A well-developed and efficient financial sector together with remittances can serve as a transmission mechanism to ensure well-rounded economic growth because extant literature shows that remittances alone may not be sufficient to promote the desirable level of economic growth. Therefore, this study investigated the interactive effects of remittances and financial sector development on economic growth in Nigeria for the period 1977-2017. The data for this study was obtained from the World Bank’s World Development Indicator (WDI) Database. The data were analysed using the Instrumental Variable Generalised Method of Moments (IV-GMM) estimator. The findings of this study showed that remittances alone had a negatively significant effect on economic growth at 1% significance level but when interacted with financial sector development, they enhance economic growth as revealed by the positive coefficient of the interactive term which is also significant at 1% level. The study concluded that Nigeria’s economy profits from migrants’ remittances in terms of economic growth through the existence of a developed financial sector. This study recommended among other things that the interaction of remittances and financial sector development should be used as an avenue to encourage more savings from remittances by lowering transaction costs and increasing payment of deposits’ interest on remitted funds. Besides, bank financial institutions should find a better match for these savings (in terms of investment opportunities) in order to neutralise the negative effects of remittances on economic growth caused by recipients’ consumption smoothing drive.

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We revisited the effects of government bonds for the growth on the Nigerian capital market. Utilising time-series data obtained from the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) annual reports for the period from 2010 to 2017, this study through the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) regression estimator found that the value and the number of listed government bonds’ positively and significantly affect capital market growth in Nigeria. Furthermore, low capitalisation of government bonds negatively affects the growth of the market. The null hypothesis of the Hansen J-statistics is accepted; hence this implies that the IVs used in the GMM model is valid. We concluded that government bonds have positive and significant effects on the growth of the Nigerian capital market, thus government bonds have made the NSE All-Share Index grow over the period under investigation. Following the findings from the study, it was recommended, inter alia, that there should be more issuance of government bonds to the public and further to enhance the efficiency of the capital markets, both primary and secondary, while the funds raised from the capital market through government issuance should be channelled towards Nigeria’s productive sectors to promote an all-inclusive growth in the Nigerian economy.

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Modigliani and Miller’s (1963) paper made revelations on the importance of leverage in reducing tax payment obligations. Shareholders’ return may affect the risk premium associated with the use of leverage. However, the literature on leverage and shareholder returns relationships for a dynamic business environment such as Nigeria is still growing. The one-step differenced generalised method of moments (GMM) estimator is used in analysing an unbalanced panel data of 18 insurance firms for the period 2008-2017. The data used are gleaned from the annual reports of the sampled insurance companies. Results showed that the debt ratio has a significant negative effect on shareholders’ returns. However, the results become positive and significant when debt-equity and interest coverage ratios are used as the leverage ratio. This study supports the pecking order theory. It concluded that the effect of financial leverage on shareholders’ returns depends largely on the decomposition of financial leverage; hence both theories examined are relevant. This study recommended, among other things, that there is a need for the management of insurance companies to reassess the costs and risks associated with financial leverage when financing decisions have to be made. Furthermore, high indebtedness should be trimmed to reduce its negative influence on shareholders’ returns by ensuring an appropriate finance option, which will be in accordance to maximise shareholders’ wealth.