Egbide Ben-Caleb

Liquidity Management and Profitability of Manufacturing companies in Nigeria

Liquidity and its management determines to a great extent the growth and profitability of a firm. This is because either inadequate liquidity or excess liquidity may be injurious to the smooth operations of the organization. This seeming controversy has attracted a lot of interest in the subject of liquidity management. The primary aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between liquidity and profitability. The analysis is based on a sample of 30 manufacturing companies listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange for the period 2006- 2010. The result suggests that current ratio and liquid ratio are positively associated with profitability while cash conversion period is negatively related with profitability of manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The association in all the cases was however, statistically insignificant, indicating low degree of influence of liquidity on the profitability of manufacturing companies. Hence, the overall state of liquidity should be improved by establishing more realistic credit policy which would engender shorter cash conversion period (CCP), hence have a favourable impact on the profitability of the company

Earnings Management and Board Structure: Evidence from Nigeria

The board structure of an organization gives an overview of the standard of such organization, which also influences its public image. This study attempts to evaluate the role board structure plays in curtailing earnings management practices in Nigerian companies. This study sampled the data of 137 quoted companies in Nigeria for a period of 8 years (2003-2010). Earnings management was measured using the magnitude of the discretionary accruals as estimated by the performance matched modified Jones model. The ordinary least squares (OLS) regression technique was used to measure the research model as well as the Pearson moment correlation coefficient. The study shows that there is a significant relationship between board structure and earnings management practices in Nigeria. The study shows that there is a negative significant relationship between board size, gender, and board composition with earnings management; also, there is a positive significant relationship between board meeting and earnings management practices in Nigeria. There is a positive nonsignificant relationship between the presence of a remuneration committee and the dualization of CEO and chairman positions with earnings management practices in Nigeria. This study recommends that regulators at all levels should enforce the preparation and publication of financial reports by companies operating in Nigeria.

The Impact of Budget Reforms on the Quality of Budget Management in Nigeria

Budget management reforms were the major areas of the Nigerian public service reforms undertaken from the inception of civilian administration in 1999. The major objective was to enhance budget discipline among others. This was predicated on the theoretical considerations that improving the process and management of budgeting through reforms would be ultimately translated into improved budgetary outcome. This paper empirically investigated the impact of budget reforms on the quality of budget management in Nigeria. The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) form the proxies for budget reforms, while budget discipline (BDISC) and fiscal discipline (FDISC) were used as proxies for the quality of budgeting. Historical time series data representing 7years before and 7 years after the adoption of MTEF, and 5 years before and 5 years after the enactment of FRA were collected and analysed using the pre-test/post-test design of a Paired Sample T-test. The result favoured our initial proposition that budget reforms (MTEF and FRA) had not significantly impacted on the quality of budget management (BDISC and FDISC) in Nigeria. It was, therefore, recommended that the government should provide the leadership and political will, not only to enforce the provisions of FRA, MTEF and other reforms, but to sanction those that short circuit the system to their advantage. This will go a long way to enhance compliance with the reforms, and bring about the expected improvement in the quality of the nations budget management.

Financial Intelligence and the Quality of Higher Education in Africa

Improving the quality of curriculum development in private Universities in Africa from time to time is a task that is very essential to achieving effectiveness, efficiency, and relevance in the higher education system. Financial Intelligence is one of the five components of a twenty first century education, the kind of education that actually delivers the financial andwealth building results that people deserve. Unfortunately, a 21st century education is not something that is currently obtainable in the traditional school system in Africa, requiring instead that students go out and seek it on their own. This paper, using the explorative methodology, establishes that without financial intelligence, graduates from African private higher education schools will be forced to follow the road of financial disaster, ruin, and anti-excellence which most people travelled. It therefore recommends among others that financial intelligence be integrated into the curriculum of African Universities to enable students know the how of making money, work for them rather than simply working for money. Keywords : Financial Intelligence, Quality, Higher Education, Africa