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The Igbos of south-eastern region of Nigeria are known for their rich cultural heritage which permeates all their socioeconomic life. Sacrosanct among their social institution is their business practice which has outlived generations, but its impact is still felt not only in the south-eastern region but also in Nigeria as a whole. Igbo business practices have become integral to an average Igbo man's life, and it is the cornerstone on which their values are promoted. This is evidence in their desires to make wealth and be successful hence the adage ‘ego ji oru’ which means ‘money has the answer to projects’. Generally, Igbo culture and values are reflected in their business practices. The Igbos have a strategic model of attracting, retaining, transferring knowledge and developing talents. This unique model has contributed to the sustenance of Igbo businesses through manpower development and has also influenced their business performance over the years. The Igbos seek and develop talents in their area of business interest for continuity, performance and value creation. This chapter explores how talents are recruited to become apprentices and how knowledge is transferred to these apprentices by their Igbo master known as ‘oga’. Also, the effects of the recruitment process and the knowledge transfer mechanisms on business performance are evaluated. The chapter adopts a case study approach and sampled six small Igbo businesses in Ajah market, Lagos. The chapter revealed that the Igbos have indigenous strategies of recruiting and developing talents which influence the performance of their business. Informed recommendations were made for business in Africa at the end of the chapter.

This chapter aims to highlight talent management approaches and succession planning principles deployed by traditional Igbo businesses in Nigeria. Insights came from interviews of a purposively selected sample of Igbo businesses drawn from different sectors of the Nigerian economy and different geopolitical zones of the country to give a national representation of the approaches they deploy in talent management and succession planning.

The chapter commences with a brief literature review of talent management and then proceeds to indicate the methodology deployed in data collection, analysis and presentation. The next section presents findings in detail on how Igbo businesses embark on talent management activities such as talent identification and attraction; interviewing; talent assessment; apprenticeships; training; risk considerations; compensation and rewards. Some training areas discussed in detail include nature of the sector, customer service, inventory management, supplier management and cash handling. The subsequent section highlights some challenges with talent management and approaches Igbo businesses adopted in overcoming them.

The chapter also provides some insights as cases of approaches traditional Igbo businesses adopted in succession planning – this gives more perspective on the contextual circumstances that inform the strategies the businesses adopted in talent management. The chapter concludes by discussing in general, succession planning approaches deployed by traditional Igbo businesses.

This chapter models industrial, tech, and financial cooperation between Russia and the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. We use several complex methods of economic and mathematical modeling to analyze specific features of such cooperation and determine critical factors in industrial, technological, and financial development. The preferable choice for the Asia-Pacific region is cooperation with Russia, which is ready for an increase in imports of industrial and high-tech products as well as joint industrial innovational entrepreneurship. Investments would lead to synergetic effects, ensuring simultaneous industrial, technological, and financial development.

This chapter will describe and assess initiatives by the University of Oslo (UoO) in Norway, the purpose of which has been to expand and improve collaboration with universities in Africa, notably the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) in Tanzania. UoO has a long history of North-South cooperation with a wide range of institutions on the African continent. In 2009, the UoO initiated a collaborative program with UDSM entitled “Program for Institutional Transformation Research Outreach” (PITRO) III, supported by Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (NORAD). The chapter will situate the UoO-UDSM cooperation in relation to Norwegian aid, and compare the program with previous programs, giving attention to the ways they were developed, how problems and challenges were tackled, and the probable consequences for Tanzania’s development. The chapter will compare and contrast the structure and experiences from these programs, and will point out strengths and weaknesses. Attention will be given to the rights-based approach, an important new dimension in North-South cooperation on higher education in Africa. It will be argued that the incorporation of this approach provides a basis for developing new policies and programs that strengthen African collaboration within research, education, and capacity building in higher education.

The challenges confronting the Nigerian construction industry which led to the adoption of supply chain management (SCM) practice were evaluated in this chapter. It was discovered that the Nigerian construction industry is confronted with fragmentation and poor information management. The stakeholders within the Nigerian construction industry proposed the adoption of SCM to overcome the fragmentation and other shenanigans facing the industry. This chapter revealed that construction supply chain (CSC) practices within the Nigerian construction industry focus on waste elimination by adopting the lean concept. The focus on the lean concept could be attributed to the numerous research related to lean or the enormous waste emanating from the Nigerian construction industry. Regardless of the emphasis on lean, the Nigerian CSC is still confronted with fragmentation and heavy waste generation. Thus, this chapter proposed the adoption of principles and technologies driven by the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) is a paradigm shift for the management of CSC in the country. It was discovered in this chapter that Nigerian construction supply stakeholders had not embraced the technologies and principles of the 4IR. The failure to adopt the technologies driven by the 4IR is attributed to the absence of a CSC model that depicts the management of CSC in alignment with the 4IR. This chapter called for developing a SCM model for the Nigerian construction industry in tandem with the principles and technologies of the 4IR.

Higher education institutions around the world have increasingly come to see information and communication technology (ICT) as vital to the business of teaching and learning. Institutions invest a considerable amount of time and resources to erecting the appropriate institutional infrastructure, creating policy and practice, instituting strategy, training faculty, and building the capacity of technology staff. However, in under-resourced regions of the world, such as Africa, ICT, the availability and use of, has several challenges to overcome: a lack of institutional infrastructure, sufficient bandwidth, and limited capacity to employ ICT in the research process or the classroom. Universities report inadequate funding, poor management and infrastructure, resistance to change, inadequate training, and high costs associated with effective ICT use. Moreover, critiques of Western technopositivism surface misgivings related to the performance outcomes and appropriateness of ICT adoption in Africa. In this chapter, the author will explore the work of international organizations and regional and national research and education networks in the diffusion of ICT discourse, consider on-the-ground adoptions and innovation at universities in Nigeria, and reflect on the suitability and sustainability of technology adoption, all within an ICT for development (ICT4D) framework that lenses the evolution of technological applications in higher education. This chapter is significant in that it connects African higher education to ICT4D and frames the various discourses, policy landscapes and practice arenas, as they relate to international actors, continental initiatives, networks, universities, and faculty.

Evidence abounds on surging disasters, mainly as consequences of poor risk identification and management, which have historically accompanied disaster management in many African countries. Effective management of disaster risks, whether natural or man-made, is necessary for building resilience, enhancing mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery and adaptation. As part of a broad-based risk management approach, Nigeria made frantic efforts to mitigate the effects of various disasters, by establishing relevant institutions and formulating policies. In spite of these efforts, implementation outcomes have not been adequately quantified and managed. This study reviews and assesses the policies and practices of disaster risk management (DRM) vis-á-vis institutional framework in Nigeria. It utilises available data and policy documents to review and analyse Nigeria’s institutional framework. Furthermore, the study carries out implicative scenario analysis based on the current institutional framework, to match the DRM trends. It also proffers recommendations on how best institutions could drive proper DRM in Nigeria. The strengths, opportunities, gaps and constraints associated with disaster and risk reduction in Nigeria are then highlighted.

The nexus between Environmentalism and NGO Accountability can be established through different and diverse contexts. This edition of the journal examined these different contexts in the 6 different articles published in the edition. Taken together, the articles examined issues such as the work NGOs do and how they account for such in Africa, the Asian region and the global economies. The authors did this using differing theoretical perspectives and concepts. These range from use of the stakeholder salience theory, downward accountability perspective, sustainability, holistic integrated framework and critical study analysis within the context of the developing, continental and global economies. Others include the impact of NGOs on vulnerable communities and the need for environmental footprint accountability and disclosure. The edition is a compendium of information on these various themes which promises to be very useful in understanding these issues.