For several years, the Zambian economy relied on the mining sector, which has been affected by fluctuations in commodity prices. The new century enhanced the calls for economic diversification, with the agricultural, manufacturing, and services sectors amongst those pronounced. This article focused on the role of agriculture in supporting the economy, particularly, the effect of agriculture on economic growth. The data analyzed was reviewed for the period 1983–2017. The ARDL Bounds Test was applied in order to meet the said objectives. The ECM results suggest that agriculture, manufacturing, services, and mining converge to an equilibrium and affect economic growth at the speed of adjustment of 90.6%, with the effect from agriculture, mining, and services being significant. The impact of agriculture on economic growth was significant in both the short-run and long-run, with coefficient unit effects of 0.428 and 0.342, respectively. The effects are strong because more than two-thirds of the rural population rely on farming, and agriculture has stood as a catalyst for food security. For the effect of agriculture to be much more profound, farmers must be supported with adequate infrastructure, accessibility to markets, farming inputs, better irrigation techniques, which would address the problem of reliance on rain, all of which were inconsistent in the last decade. Additionally, governments must ensure the institutionalization of food processing industries which add more value to the national income.

African countries have faced competition and several challenges to attract foreign direct investment given the role that FDIs play in the development process. Several efforts made have been futile because of numerous factors that play against the business environment for foreign investments. Our paper analyses the influence of tax incentives on foreign direct investment in African economies based on data from 2000–2018. We utilized panel data on forty (40) African countries and an econometric model of four proxies of tax incentives, after controlling other variables, with robust Random Effect as our discussion estimator. Our results revealed that FDI responds to lower corporate income tax (CTR). Furthermore, foreign direct investment predominates in African economies with longer tax holidays and withholding tax. However, tax concession is insignificant to the inflows of FDIs in Africa. Summarizing, our results recommend that without proper restructuring of the tax incentives to deal with policy lapses by the governments of Africa, achieving the four main goals, i.e., poverty eradication, sustainable growth and development, African integration in the competitive global economy, and women empowerment, will be hindered.

The world has experienced increased impacts of anthropogenic global warming due to increased emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which include carbon dioxide (CO₂). Anthropogenic activities that contribute to CO₂ emissions include deforestation, usage of fertilizers, and activities related to mining and energy production. The main objective of this paper was to assess the impacts of agriculture and energy production on CO₂ emissions in Zambia. This research used econometric analysis, specifically the Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds Test, to analyze the relationship between CO₂ emissions and GDP, electricity consumption, agricultural production, and industry value added. The results showed the presence of cointegration, where the variables of CO₂ emissions, GDP, electricity, and agriculture converge to a long-run equilibrium at the rate of 74%. Further, there was a short-run causality towards CO₂ emissions running from agriculture and the consumption of energy as indicated by the Wald test. This is the first study of its kind that empirically shows the impact of agricultural activities and energy consumption on the Zambian environment through their contribution to CO₂ emissions at a macro (country) level. This paper also presents recommendations that are pertinent to mitigate these effects. To deescalate environmental degradation, we propose increasing the number of access points for multiple renewable energy sources across the country; discouraging deforestation, the usage of conventional fertilizers, and the burning of vegetation for fertilizers; encouraging afforestation and reforestation, in addition to providing subsidies, training, and financial support to farmers and entrepreneurs who decide to use environmentally friendly agricultural methods and renewable energy. This research highlights the serious impacts of anthropogenic activities on CO₂ emissions. The study was intended to assist Zambian policymakers in formulating and implementing environmentally friendly policy measures or systems that will contribute towards environmental protection commitments and sustainable economic development.

A number of studies have been done to examine the factors that impact the level of foreign direct investment in African countries. However, most of them have not considered the effect corporate governance structures have on foreign direct investment (FDI) in their estimations. This research therefore pursued the investigation of the relationship between corporate governance structures at the national level and foreign direct investment concentrating mainly on West African economies for the period 2009–2018. The study constructed a panel, sampling annual data from 17 West African countries. The System generalized method of moments (GMM) was used in analyzing the panel data to attain the objective of the research. The results of the study reveal that countries characterized by greater protection of the interest of non-controlling parties are able to accumulate progressive FDIs. Economies with firms portraying high ethical values also generally generate increasing foreign direct investment, and the existence of effective boards also significantly improves the country’s FDI inflows. Finally, the findings report that the impact of regulations in securities and the stock exchange on FDI is insignificant. The study recommends that West African countries institute corporate governance structures purely independent of political influences in order to ensure effective utilization of foreign direct investment to mitigate poverty.

The rising public debt level in Africa and the sustainability of that debt remains an important research agenda. As such, understanding the factors that impact the rising public debt level in Africa remains an important research agenda. Our paper investigates the key determining drivers that have a direct and indirect impact on the rising level of public debt in Africa from a panel of 47 African nations for the period 2000–2018. Using the generalized method of moments (GMM) and fixed effects two-stage least squares (IV-FE) methodological approach the study confirms that a rise in the corruption level leads to an increase in the public debt in Africa. Our findings additionally indicate that government investment enhances the positive and significant association with public debt levels in the sampled countries. Our result revealed that government consumption and tax revenue have a significant negative relationship with the levels of public debt in Africa. Lastly, our results showed that military expenditure has a positive but insignificant relationship with public debt levels in Africa. In terms of policy recommendation, the study suggests African countries should intensify the fight against corruption and strengthen political and governance institutions that will help reduce public debt levels and promote economic growth and development.

The paper appraised the nexus between electricity consumption, agriculture, GDP, oil production, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in Nigeria using a decoupling approach. The result showed that agriculture, electricity, and GDP were predictive variables for CO₂ emissions in the Granger causality analysis. The relationship between GDP and CO₂ emissions also indicated that the amount of CO₂ released tends to rise as the economy’s output and industrial sectors grow, making GDP and CO₂ emissions increasingly relevant indicators as a driver of CO₂ emissions. Modern agriculture is reliant on large-scale use of fossil fuels and fertilizer production, as well as GHG emissions from crop and livestock production. However, increasing per capita real production can help to enhance quality of the environment, and speed up the uptake of renewable energy which can consequently help to ameliorate global warming. As a result of this study’s policy implications, policies in the agricultural sector that could combat CO₂ emissions, including deforestation, land clearing, fertilization with highly environmentally destructive chemicals, neglected integration of agroforestry, and social forestry practices, can help reduce CO₂ emissions in the agricultural sector. In addition, the study recommends that the financial markets’ monetary policy should regulate the GDP to charges to compensate for their various sectors’ contributions to CO₂ emissions. This investigation might help policymakers in Nigeria to define the CO₂ emission monetary and fiscal strategies. In addition, more alternative energy sources such as biofuels, hydropower, solar energy, and other renewable resources should be embraced in Nigeria as sustainable substitutes for fossil fuels.