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Nigeria's Vision 2020 has expressed a bold desire for the country to be among the world's top 20 economies by the year 2020. The economy has posted impressive growth figures since 2003, driven by higher oil revenues and a series of home-grown economic reforms. The country is now firmly on the road to middle-income status. But what else do government and the private sector need to do to create the jobs and growth that will underpin the national development strategy? What are the challenges that Nigeria's businesses face today? 'An Assessment of the Investment Climate in Nigeria' provides answers to these questions. Based on a survey of 2,300 companies, it provides evidence-based recommendations designed to support Vision 2020 and the president's seven-point agenda. The authors find that government must move quickly to create jobs and reduce poverty. Key challenges include a desperate shortage of energy and a poor transportation network, as well as low levels of education and continuing unrest in the Niger delta. In addition, Nigeria's workers need to become more productive in order to compete in a globalized economy. As a matter of fact, they are less productive than workers in more dynamic countries, such as Brazil, China, and Kenya. Improving productivity will require simultaneous efforts to foster competition, improve specific aspects of the business environment, and facilitate better management and training within individual firms. In addition to the issues of productivity, Nigeria's best firms have not been able to expand their market share. Consequently, policy makers need to address and elimate obstacles to competition, including barriers to entry, convoluted taxation, property registration, and licensing.

The payment mode has important effects on business transactions. This paper focuses on decision-making research on third-party payment services selection for logistics information platforms (LPIPs). From the point of view of technology adoption and LPIPs, six selection criteria of third-party payment services were proposed based on UTAUT model. An optimal decision-making approach measured by these criteria was put forward based on the multi-attribute decision-making theory. The final criteria weights were adjusted by the initial individuals separately obtained by the relative comparison method and entropy evaluation method. And the final evaluation of all was obtained by weighted averaging. An illustrative case was carried out based on the former method. It is indicated that the proposed decision-making method is effective and could well distinguish different third-party payment software for LPIPs in quantitative way.

In recent years, the development of smart cities has accelerated. There are several issues to handle in smart cities, one of the most important of which is efficient resource allocation. For the modeling of smart cities, multi-agent systems (MASs) can be used. In this paper, an efficient approach is proposed for resource allocation in smart cities based on the multi-agent credit assignment problem (MCA) and bankruptcy game. To this end, the resource allocation problem is mapped to MCA and the bankruptcy game. To solve this problem, first, a task start threshold (TST) constraint is introduced. The MCA turns into a bankruptcy problem upon introducing such a constraint. Therefore, based on the concept of bankruptcy, three methods of TS-Only, TS + MAS, and TS + ExAg are presented to solve the MCA. In addition, this work introduces a multi-score problem (MSP) in which a different reward is offered for solving each part of the problem, and we used it in our experiments to examine the proposed methods. The proposed approach is evaluated based on the learning rate, confidence, expertness, efficiency, certainty, and correctness parameters. The results reveal the better performance of the proposed approach compared to the existing methods in five parameters.

The outcome of an action often occurs after a delay. One solution for learning appropriate actions from delayed outcomes is to rely on a chain of state transitions. Another solution, which does not rest on state transitions, is to use an eligibility trace (ET) that directly bridges a current outcome and multiple past actions via transient memories. Previous studies revealed that humans ( Homo sapiens ) learned appropriate actions in a behavioral task in which solutions based on the ET were effective but transition-based solutions were ineffective. This suggests that ET may be used in human learning systems. However, no studies have examined nonhuman animals with an equivalent behavioral task. We designed a task for nonhuman animals following a previous human study. In each trial, participants chose one of two stimuli that were randomly selected from three stimulus types: a stimulus associated with a food reward delivered immediately, a stimulus associated with a reward delivered after a few trials, and a stimulus associated with no reward. The presented stimuli did not vary according to the participants’ choices. To maximize the total reward, participants had to learn the value of the stimulus associated with a delayed reward. Five chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) performed the task using a touchscreen. Two chimpanzees were able to learn successfully, indicating that learning mechanisms that do not depend on state transitions were involved in the learning processes. The current study extends previous ET research by proposing a behavioral task and providing empirical data from chimpanzees.

Cotton is a rare economic success story in Sub-Saharan Africa. While the continent's share of the world's agricultural trade fell by about half from 1980 to 2005, its share of world cotton exports more than doubled. Cotton is a major source of foreign exchange earnings in more than 15 countries of the continent and is a crucial source of income for millions of rural people. 'Organization and Performance of Cotton Sectors in Africa' provides an in-depth comparative analysis of the outcomes of the reforms that have been implemented in Sub-Saharan cotton sectors and of the linkages between sector organization and performance. The book highlights challenges facing cotton sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa and demonstrates how reform in the sectors is the key to sustaining growth, improving competitiveness and reducing rural poverty. It provides national and regional policy makers with a number of recommendations based upon the observable lessons of past reform programs.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the determinants of awareness and use of credit sources. The paper attempts to answer the critical question: is awareness of credit sources prerequisite for their use? Design/methodology/approach This study is conducted in Assam, India, and uses a two-stage econometric model to reduce possible selection bias. Findings This study argues that awareness of credit sources may be a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for use. It is found that, in general, formal, semiformal and informal sources attract different classes of the population with respect to economic and social indicators. Research limitations/implications The study recommends expanding the scope of semiformal and informal credit sources in rural areas of Assam only for income generating activities with proper market linkages. The possible limitation of the study can be due to exclusion of the role of traditional community-based organizations in rural Assam while analyzing the awareness and use of credit sources. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature by assessing the probable differences among formal, semiformal and informal credit sources with respect to their determinants of awareness and use.

An equilibrium model of a credit market is proposed and examined. The credit price or the interest rate in the model is determined by the consistent interaction of two macroscopic factors: supply and demand. Methods for computing an equilibrium interest rate are suggested. The methods are interpreted as market-balancing dynamics. The convergence of the methods is proved.

A comprehensive analysis of agricultural land redistribution in developing countries. Despite centuries of land reform, inequalities persist. Agricultural Land Redistribution examines the economic and policy aspects of land redistribution, offering insights for policymakers and practitioners. This volume: * Addresses land inequality and poverty reduction * Explores land tenure systems and property rights * Analyzes market-based approaches and expropriation * Examines community participation and sustainable agriculture This insightful resource is for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners in agriculture and rural development seeking to achieve greater consensus on effective land reform strategies. Hans P. Binswanger-Mkhize, Camille Bourguignon, and Rogier J. E. van den Brink present a valuable contribution to a critical area of development.

This chapter presents the point that banks rely on their internal credit risk rating or credit scoring models for loan sanctions and loan pricing; however, if the rating framework is not comprehensive or periodically tested for validity, the rating will be erroneous. Banks may suffer large losses for relying solely on collateral for lending, either due to decline in collateral values or absence of a market for sale of collateral, or because of the long‐drawn‐out court procedure involved in realizing collateral values. Credit problems may arise in cases of related parties, because systems and procedures laid down for granting credit may not be followed in their entirety. Common multiple causes, which lead to credit risk, are imprudent credit decisions, deficient credit management, emergence of unexpected events, and the recalcitrant attitude of borrowers. Combination of external and internal factors generates credit risk for banks.

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Liquidity Profitability Versus Liquidity Common Sources of Cash Flow Problems in Aquaculture Businesses Statement of Cash Flows Management Alternatives and Planning Strategies to Overcome Cash Flow Problems Record‐Keeping Practical Application (Different Timing of Equipment Payments) Other Applications in Aquaculture Summary Review Questions References