cointegration test result indicates at most five cointegrating equations at 5% level of significance. The Granger causality test result shows that a bi-directional causality exists between banks credit and private investment and also between private investment and capital expenditure, while a uni-directional causality exists from exchange rate to private investment.Statistically, the descriptive statistics result indicates that all the variables have a positive mean values which ranges from 18.05390 to 2427052 with 34 observations.The correlation test result obtained shows that four variables, CRPRIVAT, OPEN, EXCHR and BSAVING have positive relationships with the dependent variable INVEST. The t-statistic result shows that five of the variables which includes, CRPRIVAT, OPEN, CAP, INTR and EXCHR are statistically significant at 5% significance level. The study recommends that there is a need for increased Federal government support to banks in terms of policies that would encourage lending to the private sector in Nigeria.