EVALUATION OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS MARKETING IN A GLOBALIZING ECONOMY: A CONCEPTUAL EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA (Published)
The downstream sector of the Nigeria’s petroleum industry is a key sector in the country’s economy having four refineries with a nameplate capacity of 445,000 barrel per day, more than eight (8) major and over three hundred and fifty (350) independent petroleum products’ marketers, all active in marketing, distribution and retailing of petroleum products in the country. The state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has had an all-encompassing control over the Nigeria’s petroleum industry, while the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) is involved in fixing and regulation of wholesale and retail prices of petroleum products across the country. Consequent upon this, Nigerians have experienced several decades of shortages of refined petroleum products and this has led to increased imports to meet the domestic demand. Nigeria’s petroleum industry has experienced enormous problems such as poor management and lack of turnaround maintenance resulting in the refineries operating below full capacity. The PPPRA, the NNPC and other stakeholders in the downstream sector of the Nigeria’s petroleum industry are to take all necessary measures to sustain the current petroleum products supply stability in the system, while there should be adherence to approved official pump prices ceiling by petroleum products marketers
Keywords: Downstream sector, Globalized economy, Marketing, Nigeria, Petroleum products
EFFECTS OF FINANCIAL SECTOR LIBERALIZATION ON BANK PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA: 1971-2011 (Published)
The study critically assessed the extent to which financial sector liberalization has affected bank performance in Nigeria. Panel data model was employed for data spanning a period of thirty four years (i.e. 1971-2011). Earnings per share (EPS), Returns on capital employed (ROCE) and Returns on equity (ROE) were used as proxies for bank performance (i.e the dependent variables) while interest rate, real financial savings and exchange rates were used as the proxies for financial sector liberalization (i.e. the independent variables). A number of diagnostic tests were also conducted on the residuals to evaluate the models; these include the Breuch-Godfrey serial correlation Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test, the Ramsey REST test of specification error (i.e. to test for omitted variables, incorrect functional form, correlation between exogenous variables and error term) and the Cumulative Sum (CUSUM ) tests of parametric stability, the LM test of serial correlation showed that there was an absence of first order serial correlation in the residuals and cumulative sum tests also showed that observations are more stable during Pre-SAP period than the post-SAP era. The result obtained showed that though the effect of financial sector liberalization on bank performance in Nigeria for the period of study has been significant, especially as measured by the proxies of Earnings per Share and Return on Equity, it has not been significant enough to transform the nations’ economy to the desired level. Hence, the study suggests among other things that a precondition for the efficiency of a liberalized financial sector is a stable macroeconomic environment and it is essential to ensure that government fiscal policy is assigned to complement monetary policies not to work against monetary and fiscal policies and help restore domestic and international confidence in the Nigeria banking system.
Keywords: Bank Performance, Financial Sector, Liberalization, Nigeria