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• Published: 06 January 2022

The production of social science research in Nigeria: status and systemic determinants

• Abiodun Egbetokun   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2069-7648 1 ,
• Adedayo Olofinyehun   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7704-9772 1 ,
• Maruf Sanni   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8313-9910 1 ,
• Aderonke Ayo-Lawal   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5174-4067 1 ,
• Omolayo Oluwatope 1 &
• Utieyineshola Yusuff   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9962-9313 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  9 , Article number:  1 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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• Development studies
• Social policy

Nigeria has a very large research system, with nearly 200 universities that employed more than 60,000 academic staff at the end of 2019. The country is also one of Africa’s largest producers of scientific research across all disciplines, surpassed only by South Africa and Egypt. In the social sciences, in particular, Nigeria is Africa’s second-largest producer of published research, after South Africa. However, the country’s social science research (SSR) production does not match the size of its SSR system. Using mixed methods, we come up with two important reasons for this: (i) research inputs are low, mainly because research is poorly funded and researchers devote too little time to research as a result of poor organisational climate, and (ii) the research support system is weak. No single institution currently has a clear mandate to centrally coordinate SSR in Nigeria. Consequently, research efforts are often duplicated and the limited research resources are spread too thin. Moreover, logistical support for research is missing or inefficient in most organisations. Therefore, improving research productivity in the country would require much stronger research coordination and wide-ranging improvements in the research climate.

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Introduction.

Social science started to be recognised as a distinct subject area in the nineteenth century (Thompson, 1824 ). Today, the expression ‘social science’ or ‘social sciences’ is applied to the branch of science concerned with society and human behaviours. It includes disciplines such as psychology, cognitive sciences, economics, business, education, sociology, law, political science, social and economic geography, media and communications, and interdisciplinary social sciences (OECD, 2015 ). Social science research (SSR) helps in understanding and developing solutions to complex developmental challenges including climate change, pandemics, poverty, unemployment and others.

More specifically, SSR provides knowledge that is fundamental to the formulation and realisation of development agendas and policies, without which other branches of science are of limited use. For instance, “[s]cientific and technological innovations are necessary, but enabling them to make an impact requires an understanding of how people adapt and change their behaviour. That will probably require new narratives—the purview of rhetoric, literature, philosophy and even theology. Poverty and inequality call even more obviously for expertise beyond science and maths” (Shah, 2020 ).

Clearly, achieving the development agenda at the national level requires significant domestic SSR capacity. This helps to ensure that scientific evidence is generated based on critical analyses of each country’s social, development and policy challenges. Such evidence will help to inform contextually relevant actions and reforms. This is particularly important in developing countries which collectively are disproportionately affected by most of today’s development challenges. However, little is known about SSR capacity in developing countries, particularly in Africa. This is largely due to the absence of reliable system-wide data in most of these countries. Against this background, this paper analyses the production of SSR (that is, the quantity of SSR produced in Nigeria, its quality in terms of peer review and accessibility in terms of open access) and explores the systemic factors that influence its volume and quality in Nigeria.

The case of Nigeria is instructive for two reasons, at least. First, a thorough understanding of SSR production in Africa will benefit from an analysis of the Nigerian context given the country’s geographical and economic size. Nigeria is the largest country in Africa, both by population and gross domestic product (GDP). It is also one of the largest producers of SSR on the continent (AU-NEPAD, 2010 ). Secondly, although Nigeria has a very large SSR system, including a well-organised university system where most of the SSR research takes place, its research productivity does not match its size. For instance, while Nigeria has roughly five times as many universities as South Africa, its aggregate research output from all disciplines is just over a third of South Africa’s (Mba and Ekechukwu, 2019 ). This begs two questions that this paper seeks to answer: Why does such a large research system produce so little, and what can be done about it?

Of the relevant systemic factors that may condition research production (see, for instance, Ngozi et al., 2016 ; Cloete and Bunting, 2013 ; Begum, 2006 ), we focus on:

Input: we evaluate research input in three aspects—personnel, funding and time allocated to research; and

Support system: here we focus on institutions and policy, and research support services.

The choice of these two factors is informed by our conceptual framework which is based on the Doing Research Assessment (DRA) Methodology (GDN, 2017 ). Following this methodology, we conceptualise our assessment as illustrated in Fig. 1 . On the input side, the quality of personnel, the amount of time that they are able to spend on research as well as the availability of funding all influence the rate of SSR production. The effectiveness of these input factors is in turn conditioned by the system within which they are deployed. The most notable aspects of the system include the availability of relevant and high-quality data, physical and intangible infrastructure as well as support personnel (GDN, 2017 ).

The figure illustrates the conceptual framework of the study. It shows that the research system accepts inputs in the form of research personnel, the amount of time they spend on research and how well they are funded. With the data, infrastructure and support personnel provided by the research system, these inputs yield outputs in the form of open-access or closed-access research publication.

We operationalise this framework through a mixed-methods design that combines the collection and analyses of qualitative and quantitative data with rigorous desk research. After describing the research context in the next section, we provide more information on the methodology. Subsequently, the findings are presented and discussed. We show that the volume of social science research production in Nigeria is quite high and has strong potentials for good quality.

The data suggest that Nigeria is the second highest producer of SSR in Africa and most of it is peer-reviewed. We estimate between 6389 and 31,943 social science researchers in the country, around 36% of whom have a Ph.D. However, most of these researchers are compelled to devote too little time to research due to distractions that arise from poor organisational research climate. The overall research landscape is also not well coordinated, largely due to the absence of a social science research council or a similar central coordinating agency. Thus, research funding is considerably limited and foreign funding comes with misaligned agenda that tends to render SSR irrelevant to local needs. These findings highlight the strong need for an improvement in the research environment, starting with the supply of high-quality research support services particularly in the universities and research institutes. There is also a glaring need for a national research policy as well as a central state-led institution dedicated to research management.

Our study extends the previous literature on social science research in Africa. In particular, as far as we know, this study provides the most rigorous evaluation of social science research input and support system in Nigeria so far. This constitutes a much-needed addition to the research on research literature in Nigeria (Ngozi et al., 2016 ; Nwaka, 2000 ) and sub-Saharan Africa (Sooryamoorthy et al., 2018 ; Confraria and Godinho, 2015 ; Cloete and Bunting, 2013 ; Obikeze, 1979 ). Moreover, we go well beyond bibliometric analyses which provide only an aggregate view of the SSR landscape (e.g., Ezema et al., 2017 ; Mouton, 2010 ) to explore some of the characteristics of the research system that condition its output. The use of rich qualitative data allows us to draw a link between the attributes of the SSR system and the volume, relevance and visibility of its output. To the extent to which these attributes are amenable to policy, the results of this paper are particularly useful for policy.

Empirical context

With a projected Footnote 1 population of over 186 million in 2015 (NBS, 2017 ), Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh in the world according to United Nations’ estimates (UNDP, 2016). The country is divided into 36 states across six geopolitical zones—three in the north and three in the south. It is a former British colony that gained independence in October 1960. Following independence, the system of government followed the British model, until 1999 when an American-style representative democracy was established after three decades of military rule. Despite a number of reviews and reforms, the education system continues to follow the British model. The political structure of the country concentrates power in the central Federal Government which controls the university education system and most of the research institutes. Thus, many of the SSR activities are conducted within the structures and institutions of the state. Therefore, weaknesses in the rule of law, political stability, government effectiveness and corruption affect the independence, objectivity and efficiency of research organisations, which in turn facilitate (or hinder) the work of researchers.

For the purpose of this study, we identified 1825 organisations that make up the SSR system and categorised them into four:

Higher education institutions (170)—comprising federal, state and private universities. We exclude other tertiary institutions because they are less research-oriented.

Government and funding agencies (75)—comprising foreign donors, local donors, regulators, national agencies, national ministries and research institutes

Private sector organisations (65)—comprising for-profit think tanks and consultancies as well as businesses that hire researchers

Civil society organisations (1515)—omprising non-governmental organisations (NGOs), opinion leaders, non-profit think tanks and the media.

The diversity of actors and the size of the country create a system in which research is highly dispersed. Moreover, as is typical of many developing countries with poorly mapped systems, there are no reliable sampling frames or databases on the research actors. It is therefore extremely difficult to compile a comprehensive list of institutions with information about the number of researchers in each. Nonetheless, we know from first-hand experience that most of the SSR produced in Nigeria emanates from universities. Comparatively, the volume of research is lower in research institutes and almost negligible in civil society and the private sector. Our assessment of SSR production is therefore heavily tilted towards the university and research institutes.

One of the most widely accepted ways of assessing research output is to use bibliometric data (Ezema et al., 2017 ; Mouton, 2010 ). However, some points need to be borne in mind when applying bibliometrics to SSR in the African context. First, research from Africa is under-reported in existing bibliographies (Duermeijer et al., 2018 ; Gaillard, 1992 ). Even Scopus, which is recognised as being one of the most comprehensive Footnote 2 , particularly in terms of its coverage of developing countries, excludes a large chunk of research from Africa. This under-coverage is particularly acute for disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Second, a large number of journals local to Africa are excluded from all of the major international indexes (AU-NEPAD, 2010 ). Finally, while the quality of many publications is poor, there are in fact some very good journals that are not listed in any of the well-known indexes. As AU-NEPAD ( 2014 , p161) notes:

“Scientific papers published in national journals may have low impact factors and limited distribution but this does not necessarily imply that the quality of research is poor. Frequently, papers produced nationally address national issues and aim to propose solutions, which affect national policy…To take account of the fact that national publications reflect national research performance in Africa, a bibliometric system that includes international and local journals is required.”

Taken together, these points imply that the bibliographic data underestimates actual output, especially for a large country like Nigeria. Our methodology which we describe subsequently takes these points into consideration. In addition to using a relatively more comprehensive bibliographic database, we use additional data from a survey and interviews with key informants. In combination, these allow us to provide estimates of research input and output, and to discuss relevant systemic characteristics.

Methodology

As highlighted in the section “Introduction”, our research approach is based on the DRA Methodology. It is a mixed-methods design that includes a desk review, a bibliometric analysis, key informant interviews and surveys. The desk-based component of the research involved a review of relevant academic literature including journals, books, reports, working papers and Grey literature. Yet, we were unable to obtain several important indicators and secondary data on the SSR system in Nigeria, notably research expenditure on social science research, and human capital for SSR. To fill these gaps, we made estimates based on the available data, and also asked key informants who have extensive knowledge of the system—for instance, an estimate of the total number of academics in Nigerian universities was obtained from a member of the management staff at the National Universities Commission (NUC).

Given that the SSR system in Nigeria is poorly mapped, obtaining accurate data on certain indicators such as the number of social science researchers would require that we undertake a census in all relevant organisations. Given the sheer size and dispersion of the research system, such census is beyond the reach of our study. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), among other regional and national bodies, provides some relevant data but these are not necessarily disaggregated by discipline. Hence, in several places we rely on data from the 2009 Survey of Research and Experimental Development (R&D) in Nigeria, the first and so far the only comprehensive research census in the country (NACETEM, 2010 ). The survey, which covered the period 2006–2007, was carried out as part of NEPAD’s African Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (ASTII) initiative (AU-NEPAD, 2010 ). A limitation of this survey is that although it included all tertiary education institutions and research institutes in Nigeria, several institutions, especially universities, did not respond. Wherever necessary, we extrapolate this data, provide a range or an estimate, and complement with other sources.

We obtained data on research output from Scimago, an online bibliographic database that contains aggregate data on different publication types. Unlike other well-known databases like Scopus and Web of Science, Scimago is freely available and is more appropriate for our context given its wider coverage of research in developing countries. The scope of our bibliometric analysis is limited to basic indicators such as publication counts, citation and open access publications in the social sciences. We collected these indicators Footnote 3 for the period 2015–2017 on four disciplinary areas that correspond to the social sciences in Scimago:

Business, management and accounting

Economics, econometrics and finance

Social Sciences

Following the aim of this paper to understand the systemic factors that influence the rate and direction of SSR production in Nigeria, we gathered relevant information through a survey of researchers, administrators and policymakers selected across the four categories of organisations described above. First, we selected 130 organisations from the 1825 described above. We then selected individuals from these organisations by simple random sampling Footnote 4 . Our final sample comprises 805 individuals and the response rate is 85%. There were more male and postgraduate degree holders across all our sampling categories (Table 1 ) Footnote 5 . To complement the data analyses and gain a deeper insight into the research environment, we interviewed 17 key informants whom we purposively selected based on their individual profiles and position within the SSR landscape in Nigeria (Table 2 ) Footnote 6 .

Results and discussion

As highlighted in the section “Introduction”, our aim in this paper is to provide information on the current rate of SSR production in Nigeria and provide insight into the characteristics of the system that influence it. The following discussion is organised into three parts as illustrated in Fig. 1 .

Social science research output in Nigeria

From all available estimates, the volume of SSR production in Nigeria is quite high. For instance, AU-NEPAD ( 2014 ) showed that from 2005 to 2009, the country produced a total of 13,333 peer-reviewed publications in Scopus. While this is large on its own and makes Nigeria the third-largest research producer during that time, it is far behind the top two countries: South Africa had 32,372 and Egypt had 22,955 publications (AU-NEPAD, 2010 ). Nonetheless, Nigeria turns out to be the second-largest producer of SSR in Africa between 2005 and 2009, producing a fourth of South Africa’s publications in social science but thrice as many as Egypt’s (Table 3 ).

Between 2015 and 2017, data from Scimago shows that a total of 4085 SSR publications were produced in Nigeria (Table 4 ). However, the Scimago data does not include some types of publications such as technical reports and policy briefs, which are also important SSR outputs. Our survey asked researchers to report on these other types of publications that they produced in the preceding 3 years. Figure 2 plots the share of respondents who have produced at least one publication of each type. Clearly, journal articles, conference proceedings and book chapters are the most common. This is consistent with previous research, which suggests that journal articles and conference proceedings are the dominant forms of SSR output (Al et al., 2006 ; Hicks, 2004 ). Indeed, one of the best ways in which the research system self-regulates is by peer review. It is expected that rigorous peer review helps to improve research quality and reduce unethical practices. Thus, the amount of published research that benefits from peer review are a proxy for the overall quality of outputs in a research system. It is, therefore, encouraging that around 98% of all published SSR output in Nigeria is peer-reviewed (Table 4 ).

The figure shows the distribution of different types of research publications among the researchers in the study sample. Each bar represents the share of 506 researchers that claimed to have produced at least one unit of each type of publication between 2017 and 2019.

We find that open access publishing is commonplace in the Nigerian SSR landscape. In our survey, nearly half of the sampled researchers published at least 40% of their output without any restrictions in the three years prior to the survey. Similarly, around one out of every three social science publications attributable to Nigeria in Scimago is open-access (Table 4 ). There is an exceptionally high rate of open access (OA) publishing in the field of Economics, econometrics and finance. In this field, the rate of OA publishing is 44% despite the fact that it contributes just 15% of total publications. This contrasts with the broad field of Social Sciences which accounts for 60% of all publications but has an OA publication rate of 37% (Table 4 ). The existence of several OA outlets such as the Munich Personal RePEc Archive (MRPA) Footnote 7 and African Journals Online (AJOL) Footnote 8 contribute to the proliferation of OA output in economics. For instance, 14% out of the 341 SSR-related journals listed in AJOL at the end of December 2019 are in the field of Economics and Development, the third-largest share among all the disciplines.

Peer-reviewed research output in Nigeria is dominant because academic career advancement is tied to it. In universities and research institutes, the number of journal articles and conference papers produced by researchers, usually within a 3-year window, carries most of the weight in the promotion and tenure decisions. However, tenure and promotion decisions typically rely on publication counts rather than impact. This culture, although rapidly changing recently, has had three important implications for SSR production in the country. First, the incentive for high-quality publications is reduced as researchers race towards the number of publications required for promotion. Secondly, the demand for predatory journals is increased because researchers feel pressured to ‘publish or perish’. Thirdly, unethical practices such as plagiarism and publication slicing (where researchers unnecessarily split their research into multiple publications) are stimulated. Hence, a large number of journals published in Nigeria—or in which research from Nigeria appears—are fairly obscure (Ezema, 2010 ). Countering these implications requires strong and consistent policies.

A large share of local journals are not only absent from international indexes, they are also characterised by short life span, many of them not going beyond 2 years (Ifidon, 1994 ). In a study of the social science research landscape in Nigeria, Ezema et al. ( 2017 ) found a high prevalence of commercial publishers—an alternative term for predatory publishers—among the publication outlets used by Nigerian social science researchers. One interviewee confirms this problem, stating that the NUC needs to

“get experts together in Nigeria now to accredit and reaccredit journals in the various disciplines, but I tell you it’s a huge operation…We have a responsibility and we are doing something it’s just that the problems are enormous.”

Nonetheless, the volume of social science research production in Nigeria is obviously high and has strong potentials for good quality. However, the volume of production does not match the large size of the SSR system. For instance, a total of 3991 SSR publications amount to 2.2 publications by each of the 1825 organisations in the Nigerian SSR system from 2015 to 2017. Even if all of the publications were produced by universities, this would be only about 23.4 publications per university in two years. Moreover, the potential for quality is hindered by several systemic weaknesses. In the subsequent sections, we turn to an explanation of some factors that may explain these observations.

Systemic factors that condition social science research output in Nigeria

Research input.

The 2009 Survey of Research and Experimental Development in Nigeria (NACETEM, 2010 ) put the total number of researchers at 17,624 Footnote 9 . Of these, 15,739 were in universities and the remainder were in research institutes. At the end of 2017, the total number of academic staff in Nigerian universities was 62,000 according to the NUC’s Nigerian University System Statistical Digest. Footnote 10 The R&D survey data is dated and counts researchers from fewer universities compared to the more recent NUC data. However, to the best of our knowledge, it is the only reliable count of the number of researchers in Nigerian research institutes. Subsequently, we adopt the documented NUC estimate of about 62,000 researchers in the Nigerian university system and add 1885 researchers in research institutes as reported by NACETEM ( 2010 ). This yields a total of 63,885 researchers in Nigeria.

Without further data, it is difficult to reliably determine what share of these is in the social sciences. Unfortunately, even regulators do not keep such disaggregated data. For instance, a key informant from the NUC informed us that university personnel data disaggregated by discipline was not available at the NUC. There are two ways by which the number of social science researchers may be estimated from the available personnel data: funding and faculty share. Data from NACETEM ( 2010 ) suggest that SSR takes approximately 10% of R&D funding in Nigerian universities and research institutes. If we assume a 1:1 mapping between funding and R&D personnel, the share of social science researchers would then be about 10% of 63,885, that is, 6389. Assuming that the ratio of social science researchers to other disciplines is 1, the share of social science researchers would then be about 50% of 63,885, that is, 31,943. In sum, these estimates suggest that as of 2017, the number of social science researchers in Nigeria would have ranged anywhere between 6389 and 31,943. Using a population estimate of 190 million in 2017, this would amount to between 34 and 168 social science researchers per million Nigerians.

The 2009 R&D Survey Footnote 11 reports 5802 researchers with a doctorate degree, 155 in postdoctoral positions and 4366 studying towards a Ph.D. in Nigerian universities. Thus, a total of 5957 university researchers (38%) already possessed a doctorate Footnote 12 . Of the 1885 researchers in research institutes, only 354 (around 19%) had a Ph.D. In combination, 6311 (around 36%) of all researchers in the universities and research institutes already possessed a Ph.D. at the end of 2007. Keeping with the estimated range of 10–50% from before, the number of social science researchers with a Ph.D. would be between 631 and 3155. On the lower and upper bounds, this would be around 36% of all social science researchers at that time Footnote 13 . It is striking to observe that the share of Ph.D.-qualified researchers in universities is at least twice as much as in research institutes. This may be connected to two factors: there are many more universities than research institutes in Nigeria, and there is a sharp contrast in the appointment and promotion structure in these two types of institutions.

Admittedly, the above estimates are based on a set of strong assumptions and are clearly dated. Unfortunately, more recent data is not available. Nonetheless, the numbers hint at a large research system compared to those of other African countries. For instance, of the 13 countries assessed in AU-NEPAD ( 2010 , chap. 3), Nigeria had the second-largest number of researchers and also the second-largest number of Ph.D.-qualified researchers. Per million, the country had the fifth-highest number of researchers. It is therefore not surprising that Nigeria is one of Africa’s highest producers of research in general, and of SSR specifically. The surprising fact is that the country’s research production does not match the size of its research system. South Africa, which has a considerably smaller research system, at least in terms of the number of research organisations, produces much more research than Nigeria both in general and in the social sciences specifically. A straightforward explanation can be found in the much higher number of researchers in South Africa compared to Nigeria.

Data from the 2009 R&D Survey (NACETEM, 2010 ) showed that Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) was ₦45.9 billion that is USD583.2 million (2009 PPP) Footnote 14 . As a share of GDP, this was only 0.2%, far below the UNESCO-recommended 1% of GDP. Around 96% of the research funding was provided by the government of Nigeria. The private non-profit sector provided nearly 2% of the funding while 1% came from foreign sources. The for-profit private sector provided only 0.2% of research funding at the end of 2007. Most of the research funding (about 65%) went to universities where 11.3% of total R&D expenditure went to social science and humanities. In research institutes, only 6.2% of R&D expenditure went to the social sciences. Applying these percentages to the GERD value, we find that total R&D expenditure in Nigerian universities and research institutes was around N 29.72 billion and N 16.14 billion, respectively. Of these, about N 3.3 billion in universities and N 1 billion in research institutes went to SSR. As a share of GERD, this represents only about 9.3%. As estimated above, the number of social science researchers in Nigeria in 2007 would be in the range between 1762 and 8812; thus, GERD on social science per researcher would be N 2.42 million in the upper limit and N 0.48 million in the lower range. In 2009 PPP, these would be between approximately USD 31,000 and USD 6000.

Considering that the GERD values include salaries and wages among other things, it stands out clearly that SSR in Nigeria is poorly funded. This much was admitted by a staff of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) who said about the level of funding that

“…it’s not adequate to the level that we can push the economy forward but we as an institution we think that we are doing our best to encourage it.”

From our first-hand knowledge of the system and some key informant interviews, we know that the contribution of foreign sources to domestic research in Nigeria is heavily underreported. A lot of the funding comes in form of grants and consultancies but in the university system where most of the research takes place, there is no national monitoring or reporting framework for foreign research funding. Even at the level of individual universities, only large grants are passed through the institution; smaller grants are offered directly to individual researchers and are therefore invisible to observations like ours.

We found out from some of the interviews that a huge amount of funding flows into the country across all disciplines, including social science. Beyond research grants provided by TETFUND, which is the primary research funder in the country, nearly all of the individual and organisational grants expended in Nigeria are from foreign donors. While this is positive in and of itself, it comes with a burden of responsibility for local researchers to follow the agenda of the funding agencies. For instance, almost without exception, calls for grants proposals are tied to research questions and objectives that are pre-determined by the donors. Generally, these questions and objectives are developed with little or no input from local researchers. Therefore, even if they seem appealing, they are often marginally relevant to local needs. In the face of scarce local funding, researchers are compelled to tune their research agenda towards these ‘imported’ research agenda, and ultimately produce outputs that satisfy donors but have limited local relevance. In general, over-reliance on foreign funding reduces the relevance of research activities to the Nigerian situation (Ngozi et al. 2016 ).

Time for research

Time allocated to research as a share of the researcher’s full time is an important indicator of the state of a research system. In a healthy system, the amount of time dedicated to research activities (conducting own research, or other research production, writing, presenting, reviewing) needs to be properly balanced with time devoted to other professional responsibilities such as teaching, administration, preparing lectures, supervising, etc. Most (68%) of the social science researchers that we sampled indicated that they did not have sufficient time for research over the last three years. Indeed, the majority of the researchers spend less than 50% of their time on research (Fig. 3 ). On average, the researchers reported spending only 39.3% (SE = 1.08) of their time on research and the typical (median) social science researcher spends only about 30% of their time doing research. This implies that if we assume 250 working days in a year, the country only realises the equivalent of 75 full days of research from the typical social science researcher.

The figure shows the distribution of researchers according to how much time they devoted to research in 2019. The x -axis is the amount of researchers’ time in increments of 20 per cent while the y-axis is the share of respondents that indicates spending a given amount of time on their research activities.

Several factors are responsible for this low time allocation to research. Besides weak infrastructure, perhaps the most visible of the problems is the amount of distractions that arise from poor organisational research climate. Previous research (e.g., Begum, 2006 ) suggests a strong positive correlation between organisational research climate and research productivity. Notable among the components of organisational climate, especially in the university where most of the SSR in Nigeria is prosecuted, are weekly teaching hours, number of subjects taught per week, student-teacher ratio, number of non-research responsibilities such as committee memberships, and bureaucratic efficiency. Unfortunately, the research system in Nigeria performs poorly on nearly all of these components. Most research organisations are understaffed and the few research staff has to overwork to keep the system running. The problem of inefficient grants management and other research support offices also creates a distraction for researchers. As noted by one of our key informants, who is a researcher-lecturer in Nigeria’s first university,

“…not a lot of time is allocated [to research]. People do more teaching than research…and you don’t get enough grants to do your research. Even when you do have research grants, I’ve found that all the supporting activities [are weak]. For instance personally speaking, the time you spend chasing your money [after] the grant you’ve already [secured] has already landed in the university’s account and they’ve taken their overhead, is way too much. So there are distractors every now and then that researchers just have to struggle with, and those things eat into the time they have to do research. And when that happens and the time is dragging, it has a direct effect on morale, which becomes low.”

Research support system

Institutions and policy.

The existence of an active central institution for the management of research has several advantages. It helps to guarantee a consistent flow of funds for SSR and to ensure that national plans and programmes incorporate SSR. Moreover, such an institution sets the SSR agenda in the country and aligns it to national development priorities. In many countries, this type of institution exists as a research council, such as the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in South Africa. In Nigeria, however, such institution does not exist. An interviewee referenced the Social Sciences Council of Nigeria (SSCN), which is only a self-organised community of practice comprising eminent social science scholars in Nigeria. The organisation is independent of government and does not play any coordinating role in the SSR system in Nigeria:

“…I used to know of Social Science Research Council but I don’t know to what extent they regulate. I don’t think there is any regulatory organ in Nigeria. We have the Nigerian Economic Society [but] they do not regulate; they only probably coordinate or disseminate research findings through their journals and through their annual conferences.”

The existence of a national policy that outlines the priorities, resources and relevant institutions implicated in the promotion of SSR is closely connected to the existence of a national SSR council. Often, the policy precedes the organisation, as in the case of South Africa but the reverse may also be the case Footnote 15 . We found no such policy in Nigeria, from our desk review. The non-existence of the policy is confirmed by our key informants. One of them specifically said:

“[W]e don’t have national research policies; even organisations don’t have…I don’t think we have any government organisation or a regulatory agency of government on research…”

The high difficulty in getting accurate secondary data on the current status of the SSR system is a direct consequence of the weakness in management-supervision of SSR in the country. In the absence of a coordinating council or a relevant policy, the SSR system is poorly coordinated and the level of interaction among actors is weak. Consequently, the entire system is inefficient as research efforts are often duplicated and the limited research resources are spread too thin. These problems are nicely summarised by one of the key informants that we interviewed. He noted that:

“[T]he greatest challenge on research in Nigeria is that on the average university researchers work in silos even within the same institution. These are very serious issues constraining the ability of our research to contribute to a national system of innovation. [For instance], in the Ministry of Science and Technology there are well over ten research institutes and none of them has a handshake with a corresponding research institution in the university…and I’ve argued that it is a colossal waste of natural and national resources because all of this research are going on with public funds…so why can’t they collaborate to strengthen our national capacity to have a robust national system of innovation?”

These observations highlight a strong need for SSR coordination in Nigeria. Efforts were made recently, based on the National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, to establish a National Research and Innovation Council (NRIC). Although this body was not dedicated to SSR, it would at least have been a good foundation on which future interventions could build. Unfortunately, this council was inaugurated but never really took off. This leaves room for more intervention, as noted by management staff in TETFUND:

“[W]e are pushing for the creation of a national research foundation by discussing and collaborating with all the agencies and institution that revolve around research…[I]t will be a centralised role…Somebody may be undergoing a research under our own institution while another may be doing it in the health sector, but if there are no [coordinating] efforts, we will be working at cross-purposes; but collaborating will strengthen the output [of] the research and will make it more impactful…[T]here should be a national research foundation that will look at the objectives of Nigeria, how to make use of research to set national priorities, implement them and get results…”

Organisational support and administration

The capacity of a research institution to provide effective logistical support for research professionals will directly affect its overall output and quality. This logistical support includes administrative functions such as clerical work, office management, and facilitation of grant procedures. System-wide, the quality of research support services influences the strength of the research system. In Nigeria, such support services are generally available in universities and research institutes. Statutorily, all public research institutes have a Human Resources and a Finance and Accounts department that respectively manage recruitment and accounting processes. In addition to these, most universities, especially the public ones, have a Grants Management Office that centrally administers research grants.

Bearing these in mind, we asked researchers to rate their level of satisfaction with the research support services provided in their institutions. Figure 4 shows that most researchers are dissatisfied, especially with time/stress management and recruitment services. This is reflective of the situation in most Nigerian institutions, where personnel in the support offices are either poorly trained or possess insufficient competence in the provision of research support services. Many institutions also have multiple offices on the bureaucratic chain of command, thereby creating considerable inertia and inefficiency in the system. The earlier quote in the section “Research input” from a university researcher aptly illustrates the problem. A regulator also noted:

“It is one thing to have one or two good researchers in the university but it’s a different thing to have a system where there are officers employed by the universities to help academics write good proposals…[I]n Nigeria…some research projects get derailed because of mismanagement of funds not because people are thieves but sometimes the professors are too engrossed in the real research work and…are financial illiterates…”

The figure summarises a set of Likert scale items on how satisfied researchers feel with different aspects of administrative support provided by their institutions.

The production of knowledge in Africa has been the subject of much enquiry particularly in the field of scientometrics. There is little research, however, on the production of social science research and its determinants. In this paper, we describe the volume of social science research production and its systemic determinants in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and one of the largest research systems. Our point of departure is that Nigeria’s research productivity does not match the size of its research system. We propose two broad explanations for this: (1) research inputs are low, mainly because research is poorly funded and researchers devote too little time to research as a result of poor organisational climate. (2) The research support system is weak. No single institution currently has a clear mandate to centrally coordinate SSR in Nigeria. Consequently, research efforts are often duplicated and the limited research resources are spread too thin. Moreover, logistical support for research is missing or inefficient in most organisations.

Three major implications can be drawn from these findings. First, there is a strong need for SSR coordination in Nigeria. A huge gap currently exists for a central state-led institution dedicated to the management of SSR. This may take the form of a national research foundation or a council. Closely connected to this is the need for a national policy that outlines the priorities, resources and relevant institutions for the production of SSR. In combination, these will help to strengthen the production of research, create funding synergies and eliminate redundancies arising from duplicated research efforts. The TETFUND, which is currently the major domestic funder of research, is well-positioned to lead efforts in this direction.

Secondly, it is now necessary more than ever to create a localised bibliographic database as well as a national accreditation system similar to the one maintained by South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training. While a large number of journals are published in the country across many university departments, no database or accreditation system for local journals exists in Nigeria. Overall quality tends to be low and, as a consequence, visibility is poor. The NUC is well-positioned to spearhead efforts in this regard through strong and consistent policies and institutional arrangements. For instance, steering the promotion system in universities beyond publication counts towards quality will incentivise the production of good quality research output. Curating research output in a localised database is particularly valuable because it will help to overcome the under-coverage of African research in existing databases.

Third, national stakeholders, including research organisations and the government, need to create an environment that supports research. This is especially true for universities where most of the research takes place. The existing culture of sabbatical leave during which academics are exempted from teaching to focus on research can be leveraged. Presently, many academics exploit the sabbatical leave to take up teaching positions in other universities in order to realise more income. Reversing this trend requires a higher level of funding for the research system, a role that the government is best positioned to play. Moreover, it may be desirable to implement an optional research leave system, that is, the possibility for a researcher to remain within their university to do research while being exempted from teaching and administrative duties. This is clearly not achievable in an under-staffed research system. Finally, although they may not be a necessity in organisations that do not hire many researchers, competent research management offices are required in every university.

Data availability

The datasets analysed during the current study are available in the Mendeley Data repository: https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/g2wstgcgwc/1 . A data article describing the dataset is also published in Data in Brief and is openly available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2021.106932 (full citation details in the references).

Projections based on 2006 census and population growth rate.

At the time of this study, Scopus contained ~16,000 journals compared with 9500 in the Web of Science.

All indicators were collected in January 2020. Given the dynamics of research output, a search today would yield slightly different results than those reported in this paper.

We stratified the organisations by type, size and location before the random selection.

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This is because, by the NACETEM ( 2010 ) estimates, the number of social science researchers in 2007 would range from 10 and 50 per cent of 17,624, that is between 1762 and 8812.

1 USD = 78.62 NGN in 2009 PPP, the year in which the data was collected.

In Nigeria, there is no national research foundation or council in the area of science, technology and innovation yet but a national policy on science, technology and innovation exists.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the Global Development Network (GDN), India, under the Doing Research Assessment (DRA) programme (Grant Reference Number: GDNIO/GRANT/2018-19/050/DR/ABIODUN ADEYEMI EGBETOKUN). More details on the DRA in Nigeria can be found at http://www.gdn.int/doing-research-nigeria . We thank Andy Frost, Francesco Obino, João Costa and Daniel Fussy for constructive criticisms. We also thank participants at the GDN’s 2019 Global Development Conference at Bonn, Germany (October 23–25) for useful feedback on a preliminary version of the results. We also appreciate anonymous reviewers and editors.

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Abiodun Egbetokun, Adedayo Olofinyehun, Maruf Sanni, Aderonke Ayo-Lawal, Omolayo Oluwatope & Utieyineshola Yusuff

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Egbetokun, A., Olofinyehun, A., Sanni, M. et al. The production of social science research in Nigeria: status and systemic determinants. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 9 , 1 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-01017-z

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Assessment of water resources development and exploitation in Nigeria: A review of integrated water resources management approach

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No data was used for the research described in the article.

This research aims to review the current state and limitations of water resources management in Nigeria and explore how adopting an integrated approach to water management can strengthen socio-economic development. As the support for integrated water resources management (IWRM) grows, it is necessary to explore how feasible it is in the Nigerian context especially with many Nigerian states facing water stress even with the country's substantial resources. This paper reviews literature related to the implementation of IWRM around the world with particular reference to developing countries in Africa and draws parallels between their experience and the possibilities that exist for IWRM in Nigeria. Progress on adopting IWRM in Nigeria is discussed and the pitfalls to implementing IWRM in practice are identified. Among the hindrances to effective water resources management in the country is the lack of good water governance, which has affected the quality of water legislation and institutions. This paper concludes that the slow progress of IWRM implementation in Nigeria is the result of an unclear framework for implementing IWRM in the country. This paper recommends an iterative approach to implementing IWRM that allows for adaptation and is tailored to solve specific water problems in Nigeria.

Integrated water resources management (IWRM); IWRM implementation; Sustainable development goals (SDGs); Nigeria; Water stress; River basin.

1. Introduction

The sustainable management of water resources is critical to the development of a society because water plays a key role in various aspects of human endeavour. Water is needed for domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural and recreational purposes. All developed nations have a shared history of heavy investment in water infrastructure, institutions and the capacity to manage water resources adequately [ 1 ]. Conversely, less developed nations are usually characterised by inadequate water infrastructure, weak institutions and poor water governance. Given that the demand for finite water resources is increasing, it is important to examine how water resources can be managed to facilitate continued national development.

In Nigeria, the total renewable water resources (TRWR) per capita is estimated to be 2514 m 3 /year yet access to clean water is reported to be low with only 69 per cent of Nigerians with access to basic water supply service [ 2 ]. In comparison, countries like Tunisia which have significantly less TRWR per capita have achieved near nationwide coverage of water supply services [ 3 ]. Judging by the poor access to water supply as evidenced by [ 3 ] and [ 4 ], and the continued degradation of the available water resources, it can be inferred that there are critical issues with the way water resources are managed in the country. At present, the Federal Ministry of Water resources oversees all water resources development and management in the country through other smaller ministries and parastatals. Consequently, sectoral interests and lack of coordination among stakeholders hinder effective water resources management, resulting in over-abstraction and wastage of water resources, and environmental pollution which negatively affects essential ecosystems [ 5 , 6 ]. Although the country is blessed with vast freshwater resources estimated at 286.2 km 3 /year, these resources are not distributed evenly geographically and are subject to seasonal variability. The northern region of the country faces this more sorely as annual precipitation averages between 100 – 250 mm and the high population in this area has resulted in water stress [ 7 ]. Furthermore, a growing population and urbanisation are putting increased pressure on the available water resources such that there is competition across multiple sectors for water resources and access to water is restricted even in areas of the country where water is abundant [ 6 , 8 ].

In line with these trends, there is a needed paradigm shift in water management from the traditional, sectoral approach to integrated water resources management (IWRM) with the belief that implementing its principles will translate to sustainable use of water resources [ 9 ].

This research, therefore, examines the current state of water resources management in Nigeria, its effect on national development, and how implementing IWRM can benefit sustainable development in Nigeria. Key considerations are the uniqueness of the Nigerian context and the intrinsic factors that could pose a hindrance to the implementation of IWRM. The following sub-themes are explored in this paper: the policy and legal framework of water resources management in Nigeria, the characteristics of IWRM and how they translate to national policy, lessons to learn from other developed and developing countries which have adopted IWRM principles, and how implementing IWRM can fuel national development. This paper is based on a review of pertinent literature describing the IWRM approach and how it has been implemented around the world. Other published works including legislation laying out the structure and responsibilities of relevant water-related government agencies in Nigeria are also reviewed. Figure 1 shows the map of Nigeria in the context of its location in Africa as well as globally.

(a) The map of the world showing the location of Nigeria in Africa (b) The map of Nigeria showing the states and major water bodies.

2. Water resources management in Nigeria

2.1. colonial-era and independence.

Organised water management in Nigeria predates the country's independence in 1960. As far back as 1849, the colonial masters collected water and stored them for domestic use through roof water harvesting. Over time, it graduated to intake from streams and later in the form of a more complex simulated artesian piping system [ 10 ]. Subsequent increases in the population resulted in the creation of the unit for water services in the Public Works Department (PWD) in the 1950s. After political independence in 1960, the Ministry of Works integrated the water services unit of the PWD [ 10 ]. Currently, the Ministry of Water Resources at the federal level and the Ministry of Works at the state levels oversee the issue of water management in the country.

2.2. Current scenario of water resources management in Nigeria

Following the independence of Nigeria in 1960, the River Niger and Lake Chad Basin Commissions were established followed later by the Sokoto-Rima and Chad Basin Authorities in 1973 and 1974 respectively. It was the responsibility of the River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) to exploit, develop and manage the available land, surface and groundwater resources in their areas of jurisdiction to improve agricultural output and provide water for various other purposes as shown in Table 1 [ 11 ]. Nigeria's first comprehensive steps into regional water policy development came in the mid-1970s with the establishment of eleven (11) RBDAs by Decree 25 of 1976 and subsequently, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources (FMWR) in 1976. The RBDAs came in response to the Sahelian drought in the early 1970s. Between 1976 and 1979, the RBDA Act had been amended once in 1977 (Decree 31 of 1977) and repealed by Decree 87 of 1979. The Act was repealed again in 1986. Finally, the current RBDA Act of 1990 divided the Niger River basin into the Lower and Upper Niger River basins bringing the total number of river basins and RBDAs to 12 [ 12 ]. According to the National Water Policy, 2004 [ 11 ], the Water Resources Act of 1993, the Minerals Act of 1990, the RBDA Act of 1990, the NIWA Decree 13 of 1997, and State Water Edicts are the only statutory laws governing the development and management of water resources in Nigeria. Under the Water Resources Act of 1993, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources (FMWR) is given the sole responsibility for both the development and management of water resources in Nigeria [ 13 ].

Table 1

Primary Water Resources Management Statutes in Nigeria and their functions.

Source: [ 10 , 11 , 19 ].

As is the case in many developing countries, the FMWR oversees a number of smaller agencies and parastatals, each one concerned with a specific water use, in a top-down management approach. Effective water resources management is hinged on making the right policies to guide the management institutions, and this is one key element that is lacking in the Nigerian context. Various authors have cited weak legal and institutional framework as a significant setback in the way water is managed in Nigeria [ 8 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. The weaknesses have resulted in public institutions that are crippled by overlapping functions ( Table 1 ), lack of funding, vested political interests and corruption, technological deficit, and absence of a comprehensive database for planning to the end that the water resources of Nigeria are grossly under-utilized or wasted and further degraded by pollution [ 6 , 17 , 18 ].

Lack of continuity in policy implementation has made it difficult for state governments such as Imo state to rise above the provision of 24 L daily per person as against the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard of 130 L and 70 L per person/day for urban areas and rural areas respectively [ 10 ]. A water-rich Nigeria with an estimated 267 billion cubic metres of surface water supplies and 52 billion cubic metres of groundwater supplies [ 6 ] currently suffers from poor water governance, weak policy formulation, and lack of implementation as it concerns efficient water use. Poor water governance and the resultant water scarcity is contributing to the security challenges in Nigeria particularly in the North-eastern region with Boko Haram terrorist insurgency, herdsmen killings, and the sacking of farming communities around the country [ 20 ].

2.3. Demand and supply management challenges

According to Muller et al. [ 21 ], water resources management at its core is finding an acceptable way of maintaining regular supply of freshwater against the backdrop of increasing demand. Traditionally, water resources management in Nigeria is supply-biased rather than demand-oriented [ 22 ]. That is, more emphasis is on increasing the quantity of water that is available for consumption through developing new infrastructure rather than ensuring optimal use of the available water resources. This gap between supply and demand management is one of the critical issues in water governance raised by researchers not only with respect to Nigeria but also with other rapidly urbanising countries [ 22 , 23 ]. Currently, water managers in the country are not fully subscribed to either demand and supply management of water or IWRM. This lack of a clear direction is, in part, because of the absence of political will to accept fully the use of marginal cost recovery in pricing water as an economic resource. With a population growth rate estimated at 2.6% per annum [ 24 ], the demand for water in adequate quantity and quality for various purposes (domestic, municipal, agricultural, commercial and industrial) is increasing [ 25 , 26 ] whereas, available resources are being depleted due to factors such as climate change, over-abstraction, and pollution [ 22 ]. For example, the former governor of Imo state in Nigeria observed that it met a zero level water supply from the state water corporation (SWA) since taking office in May 2019 [ 27 ]. Other 35 state governors in Nigeria may not have voiced their lamentations, but the scenario is not likely to be different. This gap in water supply is being filled in part by private organisations including small and large water companies, and water tanker operators; a situation similar to what is being witnessed in the urban water supply sector in Ghana [ 28 ]. These private enterprises, however, are primarily concerned with making commercial gain without considering the impact of their continued groundwater abstraction on the sustainable development and use of scarce water resources. Muller et al. [ 21 ] describe supply management as increasing supply by the provision of more storage, water transfer, desalination and reuse of waste, and use of the natural environment by sustaining freshwater sources. However, this approach pays little attention to cost recovery and has serious repercussions for the environment and the economy [ 29 ]. Given that it has become unsustainable to continue to increase abstractions from finite freshwater resources, the attention now is on how to manage the demand through structural and non-structural means in order to drive sustainable use of water resources. The control of demand will require household tariff increases, improved and reliable industrial supply, application of technology to monitor and improve the efficiency of water use in agriculture, and trading of water allocation by price mechanism [ 21 ]. Nevertheless, there are arguments against both supply and demand management of water that they do not guarantee marginal cost pricing to take care of the environmental concerns which affect future availability and use of the resource [ 10 , 29 ].

3. Concept of integrated water resources management

Water is a vital requirement for human existence. As such, water resource managers over the years have searched for ways to exploit this essential resource for its numerous benefits to man and the environment while taking into account its uneven spatiotemporal distribution and finite nature [ 29 ]. The likelihood of having water disaster across the world has pushed water managers to search for effective ways of meeting future needs without sacrificing the security of current water supplies [ 10 , 29 ]. To this end, the argument has been, how to balance the supply and demand forms of water management in order to guarantee maximum possible benefit from water resources while preserving ecological systems for future use [ 10 ]. In practice, in Nigeria as with many developing countries, there is a distrust of demand-oriented water management as it is usually seen as the prescription of international donor organisations like the World Bank, World Health Organisation, and the International Monetary Fund to keep developing economies in perpetual poverty [ 10 ].

In the latter part of the twentieth century, it became apparent that the world needed to pay more attention to ensuring sustainable use of water resources in order to prevent a global water crisis. This was a key theme in the United Nations Conference on Water which held in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 1977 where several issues surrounding integrated water management were discussed. This included, among other topics, the need for policy and legislative instruments that promote integrated water management, the importance of ensuring real co-ordination among all water institutions, and public participation in water management. An action plan was developed which included recommendations on key issues in water management and twelve resolutions on varying subject matters ranging from efficiency in water use to encouraging stakeholder participation through education, and public information. The Mar del Plata action plan is therefore widely recognised as the first internationally coordinated effort to IWRM [ 30 , 31 ]. Following this, at the International Conference on Water and Environment that held in Dublin, Ireland in 1992, four principles were introduced that have underpinned a lot of the water sector reforms. These principles emphasize that: water is an important natural resource which is finite and vulnerable, management of water resources should involve all stakeholders, involving women in water management is key to maximising the potential in the water sector, and water should be seen as a resource with economic value [ 32 ].

In a bid to provide an clear definition of IWRM, which had hitherto been lacking [ 33 , 34 ], the Global Water Partnership (GWP) described IWRM as:

“... a process which promotes the co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare of a people in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems ” [ 34 ].

IWRM is therefore concerned with how to allocate water and water infrastructure in a way that reduces wastefulness, thereby contributing to the sustenance of the environment. The concern for efficiency is based on the fact that this “finite” material has contributed to human civilization in the following ways: economic production in industry, agriculture, mining, domestic use for drinking and cleanliness, transportation and commerce, communication, naval, power and energy generation, economic power and wealth creation and rise and fall of political forces. All these contributions to civilisation are without borders hence Nigeria has benefited aside other contributions by becoming one nation of diverse people during the colonisation era. Although critics have argued the impracticality of IWRM especially in developing countries [ 35 ], the concept of IWRM as a way forward has advanced across the world as it plans for current demand while ensuring the safety of the resource for future use.

3.1. Characteristics of IWRM in Nigeria

Political considerations are often at the heart of discussions to embark on a new water scheme in Nigeria rather than the input of experts [ 10 ]. As a result, hard paths (i.e. large-scale water infrastructure) are commonplace while soft path solutions (i.e. policies and institutional reform) are absent. Other indications of lapses in the process of deciding new water schemes include lack of cost recovery measures, use of outdated irrigation processes and absence of water recovery measures, and inequality of stakeholders on issues of water supply and use which is a key part of the SDG [ 36 , 37 ]. The centralised approach to water resources management practiced in Nigeria and the limited inclusion of private participants is a major part of the water problem in the nation. Although government monopoly in the water sector is reducing with the entrance of small and large private enterprises, there are still significant hindrances to private sector involvement. These hindrances include the need to ensure equitable distribution of resources all over the country as well as other political considerations such as providing subsidies to poorer areas. In addition, the perception of water as a social good, the need for large capital investments in the sector, and the interdependence of water uses as seen in the conventional lack of property rights in the water supply industry could discourage private sector entry into the sector [ 10 , 37 ].

In Nigeria, IWRM is currently seen as a scheme imposed by the World Bank and other funding agencies that has demand, supply, and cost recovery items without sustainable supply for future use in terms of environmental remediation and recharge of the system [ 10 ]. The National Water Policy [ 11 ] limits the functions of River Basin Development Authorities to the control, development and conservation of land in Nigeria's surface and underground water resources to upgrade agriculture and water supply output. In summary, some of the characteristics of integrated water resources management argued by Muller [ 21 ] and [ 38 ] are holistic management of all water sources in a country with the river basin as the basic unit of management, synergy of various water users, planning of water development with respect to the broader national framework. Other characteristics include pursuing economic efficiency, equitable distribution of water especially across vulnerable groups, and promoting environmental sustainability especially in the age of global climate change mitigation and adaptation.

3.2. Assessing IWRM in Nigeria

The United Nations [ 39 ] report on integrated water resources management programme progress indicates that most African countries including Nigeria have medium to low progress in the range of 31–50%. According to the progress report, the countries within this range have institutionalized most elements of IWRM at 41 percent but are unlikely to meet the global target except a significant acceleration of progress is made. South Africa has however been classified in the range of 51–70% of implementing elements of the IWRM in long-term with the possibility of reaching the 2030 target if sustained efforts are focused [ 39 ]. The emergence of IWRM at the global stage [ 40 ] was to guide discussions and policy formulation as it concerns sustainable water resources management in the absence of an alternative road map. The key features of IWRM as noted by [ 41 ] include integrating water issues with other policy objectives, good governance principles, stakeholders’ involvement in decision-making, including women, efficient allocation of resources with cost recovery that assures of equitable access, and sustainable demand management principles. Cherlet [ 42 ] has noted that over 80% of countries worldwide use the IWRM principles in their water laws while two-thirds of countries have developed a national IWRM plan since the turn of the century. Notwithstanding the widespread diffusion and adoption of IWRM around the world, questions are being asked about the efficacy of this single solution in all parts of the world with different economic, socio-cultural, and environmental experiences [ 14 , 35 ]. This calls for an assessment of the level of adoption and implementation of IWRM in Nigeria. Akpabio et al. [ 14 ] and Biswas [ 35 ] argue that the heterogeneous nature of the country, including its different cultures, the skewed availability of natural resources, investment funds, management capacities, and institutional arrangements, may hinder the adoption of a single solution to a complex water resource challenge. In Nigeria, aside from these factors, governance, legal framework, decision-making processes and types, and effectiveness of institutions have geographical differences [ 14 , 35 ]. All these factors have both negative and positive effects on the effectiveness of water resources management in Nigeria.

The evolution of IWRM principles in Nigeria started with the establishment of two RBDAs, followed by the establishment of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources (FMWR) in 1970, and subsequently the increase of the number of RBDAs to twelve [ 12 ]. However, the term “IWRM” was not mentioned in Nigeria's earlier water legislation but was later recognised in the first National Water Policy in 2004 [ 43 ]. This National Water Policy defines IWRM as “integrating the different users and uses of water resources” [ 11 ]. While the policy document did not explicitly state that IWRM principles would be adopted, the principles of participatory water management, transboundary river management, and environmental sustainability were highlighted therein. While these principles are outlined, the current water legislation does not state in clear terms how these principles are to be achieved in practice [ 44 ].

The operation of the RBDAs is particularly important because the river basin is often seen as the most practical geographical unit for implementing IWRM. Figure 2 shows the 12 river basin development authorities in Nigeria and their area of coverage.

Map of Nigeria showing the locations of the 12 RBDAs and their area of coverage.

Initially, the RBDAs were instituted to provide bulk water supply for agriculture. However, their functions have since expanded to include collection and collation of relevant hydrological, hydrogeological, and meteorological data within their areas of jurisdiction [ 10 ]. A study carried out by Akpabio et al. [ 14 ] on the implementation of IWRM in the Cross River Basin Development Authority (CRBDA) showed that the RBDA could not carry out its responsibilities because of limited resources and the lack of technical capacity to collect and store relevant hydrological and hydrogeological data. Other RBDAs and water management institutions in Nigeria face similar challenges of inadequate technical support for effective operation.

Also, the fact that no dam project has been completed in the South-east zone of the country out of a total of 200 dams in the country is an indication of the failure of the current water resources management system [ 10 ]. This situation typifies the weakness of the institutional arrangement of the Nigerian water sector, a weakness that reflects the centralised system of governance practiced in the country. According to Akpabio et al. [ 14 ] and Mitchell [ 45 ], this institutional arrangement is further affected by political, ethnic and economic considerations. Moreover [ 14 ], argues that legal arrangements which deal with water, land and environmental resources in Nigeria are weak and do not recognise the intricate ecological linkages between water and other related resources such as oil. The effect is an uncoordinated management approach in policy formulation and implementation. It is noted that each river basin is supposed to be coordinating with the state agencies in its area of operation which are governed by by-laws and edicts the river basin authority does not have jurisdiction over [ 14 ].

Other IWRM issues of concern in Nigeria especially in the northern part of the country [ 46 ] include surface water demands exceeding mean river flow, river channel blockages which hamper downstream water use, the impact of large dams on river flows, decline in groundwater levels in parts of river basins, reduction in the number of hydrometric networks, and near absence of attention to groundwater data and management.

3.3. Examples of IWRM in practice in selected countries of the world

According to Winpenny [ 29 ], managing water as an economic resource is necessary to enable the suppliers and consumers of water to treat it as a scarce and valuable resource (commodity) with an economic value. Instead, consumers (demand-driven) treat water as a fundamental right while suppliers (water services agencies and operators) view water as a commodity that should be charged for appropriately at an economical rate which incorporates appropriate pricing [ 10 , 29 ]. The IWRM argument is that water should be treated as an economic good with economic, financial and environmental benefits for the sustainability of life on earth. Agenda 21 of the Rio Earth Summit on Integrated Water Resources Management stated that the use of the resources should be in a way that promotes social equity, economic development, and environmental sustainability objectives of humanity [ 38 ]. An endorsement of this approach was made at the World Summit on Sustainable development in South Africa, 2002, which encouraged all nations to develop an IWRM plan by 2005. While South Africa developed its policy, legislation, and initial national water resources strategy as an example of a good IWRM scheme, the implementation has been limited by such factors as regional developmental choices, poor management of municipal infrastructure, and water quality issues based on pollution. The limitations are in the growing conflict potentials over scarce water resources in South Africa, both within the country and with its neighbours [ 21 ]. In Ghana, the implementation of IWRM has not progressed beyond the initial set up of the water resources commission and the conduction of baseline studies to determine the best strategies the government needed to adopt in the implementation of IWRM [ 47 ].

Developed economies such as Israel, several countries in Europe such as the United Kingdom, and the United States are already implementing the IWRM approach to preserve their precious water resources, and in the case of Israel, ensure its agricultural economy and national security [ 37 ]. These nations are working through effective water management to overcome food shortages, energy shortage, the effects of climate change, and learning how manage the earth's total environment sustainably. Research endeavours in these countries are geared towards meeting these needs through genetically modified crops that require less water, breakthroughs in desalination to provide water for crops and cities, free-standing small water turbines to generate electricity, clean renewable energy, and developing efficient water supply systems that allow for ecosystem renewal [ 37 ].

In the case of the USA, at the height of its demand and supply management of water, canals (Erie Canal, Panama Canal), dams of various sizes and shapes (Hoover dam, Colorado River, Grand Canyon), and central valley water transfer projects were built in California [ 37 ]. America used the dam technology to transform the arid far west part of the country's rivers into a dynamic engine of inexpensive irrigation, hydroelectricity, water storage and flood control system. Water, not free land, it has been noted [ 37 ] was the limiting factor in America's development. In American history, water had the effect of affecting the nation's economic growth, social wellbeing, political development and power, and military authority all over the world. All these human-made demand and supply management solutions created additional pollution problem from both point sources in agriculture, nuclear power plants, laboratories, hospitals, and domestic waste in cities and towns, which affected land, water, and air in the country. Finding solutions to this new challenge gave rise to a paradigm shift from traditional, centralised, mass-scale infrastructure that extracted, treated, and delivered more supplies from nature to a new approach hinged on more decentralised, scaled-to-the-task, and environmentally harmonious system that made greater use of existing supplies. The idea of efficiency brought home the need for an integrated water supply scheme [ 37 ].

In Britain, IWRM followed the same trajectory of adverse pollution challenges and water infrastructural rethink to arrive at the current water resource management system [ 37 ]. Benson and Jordan [ 41 ] report that water reform in the United Kingdom started in 1930 with the National Land Drainage Act which created catchment districts and dedicated catchment boards responsible for managing flooding and surface drainage. By 1952, these catchment boards were replaced by regional River Boards and their responsibilities expanded to include control of pollution and monitoring water quality [ 48 ]. As such, climate change adaptation measures and flood risk assessments are integrated into river basin management in the UK [ 48 ]. Several revisions of the Water Act of 1973 and the National Rivers Authority law brought about the establishment of the Environment Agency of 1995 which became responsible for implementing government water policy. United Kingdom laws including that of the Environmental Agency of 1995 and its Water policy has been under the European Union since 1970s [ 49 ]. In effect, the EU laws that took effect in the UK through the European Communities Act, 1972 were given effect in the UK without the need for any further domestic legislation [ 50 ]. However, with UK exit from European Union (termed Brexit) which came into effect on 31 st January 2020, it is suggested that de-Europeanisation of UK's laws including those on Environment will follow but with a longer process of disengagement [ 51 ]. It is necessary to observe that the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 which gave effect to the earlier enactment of 2018 has a target date of at least 31 st December 2020 in which the UK will continue to be bound by EU laws during the transition period for the negotiation of the terms of exit [ 50 ].

3.4. Hindrances to implementing IWRM in developing countries

The mission of IWRM has been to reconcile the different uses of water which are in competition through stakeholder participation and decentralising governance to the lowest possible hydrologic unit [ 52 ]. The implementation of IWRM in Ghana (a West African country with similar colonial history with Nigeria) is still slowly evolving with incremental management based on specific direction by donor funding agencies. In this regard, the various basin boards manage basin-scale approach while the water resources commission (WRC) coordinates at the national level [ 9 ]. Based on this approach, government organisations and agencies are more active stakeholders while local institutions can only make minimal contributions [ 9 ]. This system of governance is similar to what is practised in Nigeria, where political interests control the management process and other stakeholders have limited input. As noted by different authors [ 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 ], this introduces endogenous factors such as water scarcity in terms of quantity and quality, conflict of usage with increased population and urbanisation, and transboundary use of water resources.

Another issue that arises from limited stakeholder involvement is that stakeholders at the grassroots then view the adoption of IWRM as the result of the prodding of donor agencies (such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank) and an attempt at neo-colonialism by these agencies. Consequently, these marginalised stakeholders are unwilling to buy into the IWRM scheme and commit to the success of the programme [ 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 ]. Structuring the decision making process around the political class has affected the implementation of IWRM such that its most important stakeholders – the people – are unable to take ownership of the concept and cannot see its relevance. Another relevant point of interest is that many of the underdeveloped nations such as Nigeria and Ghana whose water governance system can benefit greatly from adopting IWRM lack a proper understanding of how to implement IWRM in practice. This lack of understanding caused the basin authorities such as the RBDAs in Nigeria to lose focus by delving into too many things at the same time [ 9 , 57 ].

Other operational inefficiencies hindering the implementation of IWRM include conflicting norms such as human right to water versus cost recovery, conflicting water sector laws and regulations, budgetary constraints to more capital-intensive needs of IWRM, lack of appropriately trained personnel, overlapping functions among institutions/agencies, and poor local capacity in terms of financial, organisational and political capabilities.

Based on the identified lapses in the implementation of IWRM in developing economies, the goal of the water management system should be adapting country-specific methodology toward the specific needs of country and using existing resources to address the priority areas [ 9 ].

3.5. Using IWRM principles to solve water problems at the basin-scale in Nigeria

Challenges are often a springboard for innovation and development. This can be seen in the Nigerian Northeast region which experiences severe water crisis that is aggravated by insecurity and terrorism (Herdsmen attacks on farmers, Boko Haram and Islamic State of West African Province - ISWAP) [ 58 , 59 , 60 ]. Lake Chad, in Africa's Sahel region which includes Nigeria, is noted to have shrunk in area by 75% from 25,000 square km to just 2,000 square km in the last three decades, not only because of periodic droughts but also because of massive diversions of water for irrigated agriculture [ 61 ]. The lake's once rich fisheries have collapsed entirely. The massive depletion of Lake Chad in Nigeria is an example of unsustainable exploitation of freshwater resources which challenges future freshwater availability [ 61 , 62 ].

The construction of the Tiga and Challawa gorge dams in the 1970s resulted in severe degradation of the river Komadugu Yobe basin (which contributed to the recharge of Lake Chad) by 35% leading to decline in flow, abstraction of water for large-scale irrigation, and regional drying of the climate [ 63 ]. Fishing, farming and livestock-based farming activities have also been affected. The situation was worsened by the lack of government institutions to cater to the basic needs of the people within the six affected Nigerian states in the Chad basin [ 63 ].

At the beginning of the new millennium, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, in conjunction with development partners, initiated intervention strategies to address these challenges [ 64 ]. The solution take-off point was to ensure that the results of the assessment carried out to ascertain the needs of the basin were available to all stakeholders to ensure transparency and stakeholders’ commitment. Thereafter, pilot projects to solve the challenges on the ground and to ensure the delivery of livelihood benefits to the affected communities started. Such projects included clearing of aquatic weeds and infrastructure that were blocking the river flow, dredging channels, improving flood early warning, and developing conflict resolution strategies. To solve the problem of poorly organised and uncoordinated basin management, state IWRM committees were formed in each state based on the lessons learnt in the former fragmented water resources management approaches [ 64 ]. This action helped to accelerate the decision-making process at basin levels by bringing different stakeholders together who were able to reach a consensus on the strategic moves required for basin restoration and sustainable development of water resources in the region. The result of this was, by 2006, there had been a 90% reduction in the number of water conflict cases reaching the courts. The lessons learnt led to the setting up of the Nigerian IWRM Commission in 2008 to ensure inter-basin knowledge transfer and implementation nationally [ 64 ]. It is, therefore, necessary to understand that the successes recorded in applying IWRM at a small scale help to strengthen support and build confidence about applying IWRM at a broader scale through an adjustment to policy, laws, and institutional reform [ 63 , 64 ].

4. IWRM and sustainable national development

Water resources play a vital role in fuelling socio-economic development [ 65 ]. Water when harnessed can be used for agriculture, electricity production, industrial processes, and domestic consumption. These multiple uses of water are in constant competition and failure to manage this competition will have adverse effects on human development. Koudstaal [ 66 ] highlights the need for both supply and demand management of water resources as part of IWRM to further socio-economic development.

By unanimous decision, member nations of the United Nations adopted 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in 2015. The Agenda which comprises 17 sustainable development goals has 169 targets emphasising social, economic and environmental issues in development that seeks to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all [ 39 ]. Looking at the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the role of water as a vital resource can be seen through the links that exist between the SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation) and the rest of the SDGs [ 67 , 68 ]. Reaching the targets under SDG 6 will greatly facilitate the building of sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), eradicating poverty (SDG 1), reducing inequality (SDG 10), ensuring good health and well-being (SDG 3), promoting gender equality (SDG 5), combating climate change (SDG 13), and ensuring that future consumption and consumption patterns are sustainable (SDG 12). This multidimensional nature of water and the need to manage it is captured in the SGD target 6.5 which states that “By 2030, the implementation of integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate is effected” [ 69 ].

Even though the concept of IWRM existed before the 1990s [ 14 , 35 ], its inclusion in the sustainable development goals has put it in the forefront of global agenda and will ensure that conscious action is taken in order to reap results that will translate to improved water resources management, water security, and environmental and socioeconomic benefits [ 52 ].

4.1. Water resources and sustainable development

From the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in 1972 in Stockholm, Sweden, the issue of human impact on the environment and the need for collaborative environmental preservation has taken centre stage in world agenda. The United Nations (UN) taking the lead has spearheaded the establishment of the Earth's Summit connecting Heads of State and governments since 1992, ongoing intergovernmental studies of climate change from 1988, an influential commission on environmentally sustainable development in 1989, and the first comprehensive, five-year-long assessment of Earth's total ecosystem in 2000 that was completed in 2005. The efforts culminated in the United Nations publication of the first triennial world water development report in 2003 which was followed in 2005 by the launch of the International Decade of Water for Life [ 37 ]. Providing clean water and a healthy environment has become part of the standard measure of domestic legitimacy around the world as expressed in sustainable development goal 6, which is the linchpin of other goals as it relates to water.

From the UN Secretary-General Report on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2018, out of the 157 countries covered by the report, the average implementation of IWRM was put at 48 percent. Based on the report also, 62 of the 153 countries covered by the data on sharing of transboundary waters, the average percentage of national transboundary basins covered by an operational arrangement was only 59% in 2017. As of 2015, the report indicates that 29% of the global population lacked safely managed sanitation services. It is therefore noteworthy to observe that post-war Japan had its economic miracle hinged on the intensive exploitation of its arable land and hydropower based on the construction of 2700 large dams. India's 4300 large dams were crucial to their development of food production that kept pace with the massive population growth. Other developing nations such as Egypt had the Aswan dam transform the Nile, Turkey's giant Ataturk Dam is the anchor of its regional transformation, and Pakistan's national pride is in the huge Tarabela dam on the Indus River. In South America, the water-rich Brazil-Paraguay border hosts the 1991 Itaipu Dam on the Parana River, which accommodates the world largest generator of hydroelectricity before the construction of the Three Gorges.

The world freshwater scarcity has always followed the cycle of resource intensification, population boom, resources depletion and flattening or falling economic growth until the next round of intensification and growth. Water is expected to become an explosive political and economic problem by the middle of the 21st century as the population is ballooning leading to depletion of water resources as argued by [ 37 ]. However, for sustainable development to take place around the globe, the issue of sustainable abstraction, use and environmentally friendly recharge of the water system must be given priority in order to ensure that the UN SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16 and 17 are met by the target year of 2030.

4.2. Challenges to sustainable water resources development in Nigeria

In line with the definition of IWRM by the GWP [ 34 ], sustainable water resources development links water management with a nation's economic and development planning, including the social, technological and environmental development [ 9 , 70 , 71 ]. The overall picture is for the planning of water resources development that considers present needs while ensuring future water requirements as well. The economic and development planning is therefore in accord with the strategic goal of the SDG 6 and others as listed in section 4.1 which provides for clean water and sanitation for a nation (social, group of people) using the most recent technology (soft and hard) to ensure that the environment (ecosystem) is not adversely affected.

The challenges faced by the RBDAs in Nigeria and ancillary agencies in terms of sustainable water resources development are similar to those of other developing countries albeit specific to the social, political, economic, and cultural realities in the country. A number of these challenges are listed below.

• (i) There are 12 RBDAs currently for a population of more than 180 million over an area of 923,000 km 2 [ 9 , 12 ]. These RBDAs also lack adequate human resources to carry out their statutory functions efficiently.
• (ii) Currently, there is centralized governance and financial management from the ministry of water resources. Each unit, though with its budget, does not have the financial autonomy to make decisions on capital expenditure.
• (iii) The bottom-up approach to development planning may involve too many stakeholders as exemplified in section 3.5 case study with possible loss of focus.
• (iv) Lack of budgetary discipline to follow through plans and realise their goals. The lack of control, though, is not peculiar to one ministry alone as it is typical of the country's national planning and implementation.
• (v) Planning at the national level, that is, the Ministry of Water Resources does not accommodate major stakeholders such as private sector organisations, contractors, and end-users.
• (vi) It can be challenging to manage the effective coordination of the ministry, various RBDA boards and state water agencies. Lack of synergy especially when political considerations are involved creates bottlenecks.
• (vii) At the board levels, there are challenges of leadership within and across sectors and this can affect project implementation negatively.
• (viii) Lack of quality data where they are available also affects both the design and implementation of sustainable water resources development schemes.
• (ix) More often than not, at the state water agencies, as well as at the national level, decisions on new schemes to be embarked on are influenced by political considerations without considering expert advice. In such situations, the planning units are reduced to mere archives for contract agreements and contraction certificates [ 10 ].
• (x) The use of modern technology in project planning and execution is usually limited to projects with funding from donor agencies such as the World Bank, USAID, DFID, and the European Union. The system design approach of checking physical, environmental, technological and economic constraints are not considered fully or integrated into the plan.
• (xi) Long-term planning or whole system planning that recognises the design, construction, operations, maintenance, environmental rehabilitation or remediation and decommissioning are more often overlooked as theoretical concepts that are not considered in water resources planning in the country.
• (xii) Project financing by multi-lateral or multi-national agencies sometimes does not align with the end user's objectives. Such lack of harmony especially in terms of financing modalities and execution leads to project abandonment at various stages.

5. Lessons from the experience of other countries

One key ingredient for the successful implementation of IWRM as seen from the countries reviewed is good water governance. This encompasses the systems responsible for the development, management, and delivery of water services in a society. Good water governance is marked by inclusiveness, responsiveness, accountability, and transparency – elements which have been lacking in the Nigerian context. The importance of good water governance is evidenced in Bangladesh where a participatory approach was adopted to avert crisis in the country's vast wetlands and in Denmark where national, provincial and local authorities had to synergise to prevent water shortages. In these two countries, informed stakeholder participation was guaranteed, policies were formulated to create an enabling environment for water sector reform, community-based initiatives were set up in partnership with donor agencies, and the decision-making processes were transparent [ 38 ].

While integrating IWRM into national policy is important, it is necessary for the water policy to be in line with the country's development strategy and governance approach. In the case of South Africa, there has been moderate success in certain aspects of the water sector, especially in stakeholder involvement in the decision-making process. This success is attributable to the fact that the water reform in South Africa was underpinned by political change and as such all areas of the country were undergoing significant reform [ 38 ]. This allowed the water policy to be aligned with the country's broader development priorities and ultimately led to more reliable supplies to key water users, economic growth, reduced pollution and better wastewater management [ 72 ].

Also, in the countries where an integrated approach to water management was successfully implemented, it can be seen that IWRM was not applied as a checklist of actions. Instead, they set out to solve water problems within their respective localities by adopting a more holistic perspective to managing water. For example Tunisia adopted an integrated approach in managing the country's limited resources in response to a local problem – specifically pollution of water courses [ 72 ]. From the success of the approach, the rest of the water sector was able to evolve until the current water policy. The result is that the country is reputed to have achieved the highest access rates to water supply in North Africa and the Middle East despite being one of the least endowed in the region [ 3 ].

Finally, from the literature reviewed, it is obvious that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to IWRM. Many of the countries with significant success in managing water resources for national growth took completely different approaches while maintaining the bigger picture of implementing IWRM principles. It is even common to see approaches to water management change within a country as new problems arise and social priorities change. This was the case in Chile as its water policy evolved over time to balance economic efficiency with social equity and environmental sustainability [ 38 ].

These two African countries – Tunisia and South Africa - were chosen to compare with Nigeria being in the same continent and with the similarity of social and environmental factors while Chile is described just like others as a less developed country.

6. Conclusion and recommendations

From the observations of IWRM implementation in other countries, it is evident that formulating clear and detailed policies is usually the first step in ensuring that water resources are managed in an integrated manner in practice. It is clear from the legal instruments reviewed and from the current state of the water sector in Nigeria that the existing water legislation is incomprehensive and lacking, and does not set a clear path for solving the water problems in the country. This is shown in the establishment of a national IWRM commission in Nigeria without any apparent framework for the practical implementation of IWRM principles. From this, it is clear that IWRM is seen just as a checklist of actions in response to exogenous pressures from donor agencies without any real political commitment or investment towards implementing the principles in the real world. It is important, moving forward, for Nigeria's water policymakers to identify key problems in the water sector and develop an integrated approach to solving these context-specific problems. This process should include stakeholders from all levels for it to produce positive results as indicated in the case study in section 3.5 earlier. The case study shows the benefits in involving all stakeholders (including women as key water users) in decision making, which conforms to the SDG goals 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13 and will lead to water security in Nigeria.

Water governance in Nigeria will benefit greatly from building strong institutions that are responsive to the needs of their host communities and can adapt quickly to changes in the water sector. These institutions will need proper equipment and technical capacity to function adequately. In order to make informed decisions, these institutions will need to develop capacity to collect and store crucial hydrological data. Such data is needed for proper management and to ensure sustainable development of water resources in the country. Agencies like NIMET, NIHSA, and the RBDAs, which are in charge of collecting data like rainfall, stage height and river discharge seldom carry out their functions effectively and these necessary data are neither networked nor managed efficiently to further sustainability in the development of water resources in Nigeria. The recommendation for IWRM is meant to benefit Nigeria water resource development and ensure that it is fit for purpose.

The benefits realizable through appropriate cost recovery measures in line with marginal cost pricing principles of water supply assures of meeting the demand of water for the present generation and taking care of the environmental challenges and preservation for future use. Cost recovery approach of water delivery will ensure that water users use them efficiently hence a reduction in unnecessary wastages. Therefore, public water supply will not be seen as public good that need not be accounted for by the end user. The implication is that demand for water will minimize to such a level that supply can be fairly guaranteed leading to adequate provision for proper treatment of water and also maintenance of the environment of water use. Current problems of water resources management in Nigeria is a stepping stone through the lessons learnt from other nations to Nigeria's integrated water resources development in terms of accommodating all stakeholders in decision making on the issue of water and its utilisation. The target is for the achievement of the envisaged year 2030 United Nations goal 6 of providing clean water and sanitation and serve as input for the building of sustainable cities and communities as expected in SDG goal 11 and others.

Declarations

Author contribution statement.

All authors listed have significantly contributed to the development and the writing of this article.

Funding statement

This work was supported by Covenant University ably led by the Chancellor, Dr David O. Oyedepo

Data availability statement

Declaration of interests statement.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

No additional information is available for this paper.

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the management of Covenant University under the leadership of the Chancellor, Dr David Oyedepo for providing the platform necessary to complete this research. The authors are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their efforts that helped sharpen and focus the work for greater visibility.

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A decade of nanotechnology research in Nigeria (2010–2020): a scientometric analysis

• Research paper
• Published: 09 September 2021
• Volume 23 , article number  211 , ( 2021 )

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• A. Lateef 1 ,
• M. A. Azeez 1 ,
• O. B. Suaibu 2 &
• G. O. Adigun 3  

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In this study, we present findings on the engagement of Nigerian scholars in nanotechnology research between 2010 and 2020 using primary data that were obtained from Scopus. The data were processed to unravel the productivity of the top scholars in relation to the top counterparts in Egypt and South Africa, Africa and the world in the field of nanotechnology. Similarly, the contributions of different universities were analyzed, while we also studied the extent of collaboration, funding pattern of nanotechnology research, outlet of publications of articles, and the influence of webometric ranking among others. The data were analyzed using Euclidean dissimilarity coefficients with hierarchical cluster analysis, and corresponding dendrograms of relationships were plotted. The results showed that although Nigeria is the fourth nation in nanotechnology research in Africa, her performance is low compared to Egypt and South Africa, as the nation recorded only 645 articles during the period, representing 11.85 and 24.84% of the output of Egypt and South Africa, respectively. Using hierarchical clustering techniques, the top researchers in Nigeria were identified (Ezema, FI, UNN and Lateef, A, LAUTECH) that contributed 12.09% of the publications, while engineering, physics/astronomy, and materials science dominated the range of publications. South Africa and Malaysia clustered as the most collaborative nation with Nigeria on nanotechnology (51.10%). The most productive universities in nanotechnology were UNN, COVENANT, and LAUTECH by contributing 33.12% of the publications, while other institutions were not significantly different in their low productivities. The national funding of nanotechnology research was low with just 6.51% of the works funded through local initiatives, and 52.44% of the works not supported by any fund. The remaining 41.05% received funds from foreign institutions. The outcome of this study is a performance evaluation of Nigeria in nanotechnology R&D that requires concerted efforts by the critical stakeholders to mobilize actions for the country to realize her full potentials in the field. Suggestions have been made on how to improve the performance of the country towards 2030. This pioneering effort at situating the Nigeria’s status in nanotechnology will be of assistance to the educationists, technocrats, and policy makers in making right decisions on the way forward for Nigeria.

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Abodunde O, Jegede O (2020) R&D productivity for science, technology and innovation policy development in Nigeria: a scientometric analysis of academic literature. Afr J Sci Technol Innov Dev 12(7):787–795. https://doi.org/10.1080/20421338.2020.1718364

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LA and AMA appreciate the authority of LAUTECH, Ogbomoso for support for their research group, LAUTECH Nanotechnology Research Group ( NANO + ).

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Lateef, A., Azeez, M.A., Suaibu, O.B. et al. A decade of nanotechnology research in Nigeria (2010–2020): a scientometric analysis. J Nanopart Res 23 , 211 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-021-05322-1

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The impact of government policies on Nigeria economic growth (case of fiscal, monetary and trade policies)

• Olufemi Samuel Adegboyo 1 ,
• Sunday Anderu Keji 1 &
• Oluwadamilola Tosin Fasina 1  

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This study examines the impact of fiscal, monetary and trade policies on Nigerian economic growth from 1985 to 2020. This study adopts endogenous growth model (AK model) as its theoretical framework. The unit root test results reveal that there is mixed level of stationarity in the variables. The bound test result shows that the variables cointegrate. The ARDL long-run result shows that fiscal policies stimulate economic growth, while on the contrary, trade policies deter Nigerian economic growth. The short-run result shows that the fiscal policies has an inconsistent impact on Nigerian economic growth and thus differs from the long-run result; while government spending continues to drive economic growth in Nigeria, government revenues have no effect on the growth of the economy. The result of the impact of monetary policies shows that interest rate impels growth of the economy while money supply deters growth of Nigeria’s economy; lastly, the trade policies maintain her negative influence on the economy in both the long run and short run. Sequel to the findings, the study recommends the following: Policymakers should place more emphasis on using fiscal policy which was found to be stimulating the country's growth rate. Whenever it is expedient to use monetary policy to stimulate economic growth, policy makers should make use of interest rates as it stimulates the growth of the economy in the short run. The government should review her trade policies to reduce import by encouraging consumption of local products and motivate exporters of goods (raw material) to refine the products before exporting such.

Introduction

The fundamental roles of fiscal policy, monetary policy and trade policy cannot be over-emphasized in any open economy, especially in terms of economic management. Notably, the quests to achieve and sustain macroeconomic objectives explain the vital roles played by fiscal, monetary and trade policies in both developed and developing economies, which Nigeria is inclusive. Babar [ 1 ] noted that it is the goal of any rational government to improve the living conditions of her populace through major economic policy either through fiscal, monetary or trade policy. Again, these economic policies are mostly used to stabilize and sustain the economic progression, especially during the period of economic crisis. For example, fiscal policy measure is used by government of different economies to counter economic imbalances by adjusting the public spending to moderate taxation which is an important approach to control aggregate demand, financial uncertainty and economic distortions. Keynes posited this approach need to be adopted, especially during economic recession so as to build a stable framework to attain full employment; hence, this theoretical model had been practically used as policy guide to sustain economic activities over time [ 2 ]. Meanwhile, the classicalists argued for effective price mechanism where efficient and robust resources allocation can guarantee economic freedom that is devoid of government intervention in the cause of addressing economic crisis [ 3 ]. On the other hand, monetary policy is adopted by the Apex Bank of any given economy to stimulate collective demand through adjustable changes in money supply and interest rate. In the time of economic crisis, government combines both fiscal and monetary policies to curb fluctuations of business cycle. In a similar vein, government put in place trade policy with the aim of improving trade relation and builds the necessary safety net against external shocks through stabilized exchange rate.

Over the years, many developing economies have been facing the problem of huge fiscal, monetary and trade deficits, which Nigeria is inclusive. The insufficient and the nature of public goods such as infrastructure and utilities services hugely rely on the rate of government spending, which affect both the nature and condition of macroeconomic framework and fiscal sustainability in any small open economy. Fiscal policy, monetary policy and trade policy in Nigeria are characterized by profligacy, poor financial framework, which is strengthened by poor management of huge oil revenue that pose a threat to macroeconomic stability [ 3 ]. Relatedly, policy makers in Nigeria have implemented series of trade policies through various objectives, for example the export promotion strategy in 1981; exchange rate liberalization and trade liberalization in 1986; creation of Nigerian Export–Import in 1991; and several trade bilateral and multilateral agreements with different countries among others [ 4 ]. The main objectives of these trade policies are: to achieve Nigeria’s macroeconomic stability and to improve trade nexus with the global community via hitch-free inflow and outflow of both liquidity and non-liquidity transactions across the borders, while these activities are expected to increase international competitiveness which in the long run could bring about an improvement in national economic growth [ 5 ]. However, in the time past, the Nigerian economic growth has not significantly tapped from those expected gains from trade policies which could have been traced to the mono-economic nature of the Nigerian economy where government mostly relied on oil revenue. This has caused incessant rise in budget deficit in recent times; hence, there is need for policy makers to adopt effective fiscal and monetary measures so as to stabilize the aggregate economic outlook. Notably, a persistent rise in military spending to counter terrorism and additional unproductive outlays might have contributed to slow economic growth in Nigeria. In the meantime, Idris and Ahmad [ 6 ] posit that continuous show of fiscal deficit in Nigeria may be connected to over dependency on gains from oil coupled with external borrowings. Consequently, significant effects of improved fiscal measures would increase aggregate growth which could curb persist ineffective monetary and fiscal policies. It is worth agreeing with the position of Khattry and Rao [ 7 ] which state that trade policy improves fiscal balances through rise in tax revenue. And this is expected to increase the size of government revenue that could be channeled to various productive sectors via government spending on infrastructure.

In lieu of the above narrative on the nexus between fiscal policy and economic growth, or nexus between monetary policy and economic growth, or relationship between trade policy and economic growth, it has been observed through the studies that increase in government spending and trade openness and decrease in interest rate have not transmitted to improved economic growth in Nigeria. Interestingly, further related studies have equally come up with mixed revelations. For example, Kemal et al. [ 8 ] conclude that regulated and restricted flow in the level of imports expand the nation’s economic output, whereas Martes [ 9 ] observed that trade liberalization impact negatively on productivity rate. Again, Amassoma et al., [ 10 ] explained that monetary policy is a vital tool which could be used to achieve price stability, and hence strengthen both private and foreign investors that guarantees economic progress in the long. Also, Idris et al., [ 11 ] posit that robust and effective fiscal operations guarantee economic growth since any slight distortion in fiscal operation in the form of deficit brings adverse effect on growth rate, which further substantiate the epistemology method of neo-classical theory that posit growth-retarding effects on the general economic performance due fiscal deficit. With this narrative, it can further be observed that studies on the subject matter in Nigeria have come up with different results, but most of these previous works are not encompassing in terms of linking fiscal policy, monetary policy, trade policy and economic growth rather most of these works had either attempted to link monetary policy with economic growth or relate fiscal policy with economic growth. It is interesting to note that this study intends to fill the gap observed from previous studies through empirical investigation into the nexus between fiscal policy, monetary policy and economic growth in Nigeria. Going forward, series of questions arise, which this study seeks to address; thus, do fiscal, monetary, trade policies matter on economic growth? What is the nexus between economic growth and fiscal, monetary, trade policies in Nigeria? Therefore, the aim of this study is to empirically estimate the link between the key variables while the outcome from this study would further provide guide for both government and policy makers so as to address the current perennial economic recession in Nigeria.

The reviewed literature clearly shows evidence that there exists a paucity of knowledge as regard how the combined effect of different policies affect economic growth in Nigeria. The above studies have examined how either each of fiscal policy or monetary policy or trade policy affects economic growth in Nigeria. However, to the best of our knowledge, no existing study has examined the combined effect of fiscal policy, monetary policy and trade policy on economic growth using Nigeria as a case study. In addition, this is particularly pertinent as the Nigerian government continues to implement different policies aimed at achieving economic growth and stability but the economy continues to experience a low level of economic growth as indicated by the national bureau of statistics. Consequently, this study adds to the existing literature and gives an original contribution to knowledge by examining the impact of government policies (monetary, fiscal and trade policies) on economic growth in Nigeria so as to suggest viable recommendations to the Nigerian government.

The rest of the study is structured as follows: “Literature review” section addresses comprehensive literature review of the previous related studies; “Method” section deals with model specification and the research methods; “Results and discussion” section accounts for empirical analysis of the dataset; and lastly, “Conclusions” section explains the general conclusion drawn from the study and policy recommendations that could serve as a guide for the Nigerian government and other developing economies at large.

Literature review

There are various empirical studies conducted in the past which form the existing literature for the subject matter of this current study. Previous studies that relate to this current study are reviewed and categorized based on how each of the variables affects economic growth in Nigeria as presented in the existing literature. For instance, for the review of how fiscal policy affects economic growth, Agu et al. [ 12 ] examined how fiscal policy affects growth of Nigeria’s economy with a focus on the different components of public spending using OLS estimation technique. They found that government spending increase with an increase of revenue generated by the government. The study concluded that the correlation between government spending and growth of the economy is a strong and positive one. Babalola and Aminu [ 13 ] investigated the effect of fiscal policy on Nigerian’s economic growth from 1977 to 2009. The study observed that productive expenditure positively influence the country’s economic growth. The study therefore recommends that government should improve its spending on economic services, education and the health sector to boost the growth of the economy. Onwe [ 14 ] investigated the growth of Nigerian economy vis-à-vis effect of fiscal policy components on Nigerian economic growth. The study observed the positive impact of federal expenditure on administration as well as on community and social services on growth of the economy. However, it also observed the non-positive impact of federal spending on transfer payments and economic services on the growth of Nigeria’s economy. The study recommended a need for federal government to place special emphasis on administrative, social and community services in its fiscal policies because these fiscal components have potential contribution in the development of the Nigerian economy. Mobolaji et al., [ 15 ] examined inclusive growth in Nigeria vis-à-vis the role of fiscal policy using a baseline regression model. They found that fiscal policy significantly promotes inclusive growth in Nigeria. The study also observed a unidirectional causal relationship from fiscal policy to inclusive growth in Nigeria. It recommended the need for government expenditure to be directed toward productive investments and infrastructural development in a bid to accelerate inclusive growth. Chinedu et al. [ 16 ] explored how sectoral spreads of government expenditure impacts Nigerian Economic growth employing an error correction model technique. It observed that economic performance in Nigeria was positively impacted by sectoral spreads of government expenditure. The study observed the statistical significance of government expenditure on agriculture and defense. However, the study also observed that there was no statistical significance for government expenditure on health, education, transportation and communication. The study recommended that political office holders should have the political will to transform Nigeria into a developed country through accountability and transparency in how public funds are used. For a review of how economic growth is affected by monetary policy, Ayomitunde et al. [ 17 ] examined how Nigerian economic growth is been affected by monetary policy for the years 1990 to 2017 using an ARDL Bound estimation technique. Findings showed monetary policy rate significantly propels growth of Nigeria’s economy in the short run while inflation rate positively influence growth of Nigeria’s economy in both the short and long run, there is a significant positive relationship between economic growth and inflation rate. They recommended that Apex Bank use monetary policy variables that help drive economic growth in Nigeria. Onyeiwu [ 18 ] explored how monetary policy affects Nigerian economic growth using OLS estimation technique. The findings showed that monetary policy stimulates gross domestic product cum balance of payment but adversely impact inflation rate. It recommended that monetary policy be used to create an investment-friendly environment and the money market should strive to provide financial instruments that meet the needs of increasingly numerous players.

Sulaiman and Migiro [ 19 ] investigated the nexus between growth of Nigerian economy and monetary policy. The study found that monetary policy supports economic growth, and the study also found that economic growth is unrelated to monetary policy. The study concluded that the mechanism for transmitting monetary policy makes a positive contribution to the productivity of the Nigerian economy, thereby improving economic growth. The study recommended that the regulatory framework for the financial sector be strengthened to contribute to the efficiency of the government's monetary policies. Adigwe et al. [ 20 ] studied how monetary policies in Nigeria affect the country's economic growth using the ordinary least square technique. The study observed that monetary policy promotes economic growth, while it adversely affected by inflation rate. The study recommended using monetary policy to foster an enabling investment environment through appropriate interest rates, liquidity management and exchange rates. Fasanya et al. [ 21 ] studied the effect of monetary policy on the growth of Nigeria's economy using the error correction model technique. The study found that monetary policy instruments such as the inflation rate, the exchange rate and foreign reserves boost growth in Nigerian economy in line with theoretical expectations while money supply in Nigeria is unrelated to economic growth. Consequently, the study recommended the establishment of primary and secondary government bond markets that would enhance the effectiveness of monetary policy and reduce the government's reliance on the central bank for direct financing. For a review of how trade policy affects economic growth, Afolabi et al. [ 22 ] researched the impact of trade (trade policy) on the growth of Nigeria’s economy using the ARDL technique. They found that price-based variables and adjusted trade ratio positively influence gross domestic product in both long and short run. In the long run, dynamic responses showed that gross domestic product responded positively to trade policy. The study recommended the need for policy makers to implement policies aimed at promoting international trade and innovations. Afolabi et al. [ 23 ] researched how international trade affects growth of Nigeria’s economy using the ordinary least square technique. The study found that government expenditure, interest rate, import and export exert positive impact while it observed that foreign direct investment and exchange rate have a negative significance impact on growth of Nigeria’s economy. The study recommended that the country's trade should not be limited to primary and oil exports, but to the promotion of non-primary exports and non-oil exports as well. In addition, there are some studies that examined the combined effect of fiscal and monetary policy on economic growth in Nigeria. For instance, Bodunrin [ 25 ] examined how fiscal and monetary policies affect Nigerian economic growth using vector error correction model technique to determine which of the policies has been more effective in driving the growth in Nigeria. The study observed that in the short-run fiscal policy distort economic growth while monetary policy had no effect on gross domestic product. The study opined that fiscal policy should take the central stage in the use of policy options. Ajayi and Aluko [ 26 ] evaluated how efficient is monetary and fiscal policy in Nigeria employing OLS estimation technique. The study observed that export and money supply growth significantly stimulate economic growth while government spending had no impact. Also, the study found that monetary policy stimulates the growth more than fiscal policy. The study recommended the use of monetary policy by the Nigerian government rather than fiscal policy as an economic stabilization tool. Titiloye and Ishola [ 27 ] examined the effect of fiscal and monetary policies on growth of Nigeria economy using ARDL technique. The study found that supply of money vis-à-vis government spending cum revenue stimulates Nigerian economic growth. The study recommended that there is a need for the government to allow expansionary monetary policy to stabilize economic growth.

Summary of literature:

The reviewed literature clearly shows evidence that there is a paucity of knowledge as regard how the combined effect of different policies affects growth of the Nigerian economy. The above empirical studies examined how each of the policies (fiscal policy, monetary policy and trade policy) affects the growth of the Nigerian economy. However, based on the review of the literature, no empirical study has examined a combined effect of fiscal policy, monetary policy and trade policy on the growth of the Nigerian economy. In addition, this is particularly pertinent as the Nigerian government continues to implement different policies aimed at achieving economic growth and stability, but the economy continues to experience a low level of economic growth as indicated by the national bureau of statistics. Consequently, this study adds to the existing literature and gives an original contribution to knowledge by examining how government policies (monetary, fiscal and trade policies) affect the growth of the Nigerian economy and to suggest suitable recommendations to the Nigerian government. This serves as an original contribution to knowledge and the existing literature.

The study adopts a model of endogenous growth (AK model) and the Cobb–Douglas production function as a theoretical framework. The production function is given in Eq. ( 1 ) that follows.

where Y = economic production, A = technological advancement, K = capital stock, L = labor, and α and 1-α are the vector parameters.

Dividing Eq. ( 1 ) all through by labor, the result is presented as Eq. ( 2 )

where y is the economic output per labor, k is the capital per laborer, α is the vector parameters of capital stock per labor and A remains as it is unaffected by labor force or capital stock.

Model specification

The study is based on the assumption that policies influence technological progress, such that monetary policy, fiscal policy and trade policy influence technological progress.

Inserting Eq. ( 3 ) into Eq. ( 2 ) gives Eq. ( 4 )

The study uses the money supply and the interest rate as indicators of monetary policy, public spending and revenue as indicators of fiscal policy while trade openness is used as a proxy for trade policy and incorporate them into the Eq. ( 4 ) to generate Eq. ( 5 )

Transforming Eq. ( 5 ) into econometrics form leads to Eq. ( 6 )

where GDPPC = gross domestic product per capital, MS = money supply (M2), INTR = interest rate, GEXP = Government expenditure, GREV = Government revenue, TRO = trade openness, k = capital stock/GCF α 0 to α 6  = vector of the variables/parameters, ε = error term and t = time trend. Equation ( 6 ) needs to be transformed for all the variables to have the same appropriate coefficient because interest rate and trade openness were in rate while other variables were in billions. Therefore, the variable that is in rate would be logged so the model would be in log-linear model form as presented in Eq. ( 7 )

Data source

The study employs annual time series data in the period of 1985–2020. The data were compiled mainly from the Statistical Bulletin of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the World Development Indicators (WBI).

The definition and computation of variables vis-à-vis the source are presented in Table 1 .

A priori expectation and justification

\(\frac{\partial GDPPC}{{\partial GDPPC\left( { - 1} \right)}} > 0\) ; this implies that GDPPC(1) is expected to positively impact the GDPPC this is because the previous income level should positively affect the present income level in the country.

\(\frac{\partial GDPPC}{{\partial GCF}} > 0\) ; this implies that the GCF should positively impact the GCPPC, because the capital stock should have a positive effect on the Nigeria's economic growth.

\(\frac{\partial GDPPC}{{\partial GEXP}} > 0\) ; this implies that GEXP should positively impact the GCPPC, because government spending implies injection of fund to the public which will in turn increase the purchasing power of the citizens and consequently propel economic growth; also, it could be that the government is providing social infrastructure which is attracting investors and in turn propels economic growth.

\(\frac{\partial GDPPC}{{\partial GREV}} > 0\) ; this implies that GREV should positively impact the GDPPC, because as more revenue is generated, the government will have adequate fund to carry out its statutory functions, which in turn will contribute to the country’s economic growth.

\(\frac{\partial GDPPC}{{\partial INTR}} > 0\) ; this implies that INTR should positively impact the GDPPC, because the interest rate is expected to encourage the surplus sector to save likewise encourages investors cum deficit sector to borrow which will all lead to increase in national output cum economic growth.

\(\frac{\partial GDPPC}{{\partial M2}} > 0\) ; this implies that M2 should positively impact the GDPPC, because when more money is in circulation it will ignites production and consumption which in turn stimulate economic growth.

\(\frac{\partial GDPPC}{{\partial TRO}} > 0\) ; this implies that TRO should positively impact the GDPPC, because as an economy trades with other countries it expands her economy

Results and discussion

Table 2 summarizes the statistical information of the variables used in the study. The table shows that the means (average value) of gross domestic product per capital, gross capital formation, government expenditure, government revenue, interest rate, money supply and trade openness were 7.4789, 28.5392, 6.598485, 7.060299, 18.91367, 7.150395 and 33.70649, respectively. Also, the table shows that the mean value of GDPPC and IINTR were greater than their median values which implies that the distribution of GGDPPC and INTR are skewed to the right, suggesting that Nigeria has GDPPC and INTR that are lower than their average value. In addition, the mean value of gross capital formation, government expenditure, government revenue, money supply and trade openness were smaller than their median values suggesting that Nigeria has gross capital formation, government expenditure, government revenue, money supply and trade openness that are higher than their average values. Furthermore, the result reveals that TRO is the most unstable variable while GDPPC is the most stable variable as their standard deviation value where the highest and lowest, respectively. The table also reveals that all variables showed a high degree of consistency because their median and average values fall within the maximum and minimum values of the variables. Skewness statistics shows that GGDPPC, INTR and MS were positively skewed toward normality while GCF, GEXP, GREV and TRO were negatively skewed toward normality. Also, the kurtosis which measures the peakness of the distribution shows that all the variables were platykurtic except interest rate, meaning all the variables were flat in relative to normal distribution except interest rate. Lastly, the Jarque–Bera statistics shows that all the variables except interest rate were normally distributed at 5% significant level.

The study examines the time series properties of each variable used in the model to determine the stationary properties of each variable. It is sacrosanct to carry out this test to determine the state of stationarity of the variables as conducting regression analysis on non-stationary variable can lead to a fallacious regression. The study made use of three different test, namely augmented Dickey–Fuller, Phillips–Perron and Dickey–Fuller–GLS tests, to determine the stationarity of each variable. The results of the three tests as displayed in Table 3 shows that GGDPPC and trade openness were stationary at the first difference. Contrariwise, the three tests also show that interest rate was stationary at level. Other variables showed mixed results from the tests, for example, government expenditures turned out to be stationary at the first difference by augmented Dickey–Fuller and Phillips–Perron, but only became stationary at first difference in DF's test. Also, Phillips–Perron test reveal that government expenditure is stationary at level while augmented Dickey–Fuller and Dickey–Fuller–GLS shows it is stationary at the first difference. Although there were inconsistencies in the results of the tests as revealed in Table 3 , there are consistent results across the three tests that demonstrate a mixed result of the level of stationarity of the variables as the three tests show that GDP per capita and trade openness were stationary at the first difference and that the interest rate was stationary at the level. Therefore, this study will employs ARDL technique as it is the estimation that accommodates variables with mix level of stationarity. ARDL was proposed by Pesaran et al. [ 28 ] to solve the puzzle created when variables have mix level of stationarity.

Sequel to the confirmation of the stationarity level of each variable the study uses the autoregressive distributed shift model (ARDL) and the error correction model (ECM) based on Pesaran et al. [ 29 ] to examine both the long- and short-run relationships among the variables of interest. This estimation technique is the technique that accommodates variables with different level of stationarity that is stationary variables in the first difference I(0) and stationary variables in the first difference I(1); however, no level of integration of any variable should be higher than the first difference. Another advantage this estimation technique has over technique is that it is effective in a relatively small sample. It is sacrosanct to conduct bound test to know whether the model cointegrate. To implement the ARDL bound test procedure, an ARDL framework equation needs to be specify as it is written in Eq. ( 8 )

where the variables are as defined previously/before \(\theta_{1} to \theta_{7}\) are the vector parameters of the short run, \(\beta_{1} to \beta_{7}\) are the long-run vector parameters, \({\Delta }\) is the operator of the first difference, q is the length of the optimal lag, \(\alpha_{0 }\) is the constant and \({\upvarepsilon }_{t}\) is the error term.

Following Pesaran et al. [ 30 ], this study employs F-test to determine whether the variables cointegrate. The null hypothesis is that the variables do not cointegrate that is there is no long-run relationship among the variable, whereas the alternative is that the variables cointegrate that is there is long-run relationship among the variables.

The null and alternative hypotheses are specified below as:

Along with the calculated F-statistic, the bound test provides two critical values [lower bound, I(0) and upper bound, I(1)] that helps to determine whether the variables cointegrate that is there is long-run relationship among the variables. The rule is that when the value of F statistic is lesser than the lower bound the variables do not cointegrate; however, when the value of the F statistic is between the lower and upper bounds, the study cannot determine whether the variables cointegrate; lastly, where the F statistic is above the value of the upper bound, the study may conclude that the variables cointegrate. The result in Table 4 indicates that the variables cointegrate. (Long-run relationship exists among the variables.)

Once it is established that a cointegration exists in the model, the next step is to estimate the ARDL model (p, q1, q2, q3, q4) model to provide the long-term coefficients.

The result in Table 5 shows that GDPPC (-1), which is the previous GDP per capital negatively influence the current GDP per capital in Nigeria, since 1% increment leads to 0.80% deterioration of the economy. This indicates that the previous income level adversely affects the country's current income level. This does not conform to the a priori expectation.

It also shows that gross capital formation, which is the measure of capital stock, has adversely impact GDP per capital, i.e., 1% increase in gross capital formation significantly reduced GDP per capital per 1.33%. This denotes that in the long-run gross capital formation deters economic growth of Nigeria. It indicates that there has not been proper/efficient usage of the fund earmark for the maintenance of the country’s productive assets and that the assets were not productively/efficiently utilized to enhance economic productivity. An example of such is the state of moribund the country’s refineries which supposed to be producing refilled oil for local consumption and possibly exportation is even when government keeps spending on it. The non-functioning of the refineries has made the country to be importing refined oil even when the country is a major oil producer in the world and this is costing the country some fortune which could have been used for other developmental project. As such, capital stock which is supposed to stimulate economic growth is adversely affecting economic growth. This contradicts the Cobb–Doulas production function/ endogenous growth model which accentuates capital as a vital input in economic growth. It is, however, in tandem with the study of [ 32 , 33 ].

In a similar vein, the result reveals that trade openness significantly hinders gross domestic product per capital, i.e., 1% increment in trade openness significantly deterred the GDP per capita by approximately 0.02%. This implies that trade openness (trade policy) adversely affects economic growth in Nigeria. It contradicts the theoretical argument of the Heckscher–Ohlin trade theory and classical theory of trade that postulated that trade promotes economic growth. The reason for the result could be because the country’s trade volume has been in favor of import and the country exports mainly primary product. The study is in tandem extant studies [ 24 , 29 , 32 ].

Contrariwise, the result reveals that government revenue significantly promotes gross domestic product per capital of Nigeria, i.e., 1% increment in government revenue triggered approximately 0.64% improvement in economic growth. This indicates that government revenue stimulates Nigeria’s economic growth. It infers that government has been generating her tax revenue majorly from non-distortion taxes which has not adversely affects production and consumption of goods and services in the country. It also means that the non-tax revenue which is majorly from crude oil has been instrumental to the country’s economic growth. It is in tandem extant studies [ 34 ].

Also, government expenditure significantly propels economic growth of Nigeria, since 1% increment triggered 0.66% improvement in the country’s economic growth. This indicates that government’s injecting of fund to the public increases the purchasing power of the citizens, which in turn propel economic growth also it could be that the government is providing social infrastructure which is attracting investors and in turn propels economic growth. It aligned to the argument of Keynes as cited by Adegboyo and Olaniyan [ 30 ] that increased public spending do boost the economy through the infusion of purchasing power into the economy. This is in tandem with the study of Agu et al. [ 12 ]. In sum, the two variables that were used to capture fiscal policy promote the growth of the economy, and this implies that in the long run fiscal policy stimulates the country’s economic growth. The study is in tandem with extant studies [ 35 , 36 , 37 ].

In sum, the two parameters used to capture monetary policy did not affect economic growth; this suggest that monetary policy has not been effective and has not affected Nigeria's long-term economic growth. This negates the theoretical argument of Friedman and Hahn [ 31 ] which noted that monetary policy instigates the growth of the economic.

The short-run model which is also the error correction model (ECM) is estimated with Eq. ( 9 ).

where \({\text{ECT}}_{t - 1}\) is the error correction term and must be negative and statistically significant for it to be well define.

The result in Table 6 indicates that government expenditure positively influence economic growth that is 1% increase in public spending causes Nigeria's economic growth to increase by 0.21%.

Similarly, the result shows that the 1 percent increase in the interest rate substantially increases gross domestic product per capital by 0.03 percent. This shows that interest rate impels Nigeria economic growth in the short run. This is consistent with liquidity preference theory and loanable funds theory and is in tandem with the work of [ 38 , 39 ]. This implies that interest rate is effective in attracting investors, at it encourages the surplus sector to save likewise encourages investors cum deficit sector to borrow which will all lead to increase in national output cum economic growth. This deviates from the result of the long run.

Money supply (M2) short-run result diverges from the long-run result. The short-run result shows that 1% increase in money supply (M2) deters economic growth by 0.14%. This could be that the money supply in the circulation ignites increase in prices of goods which in turn dissuade production and consumption and consequently hampers economic growth of Nigeria. Trade openness hinders Nigeria’s economic growth significantly as 1% increase in trade opening will reduce economic growth by 0.01%. This implies that open trade (trade policy) is a disincentive to the country’s economic growth in the short term. It is in line with the result of the long term.

The ECM (-1) measures the speed of adjustment back to long-run equilibrium after a short-run shock is well defined as it is negatively significant. The result shows that the model converges back to long equilibrium at the speed rate of 80.06% following a short-run shock, and this implies that 80.06 percent of the preceding year's economic growth (GDPPC) disequilibrium has been corrected by government expenditure, government revenue, interest rate, money supply and trade openness. It means that the current value of economic growth will adjust to change in government expenditure, gross capital formation, government revenue, interest rate, money supply and trade openness.

The coefficients of determination (R2) show that the explanatory variables used in the study are responsible for approximately 99.21% of the total change in economic growth. It indicates that the variables used in the model are appropriate to be analysis.

Diagnostic test

The results of the diagnosis tests are shown in Table 7 . It reveals that the probability value of all the test were higher than 5% significant level meaning that the null hypothesis of nonexistence of heteroskedasticity, serial correlation and non-normality test were not rejected which implies that there is no homoscedastic variances and serial correlation in the model, and the model is normally distributed. In addition, to verify model stability, the study uses the cumulative sum of recursive residues (CUSUM) and the cumulative sum of recursive residue squares (CUSUMSQ) as presented in Figs.  1 and 2 , respectively. The graph shows that residues fall within the 95% confidence interval/5 critical limits (limits), meaning that the model is stable over the estimation period. In summary, the results reveal that the model had no econometric problems.

Cumulative sum of recursive residuals (CUSUM)

Cumulative sum of squares of recursive residuals (CUSUMSQ)

Conclusions

Investigations have been conducted into how different government policies affect economic growth with emphasis on fiscal, monetary and trade policies. Most of the extant studies focus on individual policy to determine how it affects the economic growth, with very few merging two of the policies. This study will be different as it combines the three policies together to determine how each one affects the economy. Therefore, this paper explores the impact of fiscal, monetary and trade policies on Nigeria's economic growth from 1985 to 2020. The study captures fiscal policies with government expenditure and government revenue, monetary policies with money supply (M2) and interest rate, and trade policy with trade openness. The work adopts three unit root test, namely Dickey–Fuller–GLS, augmented Dickey–Fuller and Phillips–Perron tests, to determine the level of stationarity of each variable, and the results indicates that there is a mixed level of stationarity in the variables, consequently the study employs ARDL estimation technique as it is the technique that accommodates variables with mix level of stationarity. The bound test result shows that the variables cointegrate. (The variables had long-run relationship.) The ARDL long-run result reveals that fiscal policies (government revenue and government expenditure) stimulate Nigeria’s economic growth, and this is in tandem with extant studies [ 14 , 15 , 40 ]. Contrariwise, trade policies (trade openness) deter Nigeria’s economic growth; thus, it is in tandem extant studies [ 24 , 29 , 32 ]. The short-run result shows that the fiscal policies had an inconsistent impact on Nigeria’s economic growth and thus differs from the long-run result, and while government spending continues to drive economic growth in Nigeria, government revenues have no effect on the growth of the economy. Also, monetary policies had an inconsistent impact on the growth of the economy and differs from the result of the long run, interest rate impels growth of the economy, and this is in line with previous studies [ 38 , 39 ], while money supply deters the growth of Nigeria’s economy; lastly, the trade policies maintain her negative influence on the economy in both the long run and short run. The result of the diagnostic test showed that the model was free of econometric problems. Sequel to the findings, the study recommends the following: policymakers should place more emphasis on using fiscal policy which was found to be stimulating the country's growth rate. Whenever it is expedient to use monetary policy to stimulate economic growth, policy makers should make use of interest rates as it stimulates the growth of the economy in the short run. The government should review her trade policies to reduce import by encouraging consumption of local products and motivate exporters of goods (raw material) to refine the products before exporting such.

Availability of data and materials

This is available on request.

Abbreviations

Autoregressive distributed lag

Error correction model

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

Gross domestic product per capital

Money supply (M2)

Interest rate

Total government expenditure

Total government revenue

Trade openness

Gross capital formation

Central Bank of Nigeria

World Development Indicators

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Adegboyo, O.S., Keji, S.A. & Fasina, O.T. The impact of government policies on Nigeria economic growth (case of fiscal, monetary and trade policies). Futur Bus J 7 , 59 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-021-00104-6

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• Fiscal policy
• Monetary policy
• Trade policy
• And economic growth

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Gender inequality: determinants and outcomes in Nigeria

Journal of Business and Socio-economic Development

ISSN : 2635-1374

Article publication date: 2 July 2021

Issue publication date: 28 October 2021

This paper aims to shed light on gender inequality in Nigeria exploring new available data. It makes a case for attention to women empowerment and likely economic outcomes. The general objective of the research work is to ascertain the direction of gender inequality and show the pattern of inequality. Also, sectoral trends are obtained by analyzing and examining income inequality in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper obtained data from the Living Standard Measurement Survey Wave 3, published 2017 with emphasis on the earnings that accrued to both male and female. The study employed the ordinary least square (OLS) method to show the relationship between the mean income and other parameters such as the sector of employment, marital status and education level. Theil’s entropy index was used to measure the within and between inequality that exist in the economy and across regions and sectors while adopting the overcrowding theory.

The result shows that gender inequality is more pronounced across the region, location and in some sectors of employment than the others. Geographical area has a higher effect on earnings disparity but is more pronounced among females. Also, the result showed that gender within inequality was high in the regions, education, location, and marital status while a higher level of education contributes to high wages for women. However, married women are more deprived.

Originality/value

This study has further revealed the need to bridge the gap gender inequality has caused in Nigeria, especially related to income, education and geographical location, with a focus on both opportunities and outcomes.

Adeosun, O.T. and Owolabi, K.E. (2021), "Gender inequality: determinants and outcomes in Nigeria", Journal of Business and Socio-economic Development , Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 165-181. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBSED-01-2021-0007

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Copyright © 2021, Oluyemi Theophilus Adeosun and Kayode Ebenezer Owolabi

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1. Introduction

The 5th goal of the sustainable development goal (SDG) is focused on gender equality. Global attention is on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. Aside from agriculture, women in paid employment account for 41% against 35% as of 1990. The 5th SDG aim to empower all women and girls to ensure gender equity and ultimately end all acts of discrimination against the female gender.

The argument for or against gender inequality is a conversation that has remained in the corridor of global debate. In the past, some literature was of the opinion that gender inequality might actually lead to an increase in economic growth ( Mayoux, 1995 ; Klasen, 2002 ; Dorius and Firebaugh, 2010 ; Kleven and Landais, 2017 ; Worsdale and Wright, 2020 ). However, other authors ( Essien et al. , 2016 ; Kleven and Landais, 2017 ; Falk and Hermle, 2018 ) have revealed that gender inequality negatively impacts the economy. Gender inequality is a problematic issue as it lowers wellbeing and is regarded as a form of injustice in the very conception of equity ( Klasen, 2008 ; UNDP, 2015 ; Rewhorn, 2020 ).

Historically in Nigeria, certain tribes treated men preferentially for economic empowerment and inheritances ( Olanrewaju et al. , 2015 ; Pathak, 2017 ). For instance, the Igbos do not include women or girls in a will when sharing land or another asset ( Agbasiere, 2015 ; Azuakor, 2017 ). Women are thought to be fit for the kitchen and assist with farm duties. This makes them dependents and subservient to their male counterpart ( Ene-Obong et al. , 2017 ). Gender inequality is a multifaceted concept that incorporates both opportunities and outcomes. The latest review of the Nigerian economy by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed that closing the gender gap is key to achieving higher growth in the economy, enhancing productivity and greater economic stability ( Archibong, 2018 ; Adegbite and Machethe, 2020 ).

There has been a lot of advocacy by both the government and civil societies making a case for training the girl child and providing equal opportunities over the years ( Abendroth et al. , 2017 ; Connell et al. , 2020 ). Over time, with the advent of western education, exposure and enlightenment, there is a need to see how the gap caused by inequality and discrimination against women has been bridged and to what degree. In Nigeria, women dominate the unpaid job sector, twice the figure for men. The economic value of females was projected to be about 30% of the gross national product ( UNDP, 2015 ). Like other parts of the world, women in Nigeria face several discriminations that limit their full capacity.

Gender refers to the roles, behaviors, activities, attributes and opportunities that any society considers appropriate for girls and boys, and women and men. Gender interacts with, but is different from, the binary categories of biological sex ( World Health Organization, 2020 ). Gender can also be the state of being male or female. Inequality, on the other hand, can be defined as a state of being unequal or unfair. Gender inequality is seen as the disparity between the male and female gender. The concept of inequality is broad; it is expressed over the entire population and captures those below a certain poverty line ( World Bank, 2011 ; UNDP, 2013 ). Inequality is associated with segregation, economically or socially. The presence of barriers mostly drives inequality. These barriers hinder upward movement in social classes through income and wealth crystallization. These barriers give certain high-class people access to a better stake of societal resources, hence make them better off than those in the lower class ( Anyalebechi, 2016 ; Kleven and Landais, 2017 ; Matthew et al. , 2020 ).

Several factors account for the gap in gender-based earning, such as segregation by occupation and industry, differences in physical structure, education and skill acquisition, contributing to differences in earning ( Akinbi and Akinbi, 2015 ; Para-Mallam, 2017 ). However, the recent discovery shows that some of this gap is being closed gradually, such as the gap regarding educational attainment and horizontal occupational segregation is further reduced. These events have contributed to the reduction of gender gaps in wages and earnings. ( Klasen and Santos-Silva, 2018 )

The economy of Nigeria is a mixed economy with emerging markets and is of middle-income. With key sectors such as manufacturing, communications, technology, financial services, entertainment on the increase each year, it is ranked as the 27th largest economy globally considering nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and the 23rd largest when considering purchasing power parity ( IMF, 2020 ). It is the largest economy in Africa, with its growing manufacturing sector becoming the biggest in Africa in 2013 ( Fantom and Serajuddin, 2016 ; Lawal et al. , 2018 ). Among West African countries, Nigeria is the largest producer of goods and services. (Manufacturing sector report 2015; Isiksal and Chimezie 2016 ; Ovadia and Wolf, 2018 ). Nigeria's debt to GDP ratio has been on the increase though well below many developing nations like her. In 2008, the debt to GDP ratio was 7.2%; however, as of 2019, the figure stood at 16.2% ( Onafowora and Owoye, 2019 ; CEIC, 2019 ).

Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa, with an estimated population of about 200 million. As of 2019, the Nigeria Bureau Statistics estimated that about 40% of Nigerian population live below the poverty line. Furthermore, Nigeria's outlook in the Human Capital Development Index (0.539) as of 2019 is nothing to be proud of, ranking 158 among nations of the world ( UNDP, 2019 ). Going by the above knowledge, a nation as populous as Nigeria cannot take with levity the problem of gender inequality if she wants her economy to grow. Therefore the problem of gender inequality must be reduced to the minimum that she can attain.

Over the years, research works have shown clearly that there is an imbalance in gender allocation in society and sectors of the economy at large ( Ndubuisi, 2017 ). Inspite of several strategies put in place by the United Nations, the government of nations, and various private institutions to reduce gender inequality to the bare minimum, gender inequality continues to be a menace to society. In light of this imbalance across gender, this study seeks to critically evaluate its impact on income across gender in Nigeria, emphasizing the critical sector of the Nigerian economy and the geographical distribution of Nigeria. This study raises a major concern and the need to carefully outline the determinants of gender inequality in the country and practically see if there has been improvement upon comparison with previous studies as the research work looks at new data sets to show the current state of gender inequality in income in the Nigerian economy.

This research work is divided into five sections. Section two provides a literature review on the topic, that is, previous works on or related to the topic. Section three provides the methodological outlook of the study, while section four presents the result and discusses the findings. Section five provides the conclusion and recommendations.

2. Theoretical review

2.1 empirical review.

The study by Fatukasi and Ayeomoni (2015) exposes the consequences of income inequality on health indicators in Nigeria. Considering data from the IMF between 1980 and 2014, the study employs a dynamic ordinary least square (OLS) methodological approach. Evidence supports that income inequality significantly affects health indicators in Nigeria for the period under review. Consequentially, per capita income, saving level and educational attainment contribute positively to health indicators in the county.

Osunde (2015) , using data from ILO, studied the labor market for male and female workers. It was found that the labor market demand for both genders differs, favoring the male. Osunde (2015) put the adult male's market participation rate in the country to be 73.7% as of 2000. This figure declined to 71.7% in 2005 and 70.6% in 2007; consequently, female labor participation during this period stood at 38.7% in 2007, a rise from 38.1% in 2005 and 37% in 2000. However, evidence suggests that women in the age bracket of 50–55 have a high labor market participation rate. This means that many women are active in the labor market only after the childbearing period.

The study confirmed income inequality, which is more pronounced in the wage-paying job than the self-employment job. The source of income is attributable to the level of disparity in earning. However, based on Theil index measurement, urban inequality is lower than rural; urban is 0.334 and rural is 0.672 in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, girl child education is threatened just like other countries of the world. Girl child education is needed for poverty reduction, ensuring societal tolerance and economic development. Akinbi and Akinbi (2015) examine the root gender disparity in education in Nigeria; factors such as cultural beliefs and practice, family financial constraints, religious encumbrances, and environment are highlighted as a cause of disparity in education in Nigeria between the male child and the girl child. The study further highlights the implication of such disparity in a nation, citing women's high dependency on men, crises and its effect on infant mortality. The study poses that universal education should be a top priority for the government, ensuring free and compulsory education at the secondary school level. Furthermore, the northern part of the country needs more enlightenment on education value.

Women participation in politics in Nigeria is on the low; women are heavily discriminated against and given little or no opportunity to participate in politics Anyalebechi (2016) identified factors that contribute to the high inequality gap in women participation in politics, factors such as culture and norms favoring the male; education level of women also contribute to the low participation; many women are not educated and relegated to doing household chores. The political factor and the rule of law is not favorable to women in politics.

Mandel's (2016) findings indicated that characteristics that increase gender inequality in pay occupation through exclusionary practices really work the opposite direction on within occupation gender inequality. Furthermore, occupation is a strong system that cannot be overridden by an individual characteristic. This shows the superiority of the effect of occupation over the character of an individual. Besides, democratic occupation is found to close the gender pay gap more than a less democratic occupation. The study shows that democratic occupation reduces the gender pay gap between 45% and 63%. In the US, the gender wage report 2017 highlights that women's ratio to men’s median annual earnings is 80.5% in 2017. This figure was recorded for the year 2016, which means that the gender wage gap is of 19.5%. The report shows that gender parity in earning will be achieved at such a growth rate in 2059. Furthermore, comparing the white and black average monthly earning, the black average monthly income was at a disadvantage, earning just about 60% of the white average monthly income ( Hegewisch and Williams-Baron, 2018 ).

Checchi and van De Werfhorst studied the relationship between education dispersion and earnings ( 2018 ). In their study, there exists a positive relationship between educational attainment and the level of earning. Differences in skills acquired also add to the inequality gap as those who possess better skills and education earn more. The study was in line with the neoclassical economic theory. In another study by Busemeyer (2015) , inequality in skill was examined against the parental background of some set of 15-year-old students using data from OECD. The result shows no relationship between the student's parental background, education opportunity and skills acquired.

The socioeconomic impact of inequality was examined in Israel by Kaplan and Herbst (2015) , emphasizing the contribution of relative income, household income and education inequality to divorce in Israel. The result shows that couples in the lower end of the socioeconomic class tend to divorce more in Israel. Furthermore, a higher level of education of both couples reduces the risk of divorce. This shows that equity in education can help curb the menace of divorce. In another vein, a wife earning higher than her husband increases the risk of divorce in Israel. This shows that inequality in earning favoring the female can result in divorce.

The participation of women in the e-wallet program and the use of modern agricultural tools was the focus of Uduji and Okolo-Obasi (2018) . The study examines the impact of the government e-wallet on young females' performance in the rural agriculture sphere in contributing to the enhancement of female productivity in the agriculture sector. Evidences suggest that the program has helped young females access infrastructure and helped close the inequality gap on their male counterparts. Furthermore, women engaged more in the farm value chain than they did previously, earning more and closing female–male earnings inequality in Nigeria's rural agriculture sector.

Clark (2011) , in his paper “World health inequality: Convergence, divergence, and development,” looked at inequality in health using infant mortality rate and life expectancy and checked for the convergence and divergence in the variables and noted that there is a convergence in life expectancy for the years under study; interestingly, there is a rapid divergence in the infant mortality rate. It was confirmed that in emerging countries, economic development has more bearing on life expectancy than it has on the infant mortality rate. However, this case does not hold in advanced economies. This shows that a positive effect of GDP per capita on life expectancy attenuates at higher development levels. In contrast, the negative effect of GDP per capita on infant mortality grows stronger.

Akinbi and Akinbi (2015) examine inequity in healthcare utilization through an analysis of the Nigeria situation for the period of 2010; using the Nigerian living standard survey (NLSS) data, they adopted the horizontal inequity (HI) index to make their findings. Their result shows that inequity in health-care utilization in the country is generally skewed against the poor as the analysis established evidence about the poor with similar medical needs as the rich have access to less health-care service. Also, health-care services' utilization rate is found to be positively related to household expenditure, while age and health status are significant factors determining health-care visits.

Fidelis et al. (2006) studied labor force participation, earnings and inequality in Nigeria using the General Household Survey (GHS) 1999 for Nigeria. The study makes use of the Gini coefficient, Theil's entropy index, ordinary least squares technique, and other techniques in its analysis and finds that inequality is more pronounced in paid employment than in the self-employed segment of the Nigerian labor force and inequality is generally higher in the rural areas than in the urban areas and within subgroups.

2.2 Overcrowding theory

The overcrowding theory, a work of Amasa Walker of Oberlin in 1866, explains that “low wages of women, even where physical differences do not matter, is because of their exclusion from many employments, which force women to crowd into the remaining occupations, forcing down wages.” Walker discovered that the average monthly income of male teachers, $49.87, was greater than that of the female teachers, $19.63 in Massachusetts's public schools in 1857–1858.

Over the years, gender disparity has been attributed to males' physical structure, making them more productive and deserving of more earnings than females. However, Walker believed that even in jobs that do not require physical strength or physical differences are not considered, males still dominate, leaving females to be excluded from many job opportunities. This forces female labor to other available occupation, given their large number, the wage is forced down. He looked to widen the range of occupations open to women with more equal wages. Of course, arguments about pay disparities, differences in education by gender, the relationship between family responsibilities and wages and crowding of women into particular occupations have been staples of studying the economic status of women ever since. We leverage on this theory as we seek to examine the role the employment sector plays in earning capacity along gender in Nigeria.

2.3 Neoclassical economics theory

Neoclassical economics is defined by its reliance on rational choice theory and was largely established as homogeneous. It is a theory that focuses on determining goods, output and income distribution through the forces of demand and supply in the market. Hypothesizing maximization of utility by income constrained individuals and profit by firms facing production cost and managing production factors. After the Second World War, white male economists were greatly influenced by Victorian ideology. This physical embodiment induced patriarchy's reproduction over the years ( Ferguson, 1969 ; Aspromourgos, 1986 ). This patriarchal, discriminatory root of neoclassical economics has led to the fallible analysis of women's role in society. This continued the notion that men are breadwinners and women are caregivers, which led the economists to view household labor as women's work. The domestic roles played by women, including social reproduction, has long been categorized as unproductive. Hence, no economic value is attached since the activities are not captured in the market sphere.

3. Research methodology

3.1 sources of data.

The scope of this research work will cover the period of 2015–2016 using the Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) Wave 3 for Nigeria. The GHS panel is a nationally representative survey of 5,000 households, representing the geopolitical zones (at both the urban and rural levels). The households included in the GHS- panel are a subsample of the overall GHS sample households. The report presents findings from the third wave of the GHS panel, which was implemented in 2015–2016. The data for the research work are a collaborative work of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMA and RD), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the World Bank (WB).

3.2 Analytical procedure

This research work utilized individuals in paid employment who are between 15 and 65 years of age. To understand the data, we explored the data using descriptive statistics ( Young and Wessnitzer, 2016 ). We described the distribution of the sample between male and female who are in paid employment along gender, across age group (15–65), location (rural or urban), region (Northeast, North West, North Central, South East, South West and South-South), and some selected sectors of employment (agriculture, industry and services) using the OLS technique ( Kilmer and Rodríguez, 2017 ).

3.3 Model specification

The entropy index is a measure of “evenness” that is the extent to which groups are evenly distributed among organizational units ( Massey and Denton, 1988 ). More specifically, Theil described entropy index as a measure of the average difference between a unit's group proportions and that of the system as a whole ( Theil, 1972 ). The Theil index is the only multigroup index that can be decomposed into a sum of between- and within-group components (Reardon and Firebaugh, 2002) where T = T w + T b , which is the sum of the within-group inequality index.

Generally, Theil’s T is stated as G E ( 1 ) = 1 N ∑ i = 1 N y i y ln ( y i y ¯ )

y  = total number of employed individuals in the sample

y ¯  = mean of employed individuals

y j  = total number employed in a subgroup (for example, region – North, West) with N members

y j ¯  = is the mean of employed individuals of this subgroup

This decomposed inequality enables the assessment of the major contributions to inequality by different subgroups of the population according to gender, age groups, location, region and the sector of employment.

The within-group and between-group inequality was obtained from the equation, which enabled a comparison within and between the subgroups.

Using L to represent GE (0), L = ∑ i = 1 n 1 N   ln ( y ¯ y i ) = ∑ j ( N j N ) L j     + ∑ j N j n j In ( y ¯ y j ¯ )

n j = N j N , the proportion of those in the sample who are in the j th subgroup.

Given the two time periods, we add the time subscripts;

hence, Δ L =   ∑ j n j     [ In ( y ¯ , 2 y , 1 ) − In ( y ¯ j , 2 y j , 1 ) ] + ∑ j [ L j + In ( y ¯ y ¯ j ) ] Δ n j + ∑ j n j Δ L j

The effect of changes in the relative mean number of employment and inequality is captured by the first term on the right (for example, a rapid change in the income of a small, rich group will likely result in greater inequality). The second term measures the effect of shifts in population from one group to another, while the third captures the size of changes in within-group inequality. ( Iceland, 2004 ). With this, the study was able to capture changes in relative mean incomes because of inequality. It enabled the measurement of the effect of changes in population from one group to another and capturing the changes in the within-group inequalities over time ( Cowell, 2006 ).

In addition to the Theil index, we consider the OLS to examine the contribution of gender, location, region, educational level, marital status and the sector of employment on the log of monthly earnings. We hypothesis that all the variables have a positive relationship with the log of monthly earnings; where it was not so, we accepted the alternative.

4. Results and discussion

4.1 descriptive statistics.

Descriptive statistics show us the qualities of the data used, which allow us to proceed with the appropriate methodology for estimation.

According to gender, the data show that 49.03% are male, while 50.97% of the population are female. Furthermore, the majority of the sample comes from the rural area, with 71.10% from the rural region and 28.90% of the sample come from the urban region, with the total population of the individual understudy being 32,827. To further appreciate the data set and the need to evaluate the dimension of gender inequality along regions in the country, the data were broken down to the regions in the country along the gender line. Along the male distribution, the North East holds a higher population with 24%, followed by North East with 18% followed closely by North Central with 17%. Considering female distribution, North East holds a higher population with 22%, while North East with 17% and North Central 17% are tied.

The standard deviation values showed the extent to which the observations are dispersed around their respective means in Table 1 . The standard deviation to mean ratio of females is 3.87 and 4.38 for male, which are greater than 0.5, thus suggesting a high coefficient of variation (i.e. high dispersion). Also, considering the skewness statistics whose threshold value for symmetry (or normal distribution) is zero, none of the variables is exactly zero. However, for females, it is closer to zero (0.14) than the male (0.76). They are positively skewed since their skewness statistics are greater than zero. On the other hand, the kurtosis value, whose threshold is 3, indicates that all variables are platykurtic (lowly peaked) with the values of 2.098 and 1.734 for males and females, respectively. This tends to prove the normality of the data.

Table 2 is a representation of the sectors in which the females in the sample are employed. About 44% of the females are engaged in buying and selling, 39% in agriculture, while only about 6% work in the manufacturing sector of the economy; the sector of employment is key to earning; females dominate jobs that are semi-skilled, hence have low income; this further widens the inequality gap between them and the male folk.

Table 3 is the breakdown of the sectors of employment for males. Agriculture also constitutes the main employment sector for the male, with about 54.82% engaged in agriculture. This is in line with the general belief that the agriculture sector employs most of Nigeria's labor. Following in distance is buying and selling, which is 14.76%; public administration (5.42%) and personal services (4.82%) are also common among males.

4.2 Ordinary least square regression, Theil's entropy and the kernel density

This section provides the estimated result from the models, such as OLS regression, Theil's entropy and the kernel density. It provides information on the population that earns a wage and those who do not earn a wage. It further explains the within- and between-gender inequality in income along with several characteristics.

Table 4 describes those who earn a wage in the economy and those who do not; by “has wage” we mean those who are in a formal working environment, while “no wage” refers to those who earn from the informal sector. As presented in the table, 48.48% of males have “no wage”, and 52.52 of females have “no wage”, with females having a higher percentage. Furthermore, in the “has wage” category, the males dominate with 65.67%, while 34.33% of females receive earnings in the formal sector; this further affirms the earlier finding that females engage in semiskilled works that offer little or no wage; hence, the disparity in the income gap of about 31.34% exists along gender. This points to the existence of an imbalance in the wage employment in Nigeria.

The table also shows that in terms of employment according to location, the urban centers provide more wage employment (“has wage”) than the rural area. In contrast, in the rural (71.95%) area, “no wage” is higher than that of the urban area (28.05%). This clearly shows that a larger percentage of rural dwellers engage in unpaid employment. More so, the “has wage” category in urban areas at 52.82% against 47.18% in the rural area confirmed the a priori expectation of the distribution of paid employment to be skewed in urban dwellers' direction.

Educational level is a major factor in income distribution. The level of education determines the level of income that an individual receives and either it will be in the wage-earning category or not. The result shows that the larger percentage of the “no wage” category have primary school education (40.33%) followed by those with secondary school certificate (26.27%). About 50.83% of those with paid employment have tertiary education, followed by individuals with secondary education (32.37%). This also confirms the prior expectation that more years of schooling should be income rewarding. Hence, inequality as the result of education is due to years of schooling. As more of the general populace attend school, the lesser the inequality as a result of education.

The service sector offers more paid employment than the other sectors with 86.92%, followed by the industrial sector with 8.29%.

Furthermore, the study found that those who are not married engaged more in informal employment (no wage), representing about 66%; on the other hand, the married are found more in wage-earning employment. Therefore, an inequality gap in income exists between the married and the singles.

Wage equations were estimated using OLS regression to identify the determinants of earning inequality in Nigeria ( Table 5 ). The overall goodness of fit for the model is 25.10%, with education playing a vital role in the contribution to earnings; agriculture shows a negative relationship. Also, marital status at all levels proves to be negative, primary and the north also experience a negative outcome.

Other variables in the model prove to be positively related with the log of monthly earnings, that is, gender, region, and secondary, tertiary, and vocational education; therefore, we accept the hypothesis stated. Table 6 also presents the average group earning of the categories. Inequality in wage between males and females was evident. The average earning of males was almost twice that of females, showing a high disparity in the level of income received by both genders.

Considering earnings by location, urban areas receive more earnings on average than the rural areas, representing that the urban areas are better off. In terms of region, the inequality measured by average earning favors the southern region over the northern region. Furthermore, evidence suggests that those who have higher education earn more than others and that the higher the level of education, the higher the earning. Earnings based on the sector of employment favors those in the agriculture sector. They also form a large percentage of the respondent, while those who are in the service sector also outweigh the industrial sector in terms of earnings.

Figure 1 shows that the female wage sprout over that of male to the left. The majority of the low wage earners are females; the male gender with higher incomes than the female tends to the right.

Figure 2 describes the relationship between the rural and urban regions. The graph shows that rural areas have a higher number of workers receiving lower income than the urban region with a higher number of workers in high-income jobs. In another vain, South and North regions have a close and almost similar wage distribution. However, the north experienced a higher number of people with a lower wage. The south has people with higher wage as it tends to the right. The kernel density graph further established findings in the regression analysis.

One of the objectives of this paper was to examine inequality between and within the group. We proceed to examine inequality within and between gender, location, region, education and marital status with Theil's entropy index, which allows for this operation. The result is presented in Table 6 .

Total earnings inequality was decomposed using Theil's entropy ( Table 6 ). Theil's entropy index assumes the maximum value of 1 as absolute inequality and 0 as equity. Within-group inequality explains inequality in relation to such group (internally), while the between-group measures inequality in relation to other groups (external). Within-group inequality is dominant in Nigeria. Along gender measured by male and female, the within inequality (0.7799) is of high value and close to the threshold of absolute inequality. Inequality also prevails within the rural and the urban areas (0.7963). Region experiences the highest level of within inequality in the study (0.8041). This shows a high gap in income considering the north and south of Nigeria and geographical area contributes more to inequality in earnings in Nigeria. Marital status also witnesses a high level of within inequality.

Considering the between-group inequality, between-group inequality is relatively low when compared with the within-group inequality. This shows that the variables are independent of other factors that can affect them externally. Marital status has the highest level of inequality (0.125), followed by education (0.088) and gender (0.043). This shows that females are highly deprived when married, and when it comes to education, they are relegated to the back.

5. Conclusion and recommendation

This paper focuses on inequality in earning in Nigeria; more specifically, the paper explores inequality in earning and gender, region (rural and urban areas), location (north and south), level of educational attainment and marital status. We measure the within-group, and between-group inequality; regression analysis, a graphical analysis was also carried out. The paper explored wage and nonwage employment characteristics, average earnings (in Naira) by group, and used the kernel density graph to explain relationships.

Findings from the paper empirically confirm that the presence of inequality in earnings prevails in Nigeria. It is observed that within-group inequality has the larger share of the inequality, while the between-group inequality only accounts for minimal contribution to inequality in earnings in Nigeria. Moreover, there are more male (65.67%) wage earners than females (34.33%). Females have a higher return on education than males. The service sector contributed 86.92% to the “has-wage” category, while 69.82% of the female wage earners are married. Average earnings for both urban and rural workers stood at 66,070.14 and 49,887.37 Naira, respectively. This shows the wide gap that exists in earnings in both locations. Based on regional comparison, residents in the southern part of the country earned more (N62,638.92) than their northern counterparts (N55,039.52). This finding is consistent with the earlier studies of Checchi and van De Werfhorst (2018) .

Generally, there is a high level of inequality in Nigeria. Specifically, within-group inequality is found to be more in the categories of regions (0.80409) and location (0.79634) than in the category of gender (0.77988). This shows that the location where a worker resides could worsen the degree of inequality experienced. Furthermore, inequality was explained by the sector of employment, location and religion. The model had a good fit. To this end, this study has contributed to the overcrowding theory of Amasa Walker by validating the concepts and showing that the female labor force in Nigeria is denied wage-earning opportunities. It is evident from the study that the female gender still has no access and control over resources, and cannot even influence their power as women in the country's political arena. They are relegated to the agriculture and small trade sector of the economy. These sectors currently witness many women; they are largely underproductive and receive poor earnings.

We recommend that gender inequality in earnings can be solved by policies aimed at benefiting the female categories. Such policies should encourage their participation more in wage-paying jobs than the traditional house jobs that many have been relegated to do. Furthermore, the education of a girl child is important in bridging the inequality gap in earnings. It has proven that females have higher returns to education than males as revealed by the kernel density graph.

The government is encouraged to explore affirmative actions, provide facilities and incentives that will encourage female students to further their education. This is in line with our findings which shows that the tertiary level of education provides higher returns than lower levels of education for females. Inequality across region seems to affect the economy greatly as a result shows that some region that is the south is better than the north, therefore, steps to develop the region should be of top priority for the government and the concerned stakeholders such as the multinational companies and private companies in terms of providing wage-paying jobs.

Human capital development must be given adequate attention at all levels of government. Opinion leaders like religious and traditional rulers should be courted to push even more for the girl child. Infrastructure development and opportunities leveraging on the local endowments and economically viable activities should be aggressively initiated in less developed regions.

In as much as we have been able to identify various shades of gender inequality in the Nigerian economy, more emphasis has been on earning. We further confirm that inequality in educational achievement is a factor that contributes to the gap in earning. Therefore, we propose that further study can examine the root cause of educational inequality along gender, regions and at different level of education in Nigeria so as to make the female gender have equal access to resources available in the country and further strengthen their participation in the political arena also.

Shows the distribution of wage by gender

Shows the distribution of wage by location

T -statistics of gender according to the sector of employment

Source(s) : Authors’ computation 2020

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge everyone who have contributed to the great success of this research work. The authors appreciate Professor Biola Phillip for her assistance towards this research paper. Special thanks to Dr. Omolara Faboya for her support too.

Funding details : The authors received no direct funding for this research work.

Declaration of interest statement : The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Original research article, attitudes, perceptions, and barriers to research and publishing among research and teaching staff in a nigerian research institute.

• 1 Directorate of Research and Development, Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology, Zaria, Nigeria
• 2 Information Technology Department, SIRONigeria Global Limited, Abuja, Nigeria
• 3 Petrochemicals and Allied Department, National Research Institute for Chemical Technology, Zaria, Nigeria

The economic development of any nation is centered on research. Unfortunately, research activities had suffered serious setbacks in tertiary research institutions in Nigeria. This study explores the attitudes, perceptions, and barriers to research and publishing among academic staff in the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology, (NILEST) Zaria, Nigeria. A structured self-administered questionnaire was distributed among 130 research and teaching staff at the various Directorates in NILEST. Data are presented in frequencies and percentages for questionnaire responses. Exactly 94% of the questionnaires were validated for the study, which included 81% males and 19% females. The participants were researchers (26%), lecturers (31%), technologists (20%), and instructors (22%). The majority of participants agreed that research is important for the institute (91%). A total of 81% believed that conducting research should be made mandatory for all academic staff. Only 44% self-reported to be part of ongoing research. Some of the obstacles reported to have prevented research activities included a lack of funding (72%), lack of professional mentorship (84%), and inadequate research facilities (89%). Participants without a single published paper constituted 57%. Some of the reasons given for not having any published papers were “no writing experience (96%), high publishing fee (80%), and long waiting period for peer review (97%).” The suggestions to improve research status by respondents included “provision of research grants/funds (93%), provision of Internet facilities (95%), mandatory publication (26%), and appropriate mentorship (34%).” The majority of the respondents believed that research is relevant; only a few were engaged in active research and published articles as evidence for it. It is, therefore, recommended that policymakers should devise strategies to focus on active research activities in order to achieve the desired research mandates and goals of institutions contributing to the development of the nation's economy.

Introduction

Research is essentially the search for facts in the furtherance of knowledge. It involves the collation and analysis of information to improve the human understanding of phenomena under study ( Bahadori et al., 2015 ). It entails data collection, analysis, interpretation, and assessment procedures conducted in a planned manner in order to find solutions to a problem ( Burton and Walters, 2013 ; Rezaei and Miandashti, 2013 ). According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, research is the creative work that is undertaken on a systematic basis with the purpose of increasing knowledge, and to devise new applications [ Organisation for Economic Coooperation and Development (OECD), 2002 ]. Research is frequently carried out in tertiary and research institutions ( Hosseinpour, 2011 ; Kobova, 2014 ). In most cases, research staff and graduate students are the two main groups who conduct research, the rationale being that education in tertiary institutions requires students to submit research projects, theses, or dissertations for the fulfillment of a degree program. Previously, lecturers were not required to conduct research on the challenges they would encounter in the course of teaching and learning [ Department of Health (DOH), 2006 ; Williams, 2013 ]. Much reliance has been placed on experts from diverse fields like psychology, philosophy, mathematics, and other sciences for the contents and execution of their teaching. As a result, the contribution to the field of teaching and learning from people, who were not trained as educators, has been significant and disproportionate ( Thorndike, 1910 ).

Research was made at a university function in addition to the task of teaching in the late nineteenth century after the first academic revolution ( Etzkowitz, 2003 ). Since then, attention to research is one of the most important issues in scientific communities ( Bahadori et al., 2015 ). In recent years, research output emanating from academics has been assessed and used to rank universities against each other ( Gross, 2004 ; Williams, 2013 ). Publishing of research work is evidence to justify support of research investigations and a guarantee of subsequent research funding for sustainability of the institute's mandate and organizational goals ( Hegde et al., 2017 ).

The perceptions and attitudes of staff have significant impact on the success of an organization ( Tsui et al., 1997 ; Garner and Hunter, 2013 ). More so, staff satisfaction toward research and publishing practices will enhance the developmental goal and strategic management of the institution and vice versa ( Bhatti and Qureshi, 2007 ; Tella et al., 2007 ). The attitude and perception of staff toward research and publishing in the institution essentially depends on job satisfaction ( Syed et al., 2012 ). Job satisfaction of staff, in turn, is influenced by research and publishing practices, research funding, research leave, research allowances, research training, and development compensation, availability of amenities, and professional mentorship ( Tella et al., 2007 ; Garner and Hunter, 2013 ).

The attitude and perception of both teaching and research staff of many tertiary research institutions in Nigeria have been observed to be lackluster ( Egbule, 2003 ; Chiemeke et al., 2009 ). Attitude and perception have significant impacts on staff performance, which, in turn, decides the performance of the organization. There is a need for the provision of the requirements of researchers, which would bolster their enthusiasm and improve their attitude and productivity ( Murty and Fathima, 2013 ).

The Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST) is a specialized agency under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology in Nigeria with the sole mandate “To provide courses of instruction, training, and research in the field of leather and leather product technology and conduct research and development on leather technologies and goods production” (NILEST in Brief, 2012 ). The visions of NILEST are “to become a research institute of international standard in the provision of innovative research and development in the processing and conversion of raw hides and skins into leather and leather products. Secondly, to be a renowned center of excellence in the field of tannery effluent monitoring and control, leather and leather products technologies and lastly, to be a center of excellence in the production of scientific models and polymer products.” The workforce of the institute comprises both research and teaching staff employed to actualize the vision and core mandate of its establishment (NILEST in Brief, 2012 ). Unfortunately, after over 50 years of its inception coupled with the fact that the vast majority of Nigerians use leather and leather products in one way or another, the institute is virtually unknown ( Okoduwa, 2017 ). Also, there is a paucity of published literature emanating from the institute on indexed journals, which is having a negative impact on its public profile. Possible explanations could be that research activities have been truncated for various reasons, which has a knock on effect on academic publications. It can be claimed that there is a direct relationship between conducting research and the actual progress of any institute of research. Previous studies conducted in other countries mention some barriers to research to include demographic characteristics and lack of resources for publication, and these were shown to affect the attitude and perception of staff toward research work and publications ( Carrion et al., 2004 ; Hosenipour, 2012 ). The main objective of this study, therefore, focuses on the attitudes, perceptions, and barriers to research and academic publishing by the members of research and teaching staff in NILEST, Zaria, Nigeria. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to be conducted in NILEST.

Study Design

This study was a cross-sectional descriptive survey using a structured questionnaire (Supplementary Data Sheet S1 ). The questionnaire covered age, sex, and significant attitudes and perceptions (identified through extensive literature searches as barriers to research and publishing). The questions were modified to suit the peculiar nature of the present case. The questionnaire was subdivided into different sections that included the perceptions of staff toward research, academic publishing, and subsequent effects on career development. Challenges and hindrances faced by staff were also queried and collated. Research assistants were trained in basic interviewing techniques. The questionnaire was pretested for flow of questions and for validity and was distributed at the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST), headquarters, Zaria, North-West, Nigeria (located on latitude: 11°9′55.3′′ longitude: 7°39′5.84′′).

Ethical Consideration

The purpose of the study was explained to all the participants and a written informed consent was obtained from them. The study protocol was ethically approved by the Institutional Research and Academic Committee (NILEST/AREC/EA15/062) in accordance with the Helsinki declaration, and data confidentiality was assured.

Selection Criteria

Employees of NILEST headquarters, Zaria, Nigeria, who are either research or teaching staff, were selected and included for the study. Nonresearch, nonteaching, and administrative staff were excluded from the study.

Data Source and Participants

A total of 200 staff was enrolled for the study. They were randomly selected from all the departments and units in four main directorates at NILEST headquarters, Zaria, Nigeria. The study was conducted between December 1st, 2015 and May 30th, 2016.

Based on the inclusion criteria, the final sample consisted of 130 staff from four directorates, namely: Directorate of Leather Technology (DLT), Directorate of Polymer and Environmental Technology (DPET), Directorate of Research and Development (DRD), and Directorate of Science Laboratory Technology (DSLT). Participation was voluntary, and informed consent was obtained before distribution of questionnaires. The staff were given ample time to answer the questionnaires, after which the questionnaires were collected. Eight respondents returned incomplete questionnaires; these were considered invalid and excluded from the analysis. Only the completed questionnaires 122 (94%) were considered valid and coded for analysis.

Statistical Analysis

The data obtained from the questionnaires were entered into Microsoft Excel 2013. Microsoft Excel and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software program (IBM SPSS v.20 Inc., Chicago Il, USA) were used for descriptive analysis of the data. The results are presented as percentages and frequency distribution.

Demographic Characteristics of the Studied Participants

The percentage distribution of respondents and their demographic characteristics are presented in Table 1 and Figure 1 . A total of 122 staff participated in the study, including 23 females (19%) and 99 males (81%). The participants were drawn from four main directorates, as follows: 21% from DLT, 20% from DPET, 29% from DRD, and 30% from DSLT. According to the designations of the participants as distributed in the four directorates, 26% were Researchers, 32% were Lecturers, and 42% were Technologists/Instructors. The majority of the participants (43%) were within the age range of 31–40 years. The lecturing cadre had the highest number with 31%. The DSLT recorded the highest number of respondents (30%). In terms of years of service, 65% of the participants were employees who had served the institute for <10 years. The researchers ranked highest (17%) among the <10 years of service group. It was observed that only 35% of the participants had served the institute above 10 years. A total of 27% of the participants had various postgraduate qualifications such as M.Sc./Ph.D., while the majority (73%) of the participants had only the basic first degree qualification such as B.Sc./HND (Figure 1 ).

Table 1 . Percentage distribution of respondents by designations and directorate.

Figure 1 . Demographic characteristics of respondents.

Barriers Encountered by Participants Toward Research and Publishing of Articles

Some of the specified barriers encountered by the participants in conducting research and publishing of academic articles are presented in Figure 2 and Table 2 . The identified barriers included lack of research funding (72%), inadequate research facilities (89%), inadequate training/orientation programs (52%), and lack of mentorship (84%). Among the various categories of respondents, 84% of Researchers reported lack of funds as a barrier hindering research activities and publishing of article among them. More than 80% of each category of respondents reported inadequate research facilities as the most significant issue. About half of the Instructors (48%) reported inadequate research experience as the most challenging barrier toward research and publishing. Lack of training and orientation programs was reported by over half of the Researchers (66%) and Technologists (56%). Lack of professional mentorship was also reported by more than 70% of each category of respondents. It was observed that the majority of respondents (79%) have never benefitted from research grants. Only a few of the participants (15%) had benefitted from publication fees assistance/waiver. None of the Instructors and Technologists have ever benefitted from publication fee assistance. Limited numbers of the Lecturers (4%) and Researchers (11%) reported that they have benefitted from publication fee assistance.

Figure 2 . An overview of barriers, attitudes, and perception of entire participants toward research and publishing of articles.

Table 2 . Barriers toward conducting research and publishing of articles that are specific among the different cadres of respondents.

Perceptions of Participants to Research and Publishing of Articles

The perception of respondents to research and publishing is presented in Figure 2 and Table 3 . The majority of participants (91%) agreed that research and publishing is important for academic and economic development. From the perspective of the different groups of respondents, it was observed that all the Researchers concurred to the fact that research is important. More so, 89% of Instructors, 92% of Lecturers, and 80% of the Technologists consented to the significance of research in increasing the research status of the institution and development of the nation's economy. The majority of the respondents (81%) have the same opinion that the conducting of research and publishing of articles should be mandatory for all staff. Among these groups were 67% Instructors, 76% Lecturers, 97% Researchers, and 84% Technologists.

Table 3 . Attitudes and perceptions toward conducting research and publishing of articles that are specific among the different cadres of respondents.

Attitude of Participants to Research and Publishing of Articles

The self-reported attitudes of respondents to research and publishing are presented in Figure 2 and Table 3 . Although the majority of respondents (89%) reported that they have self-interests in research (out of which 97% were Researchers, 92% were Technologists, and 95% Lecturers, and 70% were Instructors), it was, however, amazing to observe that only 44% of the participants were involved in ongoing research. Among the participants involved in active research were 75% of Researchers.

More than half (58%) of the Researchers, Instructors, and Lecturers were undergoing various postgraduate training such as M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs. Interestingly, only 43% of the participants have published at least one academic article in a peer reviewed journal. Among these were 69% of Researchers and 53% of Lecturers. Regrettably, 57% of all the respondents have never published any paper in academic peer reviewed indexed journals. Among those that have published at least one academic paper in peer reviewed journals, only 49% have appeared as first author in those articles, of which 38% were the Researchers.

Those who reported they had not published articles were questioned further as to why they had not. Some of the respondents (16%) said it was due to a long waiting period for the peer review process. About 20% reported they had no time to write an article for publication due to other commitments, while 33% said it was due to a lack of departmental motivation to conduct research and consider publishing the outcome of the research. A large number (97%) said due to rejection of manuscript upon submission for publication consideration, 96% said they had no writing experience, and 80% said it was due to the high publication fee for publishing articles (Figure 3 ).

Figure 3 . Reasons for not publishing by participants without published article. NB, Values presented are in percentages.

About half (54%) of the respondents in the group said they had no mentorship on how to process manuscripts for peer review indexed journals. Surprisingly, about 72% of those without published articles said it was not needed for their promotion/career growth (Figure 3 ).

Those who have published at least one paper or submitted manuscript for publication consideration reported their main motivation to be career development, information relay, and self-interest (Figure 4 ).

Figure 4 . Reasons for publishing by participants with at least one published article. NB, Values presented are in percentages.

Suggestions to Improve the Status of Research and Publishing in Tertiary Institutions

Suggestions collated from the participants that could help improve the status of research and publishing are presented in Figure 5 . These included provision of research grants and publication fee assistance and special award of excellence for outstanding contributions to deserving staff and provision of Internet facilities.

Figure 5 . Suggestions by participants for improving the status of research and publishing.

This study revealed a great disparity between the participation in and attitudes toward research activities and publication of scholarly articles among research and teaching staff in NILEST, as well as significant barriers impeding these activities. Some of these have been reported by other investigators ( Corbin and Strauss, 2008 ; Williams, 2013 ; Jahan et al., 2015 ; Hegde et al., 2017 ) such as lack of adequate facilities, skills, and personal interest. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to examine the barriers, perceptions, and attitudes of staff toward research and/or academic publishing in NILEST. The overall response of staff was encouraging, the initial reluctance of a sizable proportion of the staff notwithstanding.

Although gender equality is an imperative consideration globally ( Cornwall and Rivas, 2015 ; Jewkes et al., 2015 ), this study showed that the number of males working as research/teaching staff was higher compared with females in the entire directorate investigated (Figure 1 ). Among the female staff, involvement in research was notably lower compared with males. This observation is similar to some studies conducted in the United States, one of which cites low self-ability as a major barrier toward participation in research activities. However, no discrete reason was recognized in our study to elucidate this observation. On the other hand, this difference may be due to the cultural, religious, and social expectations and responsibilities faced by females in this part of the world ( Mordi et al., 2010 ; Para-Mallam, 2010 ).

The majority of respondents in our study had been in active service with the institute for <10 years. This may be due to a change in the name of the institute that properly repositioned it in line with its mandate, mission, and vision, which occurred on 1st April 2011 (7 years ago) (NILEST in Brief, 2012 ; Olatunji et al., 2015 ). This change brought an influx of research-oriented staff, in line with the new research capable status of the institute (it was previously a college). It was earlier reported that there were just 2 Ph.D. and few numbers of M.Sc. holders as of 2009. But, after the change in name from CHELTECH to NILEST, the numbers increased to 7 Ph.D. and 15 M.Sc. holders excluding additional 5 Ph.D. and 7 M.Sc. staff in training as of 2012 (NILEST in Brief, 2012 ).

A probable reason for the observed decline in staff strength as the years of service increase may be a lack of job satisfaction, leading to transfers of service to perceived greener pastures. This is most likely responsible for the dearth of Ph.D. holders in the institute, as upon attainment of higher qualifications, there is the urge to transfer service to universities where staff may be better placed and accorded portfolios befitting their status. This may include professorial seats and administrative or political positions. This observation may be supported by the fact that more than half (58%) of the participants were engaged in various postgraduate programs, yet only a few (<5%) hold a doctorate degree as of the time of this investigation. In the Nigerian system, it takes around 10 years for a civil/public servant to acquire a doctorate [2-year confirmation, 2-year study leave (M.Sc.), 2-year waiting period, 3-years study leave (Ph.D.)]. The greener pastures beckon thereafter.

Some other barriers to research activities identified by this study have been described by other investigators elsewhere ( Aslam et al., 2005 ; Dickson-swift et al., 2006 ; Baro and Ebhomeya, 2012 ). These include lack of suitably qualified mentors with appropriate expertise and sufficient time for mentoring, limited resources such as funds and facilities, and logistical difficulties. In all, lack of support from the institution and inappropriate funding of research activities are the hallmarks of failure to execute research tasks. Besides these, the limited number of research mentors is one of the barriers claimed by some of the respondents in this study. Lack of mentorship contributes to the inadequate research experience confronting the staff ( Nykamp et al., 2010 ; Al-Ghamdi et al., 2014 ; Oliveira et al., 2014 ; Kharraz et al., 2016 ). Lack of professional mentorship is put forth as an incredibly strong theme predominantly for new members of academic staff in this study who acknowledged the need for guidance in commencing research works. Positive role models and adequate professional mentorship are crucial to researchers and, if unsupported, early career staff can discontinue their work ( Aslam et al., 2005 ). It would be rational to believe that the best mentor would be an experienced researcher with track record of publications. This observation was in harmony with the report of Williams (2013) on the need for new researchers to have a mentor who can guide them through the process of research and publishing of scholarly articles. Unfortunately, this practice is only obtainable in tertiary institutions where research is part of students' academic program of study ( Dickson-swift et al., 2006 ).

The majority of the respondents (91%) agreed that it was imperative to publish papers. This observation is consonant with reports from previous investigators on related subjects ( Srinivasan et al., 2014 ; Hegde et al., 2017 ). All the Researchers included in this study felt that research activities and publishing are mandatory for career progression, a condition of service for research institutions in Nigeria. This is contrary to the conditions of service in use by the teaching staff in NILEST that provides no recognition for research activities and academic publications. The respondents' interest toward research and reasons for which scholarly publication was considered valuable included improving their relationships with and gaining respect from fellow colleagues in the scientific community, advancing their career opportunities, and improving their writing and research skills. These observations were similar to that reported by Griffin and Hindocha (2011) . Research skills for teaching staff are becoming imperative, particularly for obtaining designated positions in competitive markets, and in order to secure research grants ( Tracey et al., 1995 ). Aside research staff, teaching staff can be potential contributors to scientific research and development through participation in different commercially oriented research ( Martin, 1997 ; Shamai and Kfir, 2002 ). It is noted in this study that less than half of the respondents (44%) reported scholarly research publications as a means to improve the relationship with and gain respect from scientific community, as well as recuperating their writing and research skills.

For those that had not published at least one article, it is clear that the main barrier was not having the opportunity to perform research as they were not engaged in any research activities in the first instance; hence, they feel they have nothing to declare as a publication. This was also in agreement with the findings reported by Griffin and Hindocha (2011) . A survey of Australian researchers showed that research infrastructure support is vital to research productivity ( Shewan et al., 2002 ).

In this study, 81% of the respondents have suggested that research and publishing should be made mandatory for all academic and research staff (Table 3 ). Mandatory involvement in research activities has been demonstrated to improve researchers' attitude toward research ( Segal et al., 1990 ).

Lack of time is another factor militating against the conducting of research and also one major hindrance to accessing research funds ( Baro and Ebhomeya, 2012 ). According to Yusuf (2012) the declining research productivity in the Nigerian university system is attributed to among other factors the “rising workloads associated with deteriorating staff/students ratio,” which leave little time for research. Lack of knowledge about funding agencies/organization, bureaucracy in the acquisition of funds, and the exclusion of research institutes from Education Trust Fund by the 2011 Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Acts , in which section 20 of the Act was responsible for deterring researchers from conducting meaningful research ( Bello, 2012 ; Baro et al., 2017 ). These observations were in agreement with the findings by Dorsey et al. (2013) that government policies on budgets to researchers deter implementation and conducting of research.

Due to the anonymous nature of the present research, the likelihood of bias is reduced. This does not sideline the significant limitation, which needs to be highlighted. The present study was conducted in a single research institute; hence, may be insufficient when one has to generalize.

In conclusion, this study highlights clearly that less than half of the studied population were involved in active research activities and had published at least one article. This can be improved by providing more accessible opportunities to take part in research followed by encouragement and guidance from professional mentors. More opportunities to perform research and teaching will aid academic staff to increase their publishing potential. Hence, the management of the institute and policymakers may consider taking special research initiatives to address the barriers and improve the involvement of academic staff in scholarly active research activities and publishing.

The results of this study could be the basis for similar future comparative studies and policy formulations that may promote the research mandate of every institution in order to achieve their organizational goal to enhance the nation's economic development, security, and sustainability. Further study is therefore recommended at different research institutions on a larger sample size.

Author Contributions

SO got the concept, design, and interpretation of the study. JA, BS, AC, and RO conducted the field study and management of questionnaires. SO, OI, and UO drafted the manuscript and participated in data analysis and literature search. SO and OI critically reviewed and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors read through the final version of the manuscript and gave consent for its publication.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The authors express their warm appreciation to the Dr. A. Ejila, Director of Research, NILEST, Zaria, Nigeria for approval to conduct the study.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frma.2018.00026/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords: research, attitude, perception, barriers, publication, academic staff

Citation: Okoduwa SIR, Abe JO, Samuel BI, Chris AO, Oladimeji RA, Idowu OO and Okoduwa UJ (2018) Attitudes, Perceptions, and Barriers to Research and Publishing Among Research and Teaching Staff in a Nigerian Research Institute. Front. Res. Metr. Anal . 3:26. doi: 10.3389/frma.2018.00026

Received: 07 June 2018; Accepted: 21 August 2018; Published: 25 September 2018.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2018 Okoduwa, Abe, Samuel, Chris, Oladimeji, Idowu and Okoduwa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Stanley I. R. Okoduwa, [email protected] ; [email protected]

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A Collection of Research Papers by Data Science Nigeria

DataScienceNigeria/Research-Papers-by-Data-Science-Nigeria

Folders and files, repository files navigation, research papers.

This repository is a collection of research papers published by Data Science Nigeria .

Each folder contains all the materials used in conducting respective research projects (inclusive of their datasets and codes if available).

• spaCy model for Medical Named Entity Recognition in Nigerian Social Media Texts
• Semantic Enrichment of Nigerian Pidgin English for Contextual Sentiment Classification ( Paper link )
• AFRIRAZER: A Deep Learning Model to remove Background and Skin from Traditional African Fashion Images ( Paper link )
• Real-Time Crowdsourcing of Health Data in a Low-Income Country: A Case Study of Human Data Supply on Malaria First-Line Treatment Policy Tracking in Nigeria ( Paper link )
• Problem and Solution Documentation Template for Machine Learning Competitions to Enhance Explainability, Reproducibility, and Collaboration Between Stakeholders ( Paper link )
• Federated Grassroots Community Model for Catalyzing Artificial Intelligence for Common Good ( Paper link )
• NaijaNER: Comprehensive Named Entity Recignition for 5 Nigerian Languages ( Paper link )
• Artificial Intelligence for Pharmacovigilance in Nigerian Social Media Text ( Paper link )
• AFRIFASHION1600: A Contemporary African Fashion Dataset for Computer Vision ( Paper link )
• AFRIGAN: African Fashion Style Generator using Generative Adversarial Networks(GANs) ( Paper link )
• AFRIFASHION40000: A GAN generated African Fashion Dataset for Computer Vision ( Paper link )
• A Comparative Analysis of Semi-Supervised and Self-Supervised Classification for Labeling Tweets about Police Brutality ( Paper link )
• A Practical Framework for Building and Managing Digital Crowdsourcing Communities ( Paper link )
• AI-powered understanding of family planning behavioural change using the fogg model ( Paper link )
• COVNLP: A Multisource COVID-19 dataset for Natural Language Processing ( Paper link )
• EDUSTT: In-Domain Speech Recognition for Nigerian Accented Educational Contents in English ( Paper link )

Contributors 9

• Jupyter Notebook 88.6%
• JavaScript 6.5%
• Python 0.1%