Availability and utilization of instructional materials in a North-west School of Nursing, Nigeria

Haddad M.M.¹, Agaba L.O.², Suberu A.¹, Danjuma A.³, Patricia H.A.², Idris A.¹, Samuel G.A.⁵, Murtala Musa.⁴

¹Department of Nursing Science Bayero University, Kano Nigeria

²Department of Nursing Science Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital Kano, Nigeria

³Department of Nursing Science Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Kaduna,   Nigeria

⁴Department of Nursing, Zamfara State School of Nursing and Midwifery, Gusau, Zamfara Nigeria

⁵St. Louis School of Midwifery, Zonkwa, Kaduna, Nigeria

Email: sirlee1607@gmail.com; Corresponding author: Agaba Liberty Ozadiya 

ABSTRACT

Instructional materials promote efficiency of education by improving the quality of teaching and learning, yet one of the major problems teachers and students encounter in our educational system in Nigeria includes inadequate teaching and learning materials. Hence, this study explores the availability and utilization of instructional materials. The study adopts a descriptive survey design. Instrument for data collection was a check-list and two set of questionnaires for the students and tutors. The sample for the study was arrived at using Yamane’s formula where a total of thirty-one (31) tutors and one hundred and nineteen (119) students responded to the questionnaires. Data collected was analyzed using SPSS version 24.0 where a four scale Likert chat was interpreted using a mean standard of three (3) as reference point for accepting or rejecting each average mean. Findings among others show that apart from white boards for makers and anatomical models of various human organs that are adequately available, only few (35.5%) instructional materials are available and majority (67.2%) of the tutors do not utilize instructional materials in the course of teaching. The study concluded that tutors should be encouraged and monitored on the utilization of instructional materials and It was recommended that adequate instructional materials should be provided by the management of the institution in the course of teaching-learning Nursing.

Keywords: Availability, Utilization, Instructional materials.

An Empirical Analysis of Board Structure, Composition and Firm Performance Using 30 UK Listed Companies

Nkasi, E. Ernest

Department of Accountancy

Federal polytechnic, Bali- P.M.B 05 Bali, Taraba State

Email: stanleynkasi@gmail.com 

ABSTRACT: This study examines the empirical analysis of board structure and composition as well as firm performance. Using a sample of 30 UK listed companies, the results confirms that there is no positive relationship between board structure, composition and firm performance in these 30 UK listed firms. It is worth noting that, the major characteristics of corporate governance identified in this research paper are board structure, board composition and firm performance. These results neither did support agency theory, resource dependence and stewardship theory. The empirical evidence of outside board directors and firm performance is mixed. However, some studies such as daily and Dalto(1992), Tian and Lau (2001) and Luan and Tang (2007) concluded in their findings that having more outside independent directors on their boards improves firm performance hence supporting agency theory.  It is not surprising to expect such negative relationship between board structure and composition and firm performance considering the limited sample size of 30 UK listed companies used in the research. The findings of this research shows  that board composition is inversely related to the corporate value because the advantages of monitoring larger boards are outweighed by problems associated with the growing asymmetric information, and additionally larger board sizes are likely to have raised coordination costs, which lessens effective monitoring.  Secondly there are other variables other than the ones the researcher   used to measure firm performance for example corporate social responsibility.

Keywords: Board structure and composition, firm performance, outside independent directors, agency and stewardship theory  

Intervention Analysis of Daily South African Rand/Nigerian Naira Exchange Rates

Kingdom Nwuju, Better Ifeoma Lekara-Bayo, Ette Harrison Etuk

Department of Mathematics

Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT: Time series plot of a realization of daily exchange rates of South African Rand and Nigerian Naira from April 2017 to December, 2017shows the occurrence of an intervention on 4th August, 2017. This research work has an aim of proposing an intervention model to explain the impact of this intervention believed to be due to the economic recession in Nigeria. Pre-intervention series is observed to be stationary by the Augmented Dickey Fuller Test. Following the shown autocorrelation structure of the series, an adequate subset ARMA (12, 2) model is fitted to it. On the basis of this model forecasts are made for the post-intervention period. Difference between these forecasts and their corresponding actual observations are modeled to obtain the intervention transfer function and the desired overall intervention model. Management of these exchange rates may be made on the basis of this model.

Keywords: South Africa, Nigeria, Exchange Rate, ARIMA Modeling, Interrupted Time Series, Forecasting.

Library Makerspace: Supporting an Entrepreneurial System in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions

¹ Madalla Ajemasu; Yusuf Mohammed Inuwa³;Yusuf Saad ³ and Abdullshi Adamu Jumba⁴

¹Muhammadu Wabi Library, Federal Polytechnic Bauchi

^{2 & 3} Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi

⁴ Bauchi State Library Board

Email: madallajemasu@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: The unemployment situation in Nigeria is at the alarming rate. It has eaten deep into the nation’s fabric. Graduates in Nigeria suffer the most because they make up the highest number of people in the country. This unemployment situation has caused macroeconomic distortions in the country. This calls for training of the graduates to be entrepreneurial and self-reliant so that the nation can overcome the issue of unemployment as well as become more prolific. The library has a role to play in inculcating the skills of entrepreneurship in the youth. To this regard, the concept Library Makerspace, Justification for a Library Makerspace as a tool for supporting an entrepreneurial system as well as different library making activities were discussed. Such activities include, Computer workstations, 3D printing, Photo editing, Video editing, video and audio capture, large format printing, Computer programming/software, Scanning photos to digital, Creating a website or online portfolio, Digital music recording, Electronic music recording and programming VHS conversion equipment, and so forth. Furthermore, the Entrepreneurial Skills Required by undergraduates/youths have been discussed, and the challenges faced by the Nigerian libraries in facilitating these entrepreneurial programs have been identified and solution proffered. Lastly the author’s suggested ways of Planning a Successful Library Makerspace.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, youths, unemployment, library, Nigeria

Crisis Response Strategies: Analysing the Actions and Inactions of Wells Fargo and Samsung in 2016 from Theoretical Lens

Brandford Shadrach Adams

Department of General Studies

Federal Polytechnic Bali

Email: shadrachb.adams@yahoo.co.uk

ABSTRACT: Managing crisis when the reputation of a brand is at stake is one of the most complex public relations task organizations must tackle as response strategies deployed may either salvage or further aggravate the situation. This study analyse crisis response strategies deployed by international business giants; Wells Fargo and Samsung in the fallout of the 2016 crises that threatened their brand reputation especially in this era of information and communication technology where the new media has made information about brand’s product and services at customers’ fingertip .It also attempt to explain the basis of the crisis and the actions/inactions of the two brands from theoretical lens. The study concludes with lessons that can be drawn from the responses of the two international brands.

Key Words: Reputation, Crisis, Brands, Strategies, Response, Theoretical lens

Application of Waste Ceramic Tile Aggregates in Concrete Production

¹Adewara Sunday O.; ² Gana A. James; ³Aremu Charity. O & Chris C.K.

¹Department of Economics, Landmark University Omu-Aran, Kwara State

²Department 0f Civil Engineering, Landmark University Omu-Aran, Kwara State

³ Department of Agriculture, Landmark University Omu-Aran, Kwara State

Email: oladewara02@gmail.com; phildebo123@gmail.com         

ABSTRACT:

Aggregates and Cement, which are the most important constituents used in concrete production, are the most essential materials needed for the construction industry. This certainly led to a continuous and increasing demand of natural materials used for their production. A large quantity waste is produced annually in the world especially in the construction industry. Because, construction and demolition waste contribute the highest percentage of construction waste. Furthermore, ceramic materials contributes the highest percentage of waste within the construction industry and demolition waste of about 54%. In order to be environmentally friendly post-use, it was considered desirable to use this large amount of waste enumerating from construction industry as a useful raw material to replace coarse aggregate, while mixing the concrete, we used a m ix ratio of 1:2:4, and a water-cement ratio of 0.55 due to the compressive strength of the concrete. We replaced the coarse aggregate with ceramic tiles in three batches plus one batch of the concrete while served as control mix, so as to compare their properties with the aid of some tests. The replacement was in 10%, 15% and 25%. The concrete molds were cast and tested for compressive strength and split tensile strength after a curing period of 7, 14, 28 days. The result shows that increasing maximum compressive and split tensile strength are achieved as replacement percentage increased at 5% interval, the 25% replacement was the maximum in the study.

Keywords: Application, Waste Ceramic Tile Aggregates, Concrete Production

Effects of Compensation Plan on Employee Performance in the Telecommunication Industry (A study of MTN and GLO Nigerian Ltd Umuahia Branch)

Melletus Uchechukwu Agbo

Department of Business Administration

Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT:

This study examined the effects of compensation plan on employee performance in the telecommunication industry of MTN and Glo Nigerian, Umuahia. The research adopted the survey research design, using simple random sampling techniques, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. A total number of eighty-eight (88) questionnaires were issued out by the researcher to the staff of MTN and GLO network providers. 17 respondents representing 21.3% strongly agreed that Prompt payment of salaries has influenced employee performance in the telecommunication industrys, 42 respondents representing 52.5% agreed the same, 7 respondents were undecided, 10 respondents disagreed, while 6 respondents strongly disagreed that the development of the enterprises has increased their access to credit from financial institutions. Also 18 respondents representing 22.5% strongly agreed that Commission has impacted employee productivity in the telecommunication industry, 35 respondents representing 43.8% agreed the same, 9 respondents were undecided, 3 respondents disagreed, while 15 respondents strongly disagreed that Commission has impacted employee productivity in the telecommunication industry. From the regression analysis, the coefficient of bonus and salary are positive and significant at 1%. The p-values of bonus and salary is 0.0064 and 0.0000 is less than the t-statistic value of 2.799 and 9.084 and  the standard error value of 0.0785 and 0.0782 is less than the t-statistic value respectively. The adjusted R² 0.67 or 67% which revealed that the variables in the equation jointly explained 67% of the variations in the equation while the remaining 33% is explained by other variables not included in the equation.  In other words, the R-square value of 67%  expresses the percentage effect of remuneration dimension on employees’ performance jointly explained by salaries/wages and bonus/incentives on employees performance. Therefore, the findings indicates that, (i) Prompt payment of salaries has no significant effect on employee performance in the telecommunication industry. (ii) Commission has no significant effect on employee’s level of satisfaction in the telecommunication industry.

Keyword: Compensation, Compensation Plan, Employee Performance, Telecommunication Industry.