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The Millennium Development Coals (MDGs) are a potentially powerful tool for economic development. There is the growing awareness about the economic importance of tourism in Nigeria. Though the industry is fraught with certain challenges, which are seemingly insurmountable, it has a crucial role to play in helping Nigeria to achieve the 2015 anti‐poverty MDGs. This paper discusses some of the potential benefits of the tourism industry in Nigeria as well as an overview of the industry. Furthermore, it states the MDGs and its limitations. Furthermore it will discuss some of the problems that could impede the growth of the tourism sector. As Nigeria is becoming keenly aware of the substantial development potentials of tourism, this paper presents some recommendations to be considered in order to reap these potentials and facilitate the process of achieving the MDGs.

The unseen benefit of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria is that it presented an insight into the contributions of the manufacturing industry to the socio-economic development of the nation. During the pandemic, the unavailability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) have demonstrated the low production capability of the Nigerian manufacturing industry to provide essential materials and equipment required by the health sector. This availability of these facilities is vital for the sustenance of public health and lives of frontline health workers. Consequently, this challenge resulted in an increase in infection and deaths of frontline health workers which could have minimized if there were adequate provision of PPE local production. Hence, this study postulates that the COVID-19 pandemic is an entrepreneurial opportunity in Nigeria, especially for the mass production of PPE to service the health sector of Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. The study therefore investigated the challenges of entrepreneurship in Nigeria's manufacturing industry and examined how the strategic partnership between educational institutions, corporate bodies and the government can be optimized. Utilizing a qualitative research methodology based on scholarly journals and interview sessions, the study revealed that Nigeria's manufacturing capability is low due to Nigeria's age-long protectionist tendency, lack of integration of entrepreneurship skill in the industry, inadequate knowledge of financial knowledge, lack of synergy in the industry, among others. The study recommended a strategic framework for Nigeria's manufacturing industry for the production of PPE in form of a helix model after an overhauling of the production process of the industry.

Given the inconclusive evidence in the literature on the impact of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows, as well as dearth of literature on this subject matter as regards West Africa and the European Union (EU), the purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which BITs and preferential trade and investment agreements (PTIAs) triggered foreign investment flows particularly between the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries and the EU.

Trend analysis was used to trace the link between FDI and BITs, while panel regression models were used to investigate the impact of BITs on FDI during 1980‐2010.

Econometric results indicate that, as in most previous studies, BITs have strong positive impact on FDI in West Africa, with this impact significant at a higher level (1 per cent) for FDI flow than stock (5 per cent). The impact of BITs on FDI is significant even with the state of internal factors (such as capital account liberalisation, trade openness, high inflation rate and poor governance) in West African countries. The findings suggest that in the absence of BITs, West African countries would have suffered adversely from poor FDI inflows given their poor macroeconomic stability and governance. On the contrary, the PTIAs did not have significant impact on both FDI flows and stock. The results also show that FDI inflow to West Africa is both market and resources seeking.

Sensitivity analysis may not have been sufficient. For instance, not tested was the impact of the signalling effect of BIT, as well as other vertical FDI such as those from the USA.

The implication of the findings is that West Africa countries need to design policies and programmes that will enable them to maximise the technological spill‐over from FDI in order not to be perpetual suppliers of primary products and purchasers of manufactured goods. Further, they have to maintain macroeconomic stability and good governance. They need to understand the type of provisions in the BITs that constituent states signed and compare with the provisions of the PTIAs, with a view to discerning what is responsible for the superior response of FDI to BITs.

Given the absence of literature on the impact of BITs on FDI flows between West Africa and EU, it becomes imperative to investigate this issue with a view to motivating the investment component of the EPA, as investment is one of the Singapore issues that were removed from WTO's Doha Round.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate Nigeria's audiovisual services import demand using foreign football transmitted through digital satellite television (DSTV) as a case study. The major focus is on whether such imports effectively replace local recreation in watching domestic football.

The authors examined descriptive statistics. The methodology employed is a combination of descriptive analysis and cross‐sectional regression.

The paper's analytical framework establishes a link between the conventional import demand and demand for football functions, while the estimated empirical counterpart found that the demand for foreign football via cross‐border satellite transmission is a statistically significant function of taste for foreign football, quality, and entertainment. While descriptive statistics indicate respondents’ preference for foreign football, the test of significance rejected the hypothesis that the demand for foreign football broadcast service imports has replaced demand for domestic football as an entertaining sport. In addition, the demand for foreign football broadcast is fairly inelastic, as a greater percentage of the respondents will watch foreign football even if the cost of subscription or cost of paying per view in the viewing centers increase.

The paper describes the first of this type of research to be conducted in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of consumers preferences on textile materials and the impact of consumer preference on performance of textile industry. This is because as consumers have access to a variety of textile products, they strongly developed and shifted preference to foreign sources, which could lead to the eventual demise of many of the textile factories.

The logit model is adopted to describe the behaviour of consumers when faced with a variety of mutually exclusive choices. The model also describes the consumers’ choice of differentiated goods with common consumption objectives but with different characteristics.

Findings revealed that consumers in Nigeria prefer foreign textile to locally made textile. In addition, differences in quality and availability are factors that drive consumer’s preference towards foreign textile. Also, the inefficient performance of the Nigerian textile industry is influenced by limited demand from the domestic market, poor infrastructure and smuggling. Hence, there is a need for innovative entrepreneurship, concentration on quality improvement and alleviating supply constraints.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines consumer preferences in the Nigerian textile industry.

This study aims to evaluate the state of preservation of one of the most famous manuscripts dated back to the 15th century using some analytical techniques to identify the manuscript components, explain its deterioration mechanisms and produce some solutions for conservation processes in future studies.

The analytical techniques used were visual assessment, digital microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM) with EDX, pH measurement, attenuated total reflection – Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR/FTIR) and cellulose crystallinity.

Stains, missed parts and scratching were the most common aspects of deterioration. Some insects were observed by digital microscope. The SEM showed that linen fibers and goat skin were used to manufacture paper sheets and leather binding. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis proved that niobium and tantalum were added during the manufacture of paper sheets. Carbon black ink was the main writing material. The other pigments used were cinnabar in red ink, gold color from brass and blue color from lapis lazuli. FTIR analysis proved that some chemical changes were noticed. Low crystallinity of the historical paper was obtained. There was a reduction in the pH value of the historical bookbinding.

The importance of the analytical techniques used to detect the main components, forms and mechanism of deterioration of the studied manuscript. The elements of niobium and tantalum were added to paper sheets, which protected them from deterioration. The insects such as house flies and Sitophilus granarius were found in the manuscripts.

Poverty reduction remains one of the main goals of development efforts, as evidenced by the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals by most developing countries and international agencies. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between trade (exports) and employment and how the relationship reduces poverty through the instrumentality of employment, with a focus on Nigeria.

The paper takes the form of descriptive analysis.

Evaluating the case for Nigeria, the authors find that oil exports which drives economic growth do not provide the needed employment to reduce poverty, while agricultural trade, particularly exports, are capable of reducing poverty and inequality in Nigeria through the channel of employment and agricultural productivity growth.

The paper makes a link between export trade, employment and poverty reduction in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate some common bread improvers (normally used for 100 per cent wheat bread) for their effect on the quality attributes of wheat-cassava (90:10) composite bread.

Four commonly used bread improvers (ASA, ABT, EDC and PTB) in Nigeria were evaluated for their effect on the baking potential of wheat-cassava (90:10) composite flour. Bread samples were baked from wheat-cassava (90:10) composite flour, with and without bread improvers. Changes in dough height during fermentation, oven spring, yield and specific volume of bread samples were determined. Bread samples were also evaluated for their sensory and staling characteristics.

Results showed that dough height during fermentation did not change significantly (p<0.05) and crumb colour, firmness, taste and aroma were unaffected by addition of bread improvers; but oven spring, yield, specific volume, bread shape, crust colour, texture and overall acceptability of bread were significantly different (p>0.05). All the bread improvers except ABT extended the shelf life of wheat-cassava (90:10) composite bread for a period of 24-48 hours.

Bread improvers normally used for 100 per cent wheat bread could be used effectively for wheat-cassava (90:10) composite bread without an adverse effect on quality of bread.

Bread makers need little or no additional training to handle wheat-cassava (90:10) composite flour for bread making process hence, Nigeria can sustain her policy of using wheat-cassava composite flour for baking without any serious technical problem.

This research aims to investigate the role of transformational leadership and organizational culture – encompassing Clan, Adhocracy, Hierarchical and Market Cultures – in the context of work–life balance for healthcare workers. It aims to present a comparison of observations made pre and mid-pandemic.

A structured questionnaire was utilized to collect data from a varied sample of 355 employees (258 before and 97 during the pandemic) representing multiple sectors and positions within a hospital. The interpretation of the data was accomplished using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings reveal that prior to the pandemic, transformational leadership significantly influenced all forms of organizational culture perceptions, with a strong influence on Clan Culture. Clan Culture displayed a consistent positive correlation with WLB both before and during the pandemic. During the pandemic, Market Culture exhibited a negative effect on WLB and Adhocracy Culture demonstrated a positive effect, impacts which were absent before the pandemic. Transformational leadership had a positive impact on WLB before the pandemic, but no discernible effect during the pandemic was observed.

The results indicate that the dynamics between transformational leadership, organizational culture and work–life balance are susceptible to alterations in the face of external crisis events. This study offers a unique exploration of these dynamics in the healthcare sector during the ongoing global pandemic.

This study aims to investigate the facilitating conditions (FCs) and how these FC affect institutional repository (IR) sustainability practices in public universities in Nigeria.

A survey research design was adopted in this study. The study population comprised 542 librarians from public universities that have IRs across Nigeria. A sample size of 230 librarians was determined using Taro Yamane’s formula. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the respondents in three stages, which were purposive, stratified and purposive sampling. A structured, validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential (simple and multiple regression) statistics at a 5% level of significance.

The result revealed that the availability of FCs (ßeta = 0.459, t(211) = 7.719, p = 0.000) has a positive and significant influence on IR sustainability in public university libraries in Nigeria. The F-test (1, 223) value of 59.582 shows that there is sufficient evidence to substantiate the model’s usefulness in explaining IR sustainability. The R² (0.211) indicates that 21.1% of the variation in IR sustainability is explained by the availability of FCs in public university libraries in Nigeria. The finding suggests that the availability of FCs is a vital predictor of IR sustainability in public university libraries in Nigeria. The result also depicts that out of the eight parameters that measure the availability of FCs, it was current awareness of IR that had a positive and significant influence on IR sustainability.

This study concluded that ICT skills and FCs are contributory factors to IR sustainability practices by librarians in public university libraries in Nigeria. It was recommended that university administrators formulate policies that promote the sustainability of IR and provide adequate funds to support IR sustainability. Furthermore, the library management in public university libraries in Nigeria should drive content recruitment and create awareness of the IRs among students and faculty to ensure continued use.