To achieve the United Nations Sustainable Goals (SDGs) by 2030, especially goal 2 (SDG-2) which is to “end hunger, achieve sustainable food security, improved nutrition and promote agriculture” this study examines how innovation and social inclusion affect food security in West Africa. The study applies the system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) on a panel data of 15 West African countries for the period 2005–2018. The result from system GMM shows that innovation and social inclusion are drivers of food security. The implication of this is that increased level of social inclusion and innovation in West African may increase the level of food security by about 41.5% and 13.6% respectively. Therefore, the study concludes that to feed the growing African population, social inclusion should be improved to mitigate risk, vulnerability and socioeconomic shocks faced by farming households. In addition, innovation in agricultural should be enhanced to drive productivity, thereby leading to a sustainable food security.

This study revisits the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 which aims to “end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” by highlighting the impact of environmental degradation (proxied by carbon emissions) and non-renewable energy on agro-productivity in Nigeria. Using annual time series data from 1980 to 2018, the study engages the Johansen cointegration and impulse response functions (IRFs) techniques within the vector autoregressive (VAR) framework. Evidence reveals that carbon emissions significantly reduce agro-productivity by 0.23% while non-renewable energy boosts agro-productivity by 5.38%, on average, ceteris paribus. Other results reveal that domestic credit, rural population and arable land exert asymmetric effects. These outcomes are consistent and align with a priori expectations. Policy recommendations are discussed.

The continuous increase in government expenditure in the last three decades without a commensurate improvement in all known indicators of development has generated heated debates among scholars as to the justification for the persistent rise in the annual expenditure of the government. Therefore, this study examined the effects of government sectoral spending on human development in Nigeria using annual data spanning the period 1986–2021. This study contributed to the literature by examining the effects of government sectoral spending on human development using a robust human development index that captures the multifaceted state of economic development in terms of educational attainment, life expectancy and per capita income, unlike previous studies that concentrated on aggregate government spending and used the gross domestic product as an indicator of development. Surprisingly, however, results from the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model employed indicated that both in the short and long run, there is no link between government sectoral spending and human development in Nigeria. Although, outcomes from ECMs suggest that government sectoral spending may affect human development in the long run.

Increase in the global population growth has led to a simultaneous increased in demand for energy leading to increased fear of global warming. This situation has given the international community a cause for concern and as a result, countries are seeking alternative sources for cleaner and sustainable energy. The importance of utilising greener energy sources is evident in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goal 7, Target 2. This study examined the long-run relationship between economic growth, sustainable energy and the different financing options for sustainable energy in Nigeria. The Johansen Cointegration test was utilised in order to achieve this objective. The findings showed that different sources of sustainable energy and the different types of financing employed in Nigeria have different effects on the economic growth of Nigeria. A long-run relationship amongst all three variables was also established. These findings are an indication that with the right policies, SDG 7 could be achieved. Keywords: Sustainable Energy, Energy Financing, Economic Growth, SDGs, Nigeria. JEL Classifications: Q20, Q28, Q43 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.9336

The desire to ascertain the kind of relationship between finance and growth is not new among scholars. This study attempted to give a better understanding of the type of relationship by analysing post-SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme) time-series data since the notable financial reforms began with SAP in Nigeria. The study employed the Johannsen Cointegration, error correction and granger causality as estimation techniques to determine the nexus between financial deepening and economic growth. The variables contained in the model include the ratio of credit to the private sector to gross domestic product (CPS) which proxy bank-based financial deepening, the proportion of market capitalisation to gross domestic product (MCAP) which proxy for stock market development. The result of the analysis revealed that the Nigerian economic growth is influenced by financial deepening positively and significantly, especially the bank-based financial depth.

This study applied the autoregressive distribution lag (ARDL) econometric approach to examine the long-run effect of employee motivation on industrial output in Nigeria. Data used for the study was sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank from 1981 to 2018. Industrial output was proxied by industrial value added (annual % growth) and was used as the dependent variable, while the independent variable is motivation, which was proxied by wage and salaried workers, total (% of total employment) and was modelled on the ILO estimate. Results from the analysis showed that employee motivation is statistically significant and positive in determining the level of industrial output in Nigeria. This result implies that an increase in the level of employee motivation has the potential to increase industrial output by 98%. Therefore, based on the findings, the study recommends that employees should be motivated through regular payment, increased wages and salaries and other bonuses (fringe benefits) to increase industrial productivity.