Suchergebnisse

International migration has continued to increase over the years. As people relocate to seek opportunities, their hopes and aspirations for a better life become a driving force. The extent to which their expectations are achieved is not documented in South Africa. This paper examines the expectations versus experiences of international immigrants in South Africa using Cameroonian and Democratic Republic of Congo immigrants residing in Cape Town. A qualitative approach with snowball sampling selected key informants from Cameroonian and Congolese nationalities in Cape Town. Results suggest that most immigrants did not meet their expectations for migrating, due to migration policy limitations of the host country exempting them from opportunities. The results align with both the Capability Approach theory and Lee's model of migration. Most of the immigrants showed despondency but do not prefer the option of returning to their home country. This is because they have not attained their goals for migration. The paper recommends that policy discussion between the South African government and stakeholders has become imperative to obtain an informed perspective on the dynamics of migration.

Recent development in the practice of macroeconomic policy has increased the importance of monetary and fiscal policy. Monetary policy within BRICS countries has shifted towards the setting of interest rates as the key monetary instrument, along with the adoption of inflation targets as key monetary policy objectives. It is well accepted that there is no one set of macroeconomic policies that guarantees sustained growth and development in the economy. However, the BRICS countries have been following a similar trend with regard to the exchange rate policy. This is shown by the fact that the BRICS countries have moved away from using a pegged exchange rate regime towards a managed floating exchange rate regime which is in contrast with the recommendations of the Washington Consensus. On the fiscal side, the BRICS countries agreed to spend only what is necessary in order to avoid the ballooning local government debt. Summarily, the BRICS countries have performed well economically and socially although there are still some room for improvement. However, there are still other BRICS members who have government debt that are well above half of their Gross Domestic Product. Alignment of policy regimes would strengthen the macroeconomic base of the BRICS. It is recommended that all BRICS members need prioritise inclusive governance that would checkmate social ills such as poverty, inequality and unemployment, while promoting social inclusion.

The productivity in the Nigeria's mining sector presents significance challenges, especially in view of its prospect in diversifying the national economy. The need to uncover the efficiency by way of estimating two major production functions (i.e. capital and labor) cannot be minimized. However, this paper uses econometric technique to estimates the Cobb-Douglas production function of mining sector between 1980 and 2011 periods in Nigeria. To avoid a spurious series, unit root test was conducted based on Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) to test for the stationarity or otherwise of the variables in the model. The outcome reveals that the substitution parameters α and β (substitution parameters for capital and labor) confirms the a priori expectation that the pair of α and β are positive values. Despite labor is the most significant factor of production, the study also found that other inputs such as innovations and technology are positively significant in this period of modern mining production processes in view of the global economic outlook. The study amongst others recommends strong political will of government, transparency and accountability to drive efficient and effective mining sector reform, increased capital investment in innovations, technology, and raw materials.

The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) provides the link between policy priorities and the budget. Given that in developing countries in general, and in Nigeria in particular, there is a disconnection between planning, policy and the budget, the MTEF has increasingly been regarded as central to public expenditure reforms. The objectives of this paper are to review the MTEF and budget performance in Nigeria for the period 2005-2008, and identify the challenges undermining the effective operation of the budgetary processes. The paper gathered that the MTEF is the bridge between the national development plan, its underlying policies and the annual budget. Analysis of available data on budget performance during the review period shows that public finance in Nigeria have not been operated within the specifications of the MTEF and the budget, and the priorities expressed in the budget are not always in sync with national objective plans. Some of the identified challenges to effective public expenditure management in Nigeria include lack of citizen's participation in the process, the bureaucratic and inefficient nature of the civil service, large scale corruption, lack of proper coordination between the national development plan and budget, lack of adequate reforms in other key budget areas, such as execution, monitoring and reporting, lack of political commitment, and lack of adequate coordination between the national and sub-national governments.

The performance of the capital budget has been a subject of debate between the legislative and executive arms of the Nigerian government since 1999. Available statistics suggest that the annual budget has not been able to improve the lives of Nigerians over the past several years because of the weak link between capital budget implementation and poverty reduction, as indicated by the prevailing low index of capture in public expenditures. Using descriptive analysis, this paper examines the capital budget implementation in Nigeria by focusing on the 2012 Federal Government Budget. The findings indicate that only 51% of the total appropriated funds for capital expenditures were utilized as of December 31st, 2012. The observed level of performance is insufficient to foster rapid economic development and reduce poverty. Some of the challenges that are responsible for the low performance include poor conceptualization of the budget, the inadequacy of implementation plans, the non-release or late release of budgeted funds, the lack of budget performance monitoring, the lack of technical capacity among MDAs, and delays in budget passage and enactment. The paper recommends that Nigerian government formulate a realistic and credible budget, release appropriated funds early to Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), and strengthen MDAs' technical capacity to utilize capital expenditures in order to improve the index of capture in public expenditures.

In spite of the growing importance of oil, Nigeria has remained essentially an agrarian economy, with agriculture still significantly contributing to its Gross Domestic Product. However, the potentials of the agricultural sector to contribute to economic development in Nigeria have varied widely in the last two decades. This variation appears to be correlated to the nature of the political and economic regimes that exists. There were indications of some moderate output increase following the introduction of SAP. But, it is not yet certain whether the extent of deregulation policy currently being pursued by the Government and the preliminary outcome has elicited the desired response. One of the indications of the adverse development is the diversion of scarce foreign exchange from financing capital and intermediate imports to paying for food imports. Successive governments have experimented with various options in the promotion of agro-based industries, import substitution, promotion of specific sectors and specific areas. The outcome is an imbalance growth of various sub-sectors in the sector, poor capacity utilization, eroded competitiveness of local manufacturers and uneven playing field within the country. This paper basically reviews and analyzes the components of Nigeria's agricultural sector, its contributions to economic development, and strategies adopted within the sector before and during the Structural Adjustment Program. It recommends that providing the right policy framework/enabling environment and incentives for private sector investment in the sector enshrined in the new economic blue print'Transformation Agenda' could be a viable option for revitalizing the sector.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly being accepted as valuable platforms to create jobs and improve livelihoods. The Nigerian government has enacted favorable laws and regulations on contracts, leasing, and corporate tax to encourage the development of SMEs. Nonetheless, many entrepreneurs in Nigeria cannot access loans given the high levels of poverty. The paper argues that microenterprise finance cannot be financially viable because small loans are too costly to administer and the profits from such lending too meager to permit profitability. Based on content analysis of available literature, it is found that microfinance institutions have collapsed in Nigeria due to poor loan quality, default in loan repayment, high transaction costs, widespread delinquency, and management deficiencies. Given these challenges, the paper recommends savings by microfinance institutions and measures from successful initiatives from countries such as Indonesia and Bangladesh. These will enable microfinance institutions to be self-sustaining and to increase outreach. ; International Bibliography of Social Sciences

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly being accepted as valuable platforms to create jobs and improve livelihoods. The Nigerian government has enacted favorable laws and regulations on contracts, leasing, and corporate tax to encourage the development of SMEs. Nonetheless, many entrepreneurs in Nigeria cannot access loans given the high levels of poverty. The paper argues that microenterprise finance cannot be financially viable because small loans are too costly to administer and the profits from such lending too meager to permit profitability. Based on content analysis of available literature, it is found that microfinance institutions have collapsed in Nigeria due to poor loan quality, default in loan repayment, high transaction costs, widespread delinquency, and management deficiencies. Given these challenges, the paper recommends savings by microfinance institutions and measures from successful initiatives from countries such as Indonesia and Bangladesh. These will enable microfinance institutions to be self-sustaining and to increase outreach. DOI:10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n6p611

This paper examines how changes in Fertility Rate Differentials affect household portfolio demand (expenditure on food, monetary transactions, goods and services and non-cash expenditure) in Nigeria. The paper disaggregated household portfolio into four categories and established a link between population dynamics (demographic variables) and household expenditure components using the Vector Error Correction Methodology. The estimated equations are used to project the pattern of the different components of household demand based on the optimum case population scenario. The results suggest that fertility dynamics in Nigeria can produce significant effects on the economy via the expenditure profiles of households.

This paper examines the seasonality and stochastic cycle associated with GDP growth in Nigeria using two measures of filter. Our findings include, that the Christiano & Fitzgerald (2003) filter removed low-periodicity stochastic cycles associated with output growth in Nigeria compared to the Hodrick Prescott filter. The smoothed GDP trend further revealed that growth in Nigeria was higher but unstable in periods of development planning than in periods without development plans. This suggests that development planning in Nigeria was not accompanied by judicious mix of fiscal and monetary policy in the 1980s/1990s. Likewise, effort to achieve sustainable growth and development, since the return to democracy in 1999, has not been accompanied by effective planning. To achieve inclusive development therefore, there is the need to return to development planning in order to address the destruction meted by insurgents in the North east and the lack of inclusiveness in Nigeria's growth observed in recent times. ; IBSS