Africa like other developing continents has the representation of limiting gaps of foreign exchange, investment and human capital skills. Sustainable development emphasizes that for the limits of both foreign exchange and savings to be reduced, there is need for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to flow inclusive of, foreign skills and technology diffusion for economic development. The objective of the research is to determine how the gaps of foreign exchange, investment and human capital skills has been reduced through the influx of foreign investment for the African economies. Pooled panel data between 2000 and 2018 was utilized for 39 African countries, and analysed with the fixed effect regression model. The results indicate that the influx of FDI has not brought about sufficient decline in the gaps for the selected African economies. The study recommends that government of developing countries need to select with care industries that foreign capital flows into in order to ensure tangible effect on investment domestically as well as deter crowding-out of capital. Furthermore, strategies on protection of domestic ABOUT THE AUTHORS Folasade Bosede Adegboye (Ph.D.) is a researcher and lecturer in the Banking and Finance Department of Covenant University, with special interest in foreign capital flows, international economics, effects on economic growth and development in Africa.Tolulope Femi Adesina (Ph.D.) also, is a researcher and lecturer in the Banking and Finance Department of Covenant University, with special interest in financial development and financial management.Stephen Aanu Ojeka (Ph.D.) currently works at the Accounting Department, Covenant University. Stephen does research in corporate governance, audit committee and accounting technologies.Victoria Abosede Akinjare (Ph.D.) currently works in the Banking and Finance Department as a lecturer and researcher. Her research interest is in real sector finance, small and medium enterprises finance and agricultural finance.

The sub-Saharan African region is characterized by a high relative degree of openness to trade. The region is also identified with increased inflows of foreign investments with no significant welfare improvement. Economic development emphasizes that the lack of domestic investment in the developing economies could be boosted by trade openness and inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for impactful enhancement of capital formation. In this article, the impact of trade openness and foreign capital inflow on economic welfare was examined on a sub-regional analysis for sub-Saharan Africa. The study also appraised the effect of openness to trade and FDI inflow on the region's economic welfare. The data for 30 countries from 2000 to 2018 were collected and analyzed, with the Generalized Least Square (GLS) technique to fit the model developed. The study showed that openness to trade has a significant impact on economic welfare for all sub-Saharan Africa regions, while FDI is only significant for the Western sub-region. Hence, the study recommends that the government of the countries in the sub-Saharan Africa region should boost trade openness to enhance efficiency in productivity, and improve industrial development.

Challenges to accessing credit by the women or female entrepreneurs (FEs) have been observed to be demand-induced rather than supply constrained. This paper attempts to determine the issues that constrain financial access of FEs with the basic objective of achieving a sustainable access over the long term among the micro and the small and medium female entrepreneurs. The study undertook collection of data via questionnaire of FEs who operate in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector through the microfinance banks' (MfBs) and institutions' (MfIs) support. The basic variables were savings, loan conditions, business registration and the number of banks accounts operated by FEs among others. Four models estimating the determinants of access for now and the future were estimated with ordinary least squares regression. The results indicate that easier loan conditions are required to assist the FEs in achieving sustainable credit access, as it was significantly negative in two of the models while compulsory savings deposits should be less emphasized. This indicates that there is the need to invest more in their enterprises for growth. Credit access is enhanced also by the regular use of the institutions for financial transactions. Finally, that targeted education is positively significant in savings shows that the there is need for continuous ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Considering the possibility of finding a gap and a room for improvement, so much have been written about liquidity and performance. Notwithstanding, the emphasis has been on profitability as a yardstick for performance and little has been done on other areas of performance measurement. The emphasis has also been more on various economic sectors with the exception of the manufacturing industry. This paper intends to look at the impact, if any, of liquidity provision and availability on Nigeria’s manufacturing firm’s performance from the perspective of Economic Value Added (EVA). Economic value-adding is beyond just profitability or liquidity. The firm's value to the stakeholders, its sustainability and long-term values are defined. The study would apply liquidity theories, profitability and the economic value-added theories as it applies to a manufacturing firm in a developing economy like Nigeria. On its methodology, the article data is obtained from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators-WDI and then a regression analysis will be run on the data using the SPSS software and then an analysis of the results of the regression. The last section of the article would conclude and make recommendations from the study outcome and the empirical analysis with respect to the theories.

Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 fostering of pathways for social inclusion (Weerawardena et al., 2009). Different acronyms like community based organisations (CBO), voluntary organisation, nongovernmental organisations (NGO) and not for profits (NFP) etc.are used interchangeably to refer to non-profit organisations. In the light of this study, the