Felicia O. Olokoyo

Life Insurance Reforms and Capital Formation Development: Lessons for Nigeria

Many advancing economies employ life insurance mechanism to drive capital formation and accumulation. This paper presents observable facts on Nigeria relative to peers, which suggest abysmal life insurance density and penetration; perhaps are responsible for the extremely low capital formation gap. The paper is motivated by the economy’s low savings ratio, hence it hypothesis that capital formation through life insurance mechanism may not develop. Two stage least square (TSLS) method in a recursive system was employed from 1980 to 2013. The result finds that capital formation ratio (Cfr) is positively sensitive to life insurance penetration (LIP), and to a period lag of the problem variable (Cfr(−1)).The outcomes of instrumental variables are in line with a priori, except for interest rate. The dynamic and static ex-post simulations, and ex-ante forecasts evaluation meet the standards. The forecast results fit the expectations of the underlining assumptions, suggesting that on average Cfr can grow by 8 % per annum ceteris paribus. This finding is therefore consistent with financial development theory. It recommends that Pension regulators should step-up compliance of existing statute on compulsory life cover by employers; Insurance regulators should engage public education on life insurance; the federal government should adopt fiscal incentives to attract foreign direct investments in the industry for competitiveness and make policies for mandatory life policy for all adult working citizens.

Women’s Access to Land and Economic Empowerment in Selected Nigerian Communities

Despite various land policies that prescribe rights to land in many societies, women remain marginalized in access to and economic utilization of land. This is widespread in rural communities where informal institutions such as customs and traditions subsist. In most of these communities, the patriarchal structure of families is championed by the informal institutions that support male dominance. This study focuses on economic empowerment of women as it encapsulates sustainable wealth of women. It provides answers to two main research questions: (a) what kind of relationship exists between land access and empowerment of women? And (b) how important are individual and household attributes in informing women’s empowerment through land rights? The empirical results of this study provide some new insights as they demonstrate how land rights influence women’s economic empowerment. The study also finds that women’s earning capacity reduces when they take up the responsibility of becoming the heads of households and that their income increases as they become more educated.

Dataset for electronic payment performance in Nigerian banking system: A trend analysis from 2012 to 2017

The advent of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the new age has led to the digitalization of business processes including banking. For performance measurement among other usefulness, the dataset for these adopted electronic banking channels – Automated Teller Machines, Internet (Web) Transactions, Mobile Payments, Instant Payments, Electronic Fund Transfer, Point of Sales (POS), Automated Cheque Clearing and e-BillsPay was sourced. This dataset gives a trend analysis of e-payment performance of transactions both in value and volumes on each channel as consummated on the platform of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) in the last six years covering 2012–2017.

Assessment of Financial Stability in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Nigeria

The financial system stability portends the ability of the financial system to resist any unexpected adverse shocks from internal and external contexts and at the same time enable continuous unhindered functioning of the intermediation process. This paper appraises the stability of the financial system in an emerging economy using Nigeria as a base country. Financial stability and macro-prudential quarterly data from 2007 to June 2015 were used to assess the stability of the financial system arising from the effect of the global financial crisis and the recent decline in commodity prices in the international market with its attendant negative effect on the Nigerian mono-cultural economy. The assessment result shows that despite the shocks, Nigeria’s financial system remains resilient and able to absolve all unexpected surprises’ coming from the external context in the study period as the government battles with many intervening variables to get the economy back on track. There is an urgent need to diversify the economy and generate more non-oil revenue as well as maintain continuous consistent monitoring of the financial system to ensure its enduring stability.