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Commercial banks accept deposits and lend money for investment and consumption. This study used five (5) first-tier banks in Nigeria as a case study to analyze the effects of credit risk management on the financial performance of commercial banks. The study examined fifteen (15) years' worth of panel data (from 2005 to 2019), taken from the audited financial reports of five first-tier listed banks. Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) are the only banks used, and they are all listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Non-performing loans (NPL) and expected credit loss impairment provisions (ECL) were utilized in this study as indicators of credit risk management. At the same time, return on assets (ROA) was employed to measure financial performance.

This paper examined the effect of power supply and the performances of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs). In doing this, the paper used durations of public power supply, bills paid for public power and cost paid for private power supply as measures of power supply on the performances index of the SMEs in Port Harcourt. The performance indexes are employed in the models as the dependent variables while the power supply indexes are the explanatory variables. The data were sourced primarily through a well-structured questionnaire and the samples determined by the Cochran sampling techniques. The data were analyzed with the Qualitative Respond Model. It was revealed that a lower duration of public power supply significantly reduces the profitability, productivity and revenue, as well as the storage of products of the SMSEs, examined. Hence, the study recommended among others that there is a need to allocate more electric power to the industrial area of Rivers state- Port Harcourt, especially in the day light to encourage productivity, profitability and employment generation in the state.

Insurance plays an essential role in stimulating economic growth. Insurance is an intangible product, and prompt claim settlement proves that insurers fulfill their promises to the insureds. This paper analyses the impacts of insurance claims settlement on economic growth. It examines the effect of insurance claims' settlements on a nation's economic growth, using Nigeria as a case study. The research utilised an ex-post facto design, using 28-year time series data (1992 – 2019). Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Nigeria's insurance companies' claims settlement are the dependent and independent variables used for the study, respectively. The Long-run co-integration result revealed that INCLM (Insurance claims) has an insignificant negative effect on GDP. The coefficient shows that a percentage increment in INCLM (Insurance claims) would result in a 1.22 decrease in GDP. The results indicate that insurance claims settlement has an insignificant negative effect on economic growth. This implies a negative relationship between insurance claims settled by insurance companies and economic growth in Nigeria. The finding is surprising as one expects that settlement of claims by insurers should positively impact economic growth. The implication is that the relationship between insurance claims settlement and economic growth varies depending on several factors, including country-specific factors and the performance of the country's insurance industry.

The practice of mock bank is an institutional arrangement to expose potential bankers to basic rudiments of banking operations with the ultimate aim of increasing the profitability of the organization through employee performance. This study assessed the impact of mock bank practices on employee performance in the banking sector as a panacea for repositioning the Nigerian economy with a specific focus on Union Bank Plc. The objective is to examine the contributions of operational experience to staff, ascertain the impact of professional ethics on commercial banks in Nigeria and identify the contributions of knowledge of organizational structure on the operations of commercial banks. T-statistics was used to test the three hypotheses. Results showed that there is a significant relationship between experienced, knowledge of job ethics, and organizational structure by employees before recruitment and performance at the workplace when compared to those recruited before training. Further results revealed that employees that had mock bank experiences perform better with less supervision. It was recommended that reinforcement of mock bank practices in tertiary institutions in Nigeria and allotment of higher credit units to mock bank practice should be encouraged.

The study examined the dynamic responses of profitability indexes to capital adequacy ratios of authorized internationalized deposit money banks in Nigeria. The data were sourced from the financial year books of the deposit money banks and analyzed with static and dynamic panel estimators. The static estimator shows that the banks have differences in managerial style, size and profitability. Also, it was revealed that return on asset and return on equity responded positively to asset size, efficiency of the use of asset and current ratio in the static models and they were highly significant. However, they were insignificant in the dynamic specifications except asset size that was significant in the return on asset model showing a weak dynamic response of profitability to capital adequacy ratios. Hence the study recommended that Banks should improve their share based as to increase the asset as this will improve profitability.

This paper aims to examine the quantile-based frequency connectedness between cryptocurrencies and palladium returns across different market conditions and investment horizons. In this paper, it is also aimed to evaluate the asymmetric and time-varying spillover dynamics between cryptocurrency markets and palladium returns in order to determine their diversification, hedging, and safe-haven characteristics. The study discussed the Heterogeneous Market Hypothesis together with the concepts of cryptocurrencies and palladium as part of the theoretical and conceptual foundation of the analysis. We employed a hybrid analytical framework combining Quantile Regression (QR), Quantile-on-Quantile Regression (QQR), and Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) to capture the non-linear and frequency-dependent relationships between the selected variables. Daily time-series data on palladium prices and major cryptocurrencies, namely Cardano (ADA), Binance Coin (BNB), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), TRON (TRX), Tether (USDT), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Ripple (XRP), sourced from CoinMarketCap and Bloomberg Terminal, were analysed over the study period. Main findings of the study demonstrate that (i) the connectedness between cryptocurrencies and palladium returns is generally weak in the short term, indicating limited immediate spillover effects between the two markets, (ii) medium- and long-term horizons exhibit stronger and predominantly positive connectedness across most quantiles, particularly from cryptocurrencies to palladium returns, suggesting increasing financial integration over time, and finally (iii) the cryptocurrency–palladium return nexus is asymmetric and state-dependent, with palladium occasionally displaying limited hedging and safe-haven properties during periods of market distress. The study concludes that cryptocurrencies primarily function as diversification instruments rather than consistent hedging assets against palladium market risks. Based on the findings, investors and portfolio managers are encouraged to adopt medium- to long-term investment strategies when integrating cryptocurrencies and palladium within diversified portfolios, while closely monitoring persistent cryptocurrency market trends that may influence palladium price dynamics over time.

The doctoral programme is an educational programme put in place to earn the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D). A criterion for assessing the successful administration of doctoral degrees in universities is the timely completion of the programme.  Research indicates that several Ph.D. candidates at Nigerian universities fail to finish their programmes within the anticipated five-year timeframe. This research examined the determinants of efficient administration of PhD programmes in universities in southern Nigeria. A sample of 528 respondents (PhD students, supervisors and coordinators) was drawn from the University of Ibadan 305, Olabisi Onabanjo University 38, Ekiti State University 50 and the University of Lagos 135. Two questionnaires titled “Effective Management of Doctoral Programme Questionnaire” (EMDPQ r=0.83) and “Predictors of Effective Management of Ph.D Questionnaire” (PEMPQ r=0.82) were used to collect data. Multiple regression analysis was used to test two null hypotheses at the significance level of 0.05. The research found that the successful administration of PhD programs in institutions in southwest Nigeria was significantly influenced by student, supervisory, and institutional variables (F(3;461) =25.973, Adj. R2=0.13), accounting for 13% of its variance. It was also shown that institutional (? = 0.277, t = 2.892, p < 0.05) and student-related (? = 0.275, t = 2.425, p < 0.05) factors are more powerful predictors of effective management of doctoral programmes than supervisory variables. The findings indicated that to improve the effective management of doctoral programmes in universities in southwest Nigeria, stakeholders should prioritise collaboration on student, supervisory, and institutional factors.

Insurance plays an essential role in stimulating economic growth. Insurance is an intangible product, and prompt claim settlement proves that insurers fulfill their promises to the insureds. This paper analyses the impacts of insurance claims settlement on economic growth. It examines the effect of insurance claims' settlements on a nation's economic growth, using Nigeria as a case study. The research utilised an ex-post facto design, using 28-year time series data (1992 – 2019). Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Nigeria's insurance companies' claims settlement are the dependent and independent variables used for the study, respectively. The Long-run co-integration result revealed that INCLM (Insurance claims) has an insignificant negative effect on GDP. The coefficient shows that a percentage increment in INCLM (Insurance claims) would result in a 1.22 decrease in GDP. The results indicate that insurance claims settlement has an insignificant negative effect on economic growth. This implies a negative relationship between insurance claims settled by insurance companies and economic growth in Nigeria. The finding is surprising as one expects that settlement of claims by insurers should positively impact economic growth. The implication is that the relationship between insurance claims settlement and economic growth varies depending on several factors, including country-specific factors and the performance of the country's insurance industry.

Commercial banks accept deposits and lend money for investment and consumption. This study used five (5) first-tier banks in Nigeria as a case study to analyze the effects of credit risk management on the financial performance of commercial banks. The study examined fifteen (15) years' worth of panel data (from 2005 to 2019), taken from the audited financial reports of five first-tier listed banks. Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) are the only banks used, and they are all listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Non-performing loans (NPL) and expected credit loss impairment provisions (ECL) were utilized in this study as indicators of credit risk management. At the same time, return on assets (ROA) was employed to measure financial performance.

The study examined the dynamic responses of profitability indexes to capital adequacy ratios of authorized internationalized deposit money banks in Nigeria. The data were sourced from the financial year books of the deposit money banks and analyzed with static and dynamic panel estimators. The static estimator shows that the banks have differences in managerial style, size and profitability. Also, it was revealed that return on asset and return on equity responded positively to asset size, efficiency of the use of asset and current ratio in the static models and they were highly significant. However, they were insignificant in the dynamic specifications except asset size that was significant in the return on asset model showing a weak dynamic response of profitability to capital adequacy ratios. Hence the study recommended that Banks should improve their share based as to increase the asset as this will improve profitability.