Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger is a major challenge of the entire universe in the 21 st century. In fact it is the number one goal of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Poverty in Islam is defined as a state whereby an individual fails to fulfill any of the five basic human requirements of life (Religion, Physical self, Knowledge, Offspring and Wealth). In line with brotherhood concept which is emphasized in Islam, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in 9AH received obligation on Muslims to pay zakat on wealth. The institution of zakat is a unique instrument and mechanism in Islam that is used to combat poverty. This paper intends to explore and share through guidance from relevant verses of the Quran and Hadith of the Holy Prophet to examine the role of zakat as an institution in tackling poverty. Thus, this paper provides an in depth, state of the art knowledge and insights that are inspired by prophetic worldviews on how Islam addresses poverty with the aid of zakat and it concludes that the institutionalization of zakat as an alternative strategy would provides the foundations for sustainable development and good life (hayat tayibah).

The discontinuous and turbulent nature of business environment makes it important for organizations to adopt strategic management practices to be at alert to environmental changes. This study examined the impact of strategic management on competitive advantage and organization performance in Nigerian bottling company using the resource based theory as its theoretical basis because the theory explains how competitive advantage and superior performance of an organization is explained by the distinctiveness of its resources and capabilities which constitutes central considerations in formulating its strategy. Primary data with the aid of a structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from respondents. The data collected were analyzed using both descriptive such as frequencies, percentages mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics of Chi-square and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The findings revealed that indeed the adoption and implementation of strategic management practices makes the organization not only to be proactive to changes but also initiate positive changes that consequently leads to competitive advantage and sustainable performance. It was recommended that organization should continuously maintain, sustain and improve strategic management practices since it is an indispensable tool for business organization performance.

This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the issue of knowledge management and their impact on the financial performance of economic entities. It is determined that despite the key role of knowledge both for the development of the country (which in the 21st century is based mainly on knowledge) and to increase the value of the company, today companies do not fully use arrays of knowledge and data, which forms barriers to increase competitiveness in the strategic perspective. The main purpose of this study is to assess the impact of knowledge management on the financial performance of companies. Data for the study were obtained from a primary source based on a structured questionnaire with which Dangote Flourmills staff worked. The methodology of the work is a software product for statistical data processing – STATA 11, while the data analysis was performed on the basis of regression analysis, which was used to test hypotheses at the level of 5% significance. The analysis of the data confirmed the significance of the impact of all indicators of knowledge management on the financial performance of the economic entity. The results theoretically confirmed and empirically proved that strategic leadership, organizational culture, information, and communication technologies, effective human resource management practices have a significant impact on financial performance. This study concludes that knowledge management has a significant impact on the financial performance of businesses. The paper states that knowledge management activities help to focus the company’s management on the accumulation, storage, and use of knowledge to solve problems, dynamic learning, strategic planning, and making sound financial and economic decisions. The authors have formed the following recommendations: assistance from the management of the company to exchange knowledge, training and professional development; introduction of the latest digital technologies to improve communication and management mechanisms, based on the specifics, features, and needs of companies; ensuring and developing a corporate culture that allows you to balance and coordinate the actions of management policy. Keywords: knowledge management, human resources, strategic leadership, organizational culture, financial results of the company.

The contributions of human capital development in achieving the sustainable development cannot be overemphasized in any economy, this is because investment in education and health has been argued as the strategic impetus for improving the quality of human resources. Against this backdrop, this study investigates the impact of human capital development on the sustainable development goal one (1) – poverty reduction. The study utilizes the Nigerian data combining Johansen Cointegration test, Granger causality test and Fully Modified Least Squares to establish how public investments in both education and health affect poverty reduction in the country between 1981 and 2019. Originating from the findings of this study, both government expenditure on health and capital formation Granger caused poverty reduction in Nigeria. This is a vital signal that human capital development in the form of investment in health of human resources is an important condition for the achievement of the sustainable development goal one (1) – poverty eradication in Nigeria. Similarly, all the selected components of human capital development have positive contributions to poverty reduction in Nigeria. However, the contributions of health expenditures and capital formation are statistically significant. This implies that health expenditures and capital formation have a trickle-down effect on poverty reduction in Nigeria. Therefore, this study recommends the following: any time the Nigerian policymakers want to achieve the sustainable development goal one (1) – poverty reduction, the Nigerian budgetary allocations to education and health sectors should be in tandem with the global benchmark; this would ensure material and human resources that could drive the country towards the sustainable development. The enhancement of educational and health facilities by the policymakers would also bring about improvement in the living standard of the Nigerians.

The continuous demand and usage of energy in large quantum for industrial purposes has motivated the global advocacy for energy sustainability (SDG-7). Against this backdrop, this study employed various econometric techniques to study the nexus between clean energy supply in Nigeria and industrial development between 1990 and 2019. This study sets to establish the nature of the relationship in the long run, direction of causality and the stochastic dynamic interaction between clean energy supply and industrial development in Nigeria. Consequently, the following findings emerged from this study; clean energy supply and manufacturing value added had a significant negative relationship. This implies that the contribution of clean energy supply is negatively significant to the manufacturing value added in the Country. Therefore, the supply of electricity production from hydroelectric sources had not led to industrial development in Nigeria. Further evidence indicates that no feedback relationship exists between clean energy supply and industrial development. Also, the stochastic dynamic interaction between clean energy supply and industrial development shows a shock to manufacturing value added determines the behavior of clean energy supply to a larger extent in one hand, whereas, variance decomposition of clean energy supply shows the similar effect on the behavior of industrial development on the other hand. In the light of the findings from this study, the following recommendations are made for the policymakers in Nigeria; in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 7), clean energy supply could be explored for future industrial development in Nigeria, thought it currently lacks the capacity to drive the manufacturing sector of the economy. And as such, the Nigerian policymakers and other stakeholders should work hard to achieve sustainable supply of adequate electricity production from hydroelectric sources in the country.