This study examines the nexus between financial development and energy consumption/use in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) using a panel vector error correction model (VECM), cointegration, and Granger causality tests over the period ranging from 1975 to 2017. The annual panel time-series data generated from the World Bank database were tested for unit-roots processing using both the Levin–Lin–Chu and Im–Pesaran–Shin before proceeding to Johanson cointegration technique, the results of which motivated the choice of adopting the panel VECM rather than panel vector autoregression in the methodology. From the estimation result especially on the variables of interest, there exists a positive and statistically significant relationship between financial development and energy consumption in the long run, but not statistically significant in the short run. Further findings from the panel Granger causality test shows a unidirectional causality running from financial development to energy consumption, gross domestic product per capita, population growth to urbanization with no feedback. Among a series of policy recommendations, the monetary authorities in Sub-Saharan African countries should ensure optimal utilization of financial instruments and technologies available in the system to enhance more robust financial development to boost efficiency in energy consumption in the region in line with the sustainable growth theory.

While the activities of multinational oil corporations contribute significantly to oil pollution and environmental degradation in most oil-producing countries, the extent to which illegal artisanal refineries contribute to the environmental problems in Niger Delta remains unclear. Extant literature attributes this to the expanding activities of the artisans as well as the use of crude technology in illegal oil refining. Given the widespread nature of the artisanal oil-refining economy in the Niger Delta region, we assess its contribution to the growing environmental pollution in the region. By artisanal oil refining, we mean small-scale crude oil processing or subsistent distillation of petroleum that is often outside the boundaries of the state law. This study links the continual failure of the clean-up programme in the Niger Delta to the booming artisanal crude oil-refining economy in the region. Using predominantly qualitative methods of data collection and content analysis, we adopted the enterprise value chain analysis to underscore the underlying local economic interests and external economic opportunities that sustain oil bunkering, oil theft and petro-piracy. We conclude that these illegal refining processes significantly undermine the Ogoniland clean-up project and make the remediation programme unsustainable in Nigeria.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and apply a distributional impact assessment methodology to empirically analyze distributional impact of public expenditure on human development using data from 20 states in Nigeria. For robustness of the analysis, expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development, energy, housing, environmental protection and portable water resources are employed as predictors of human development. The result reveals that expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources has positive marginal impact on human development. In contrast, the marginal impact of energy, housing and environmental protection is negative. Among the sectors, education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources expenditure has positive marginal impact while energy, housing and environmental protection have decreasing marginal impact on human development. Design/methodology/approach: Panel approach. Findings: The result reveals that expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources has positive marginal impact on human development. Originality/value: A panel approach is used to investigate whether expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources has positive marginal impact on human development.

The study analyses the dynamic effect of rural-urban relationship, economic growth and urban agglomeration in sub-Saharan Africa with a view of testing the validity of the Williamson-Kuznets hypothesis. The study utilized panel data analysis with pooled ordinary least squares with secondary annual time series data ranging from 1970 to 2017 and sourced from the World Bank database. The study equally employed both homogeneous and heterogeneous panel unit root tests to verify the stationarity of the panel data variables before estimating the model. However, the estimation result revealed that both rural and urban population growth has a negative impact as well as a statistically significant result on urban agglomeration in sub-Saharan Africa. The result equally showed a negative impact but statistically insignificant relationship between urban agglomeration and foreign direct investment. Also, a statistically significant and positive relationship was recorded between economic growth and urban agglomeration, thereby validating the Williamson-Kuznets hypothesis in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on the findings, the study among other numerous policy recommendations calls for a critical review of policies in the economies of sub-Saharan Africa to ensure effective utilization of the foreign direct investment net inflows towards initiating more and robust development projects both in the cities and rural areas, as well as expand the provisions of the basic infrastructural facilities and development projects. This would aim to curtail any perceived and unwarranted influx to the urban areas by the rural dwellers, hence they do not contribute significantly to growth in urban agglomeration.

This study investigates the effect of macroeconomic variables on income distribution in Africa using panel data from 2001 to 2016. This is motivated by the high degree of income inequality and poverty in the region. Twenty‐eight (28) African countries were selected to capture every region. The selection of countries and the choice of this period were informed by data availability. The variables of interest were income inequality obtained from the Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID), while the Gross Domestic Product, Inflation, and Unemployment were obtained from the World Bank database. A dynamic panel model using the Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) estimator was used to control for both individual and time‐specific effects. The Heterogeneous aspect of the Augmented Dicky‐Fuller (ADF), the Levine‐Lin‐Chu test and, the Im‐Pesaran‐Shin (IPS) panel units root process were utilized to test for the stationarity of the panel data. The results of the General Method of Moment (GMM) indicate a significant negative relationship between income inequality and economic growth. The study rejected the existence of the Kuznets curve hypothesis, and concludes that Inflation rate, Wage rate and labour force impact negatively income inequality, while unemployment and education impact positively.

This study analyses population, urban agglomeration (UAG), and economic growths dynamics in Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) using the World Bank panel data ranging from 1970 to 2019. The study utilized a panel fixed effect (FE) model after verifying the suitability of the model using a Hausman test. The estimation result from the panel FE model reveals remarkable findings which conform to some extent, the theoretical a priori expectations. The result shows that growth in rural as well as urban population growth and total trade (TRD) have negative relationships with UAG. On the other hand, gross domestic product (GDP, a better proxy for income) and foreign direct investment (FDI) have a positive association with UAG in the economies of SSA thereby validating the existence of the Williamson–Kuznets hypothesis. Based on the findings, it is advised amongst other policy recommendations that the governments of the Sub‐Saharan African countries should pursue inward‐looking policies targeted toward encouraging the local processing of agricultural raw materials—possibly to finished products to boost foreign exchange earnings through trade in other to engender sustainability in both the economic growth and UAG in the region.