Journal of Finance, Governance & Strategic Studies

This research analysis pursuit and seeks to determine public sector digitization and its causal impact on corruption reduction. In particular, to measures to enhance public processes more transparent, efficient, and less prone to corruption including through the use of digital. To determine how effective is The ICT use through e-government portals /webs and their contributions to corruption reduction in public sector and to determine if corruption reduction activities are effective on features such as bribery by making more information available to the public. The data spanning from 1981 to 2023 report of Statistics Bulletin Public Finance. Which include the listed sectors Federal Ministry of Finance, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and Central Bank of Nigeria. Made up the set of observation Federal Government Capital Expenditure (₦' Billion) which include component like; Normal GDP; Administration, Economic Services, Social Communications Services and Transfers On the other hand Eviews 10 were used to analyze the data. The data spanning from 1981 to 2023 report of Statistics Bulletin Public Finance. Which include the listed sectors Federal Ministry of Finance, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and Central Bank of Nigeria. Made up the set of observation Federal Government Capital Expenditure (₦' Billion) which include component like; Normal GDP; Administration, Economic Services, Social Communications Services and Transfers. e-SQ means electronic service quality (Public sector digitization) The inference of this were that (a slope of 4927.428 (42.8%) growth coefficient per annual of 5% likelihood increase in each measure of the multiple linear component of performance (HDI) e-qualities Public sector digitization degree of relationship among features component on corruption reduction by (public security sectors ) of who had explanations with expenditures might cause an increase in growth of the respective measure this implied (a>1 is satisfied) . using the multiple OLS as evidence. Suffices to say that, this general findings of NORMAL GDP has effect on public sector digitization degree of relationship among features component. Also, Durbin-Watson stat of 0.815169 shows that there is no evidence of the element of positive autocorrelation meaning that there is no linear relationship between public sector digitization. The normality histogram reveals the set of data positively that is skewed to the frequency curve right and jarqueBera value of 14.59571 and associated probability value of 0.000680 which signifies normal distribution (Normality) of the multiple regression models for the H1: There is evidence of significant difference of public sector digitization and its causal impact on corruption reduction Residuals are not normally distributed over time. In short, the listed recommendations emerge; this research will improve effectiveness policy in public sectors quality of E-management (MIS) and (ICTs) by influencing their economic fraud decay. Nigerian’s people and rest of the world should ignore political instability, economic mismanagement, corruption or frauds and other negative factors on their nation economy. Which will be an impact on corruption reduction public sector digitization E-services and more.

This study examines the impact of technological innovation and digital transformation on financial accounting and corporate reporting, with a comparative analysis of selected Nigerian banks. The specific objectives were to evaluate the effect of technological innovation on financial reporting quality, assess the influence of digital transformation on corporate reporting practices, and determine the relationship between technological adoption and decision-making effectiveness. A survey research design was adopted, and data were collected from accounting and IT professionals using structured questionnaires. Statistical tools such as regression, correlation, and ANOVA were employed for analysis. The findings reveal that technological innovation has a strong positive and significant effect on financial reporting quality. Digital transformation also significantly improves the transparency, reliability, and timeliness of financial reports. In addition, the study finds a significant relationship between technological adoption and effective managerial decision-making. The study concludes that digital technologies are critical drivers of efficient accounting systems and high-quality corporate reporting. The implications of these findings suggest that organizations that invest in modern technologies gain improved operational efficiency, enhanced reporting standards, and better strategic decision-making. Consequently, firms are encouraged to adopt and effectively implement digital accounting systems to remain competitive.

The digital transformation of public institutions is frequently conceptualized as a predominantly technical undertaking, yet the enduring success of e-governance initiatives ultimately hinges on the readiness of the human capital responsible for their implementation and sustained use. This study examines the “human factor” in Nigeria’s federal civil service during the critical transition to a paperless bureaucracy, with particular attention to how digital literacy and psychological readiness shape the adoption of e-governance platforms such as the 1-Gov Cloud Enterprise Content Management System. Grounded in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and enriched with constructs from technostress and digital competence literature, the research employed a convergent parallel mixed-methods design. Quantitative survey data were collected from 412 civil servants across six strategically selected federal ministries in Abuja, supplemented by 48 qualitative interviews and focus group discussions. Data collection occurred amid the 2025–2026 rollout of mandatory paperless operations under the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP 2021–2025) and the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020–2030). Findings indicate high levels of perceived usefulness of e-governance platforms (M = 4.21). However, moderate digital literacy (M = 3.42) and elevated technostress (M = 3.68), particularly techno-overload and techno-complexity, significantly hinder adoption. Notable hierarchical digital divides emerged: senior cadres exhibited lower digital literacy scores than junior and middle-level staff, while technostress negatively predicted job performance (β = −.37) and moderated key UTAUT pathways. Qualitative insights revealed persistent barriers including inadequate continuous professional development, infrastructure inconsistencies, and cultural resistance rooted in traditional bureaucratic practices. The study concludes that Nigeria’s ambitious vision of a fully paperless civil service by the end of 2025 risks under-delivery unless human resource strategies shift decisively from procurement-centric models to comprehensive, employee-centric digital capacity building. Recommendations emphasize tiered, role-specific training programs, technostress mitigation interventions, strengthened change management leadership by HR units, and regular digital readiness audits. By centering the human factor, this research contributes theoretically to technology acceptance models in developing-country public administration and offers actionable policy insights for sustainable e-governance implementation in resource-constrained contexts.

This study investigated the effects of interest rates on return on equity of Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria between 1990 and 2024. Banking lending rate, bank deposit rate, treasury bills rate and monetary policy rate were the variants of interest rate considered and ROE of Nigerian banks was regressed on them. Data on these variables were collected from the World Bank and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin for 2024. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) analytical technique was used for data analysis and results revealed that in the short run, bank lending rate and monetary policy rate have direct effects on ROE while bank deposit rate and treasury bills rate have inverse effects on ROE of banks. However, only the effect of monetary policy rate was insignificant. It was also revealed that there is a long run equilibrium relationship between interest rates and ROE of banks in Nigeria and the speed of adjustment in event of disequilibrium is 75.03% per annum. The study therefore inferred that interest rate has significant effects on return on equity of Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria. On this note, it was suggested that there is need for Deposit Money Banks to offer competitive and improved deposit rates which will attract more deposits from their customers; Deposit Money Banks should do well to reconsider their high lending rates so as to arrest the high incidence of loan default in the system and to increase the return of shareholders; the monetary authority in Nigeria should not allow Deposit Money Banks to keep excess reserves in order for prevailing monetary policy rates to be able to meet the goals they were made to meet; and there is need for another wave on interest rate deregulation so that lending and deposit rates can truly reflect the demand and supply of funds in the Nigerian banking system.

The study examined the relationship between Entrepreneurial Marketing Orientation and Venture Performance of food and beverages firms in Rivers State. This study adopted the correlation survey research. The population of the study consisted of 30 food and beverage firms. Primary data source was used in this study. The study adopted content and face validity. The findings The result of the analysis revealed that resource leveraging showed a positive and significant relationship with sales growth of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, risk-taking showed a positive and significant relationship with sales growth of food and beverage firms in Rivers State. Therefore, the study concluded that entrepreneurial marketing orientation via its dimensions of resource leveraging and risk-taking are precursor of venture performance of food and beverage firms in Rivers State. the study recommends amongst others that food and beverage firms should leverage their resources, take calculated risk and recognize opportunities as this would not only improve their sales volume but also their performance would improve. 

The paper explored how Nigerian tax reforms impacted her economy. It specifically, looked at value added tax (VAT), petroleum profit tax (PPT), and company income tax (CIT) in the 2017 finance act. The paper utilised an ex post facto design, and used data from the annual pre-reform (2009 to2016) and post-reform (2017 to 2024) obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria Bulletins. Data were analysed by applying the paired sample t-tests for pre and post reform differences, and multiple regression was applied to ascertain the post-reform tax revenues impact on Nigeria’s gross domestic product. The results obtained suggested a substantial rise in VAT revenue at post reform era, implying an improvement in revenue generation from non-oil activities. On the other hand, the pre and post PPT and CIT tax revenues were not statistically different. This suggests that the tax reform never resulted in a rise in PPT and CIT tax inflow in Nigeria. The regression analysis revealed that the post-reform VAT revenue adversely affected GDP. Company income tax was had a favourable and substantial effect on GDP. While petroleum profit tax had an adverse and insignificant impact on GDP. However, the result revealed that post-reform tax revenues F-stat = 242.322, & p < 0.05, significant impacted Nigeria’s GDP. The study settled that Nigeria’s 2017 tax reform supported her economic growth. The study recommends strengthening non-oil tax and reducing over dependence on petroleum tax inflow as a way of sustaining economic growth in Nigeria.

The paper has explored the influence that oil price volatility has on financing in the public sector in Nigeria. The fluctuation of oil prices in the world market has posed great fiscal pressures on the economies of the world that are major consumers of oil, with Nigeria being the most notable example, as oil revenue and government spending largely depend on the petroleum industry. The study was conducted to test the connexion between the volatility of the oil prices, the volatility of the exchange rate, the volatility of the inflation rate and the financing proxied by the public sector advances by government expenditure. The paper was based on the theory of fiscal theory of revenue instability, Dutch disease theory and Keynesian theory of public expenditure. The research design chosen was ex post factor research design and the positivist philosophy was used to guide the empirical analysis. The study population included macroeconomic statistics of the public sector financing of Nigeria and the macroeconomic volatility level of the country between the period of 1986 and 2024 making up a total of 39 cases in time-series data. The secondary sources were the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin and World Development Indicators where the data were found. The analysis also used descriptive statistics, Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test as well as ARCH-GARCH models to study volatility at 5 percent level of significance. It was found that oil price volatility affects negatively and significantly the financing of the public sector, whereas the exchange rate volatility affects positively and significantly the government expenditure. The volatility of the inflation rate was negatively and non-significantly related to the public sector financing. The paper concluded that fiscal sustainability in Nigeria is a major issue caused by the instability in oil prices. The research suggests such fiscal stabilisation measures, exchange rate policies and economic diversification to mitigate fiscal weakness. The research would be an addition to the body of knowledge that gives empirical results on the volatility relationship between the movements of oil prices and the finance of the public sector in Nigeria.

The study investigated waste reduction practices and sustainable operations of food and beverage companies in South-South Nigeria. The specific objective is to examine the effect of lead time on customer satisfaction and examine the effect of waste reduction on commitment of food and beverage companies in South-South Nigeria. The researcher made use of primary source of data. The total population of the study was one thousand five hundred and ten (1510). The sample size was four hundred and twenty-nine (429) derived from Godden (2004) formula. A purposive sampling technique was adopted. Pearson correlation coefficient and regression model was used to test the hypotheses of the study. A total number of three hundred and fifty eight (358) questionnaire was administer to the respondents at the selected foods and beverage firms  in South-South, Nigeria seventy-one (71) questionnaire were lost with the percentage ratio of 16.6%, while three hundred and fifty eight (358) questionnaire were retrieved with the percentage ratio of 83.4% which was suitable for the study to carry out the analysis. The findings of the study found out that there is a positive significant relationship between lead time on customer satisfaction of food and beverage companies in South-South Nigeria. Waste reduction has a significant effect on commitment of food and beverage companies in South-South Nigeria. The study concluded that organizations that adopt lean management practices often experience improved quality, increased efficiency, reduced costs, and higher customer satisfaction. The study recommended that food and beverage companies should reduce lead time by streamlining order processing, improving kitchen workflow, and using technology such as real-time tracking this will help to improve efficiency in the organization.

This study evaluated channel stuffing practice, an under-investigated instrument of earnings management, in Nigeria using a cross-sectoral approach, arising from scanty evidence in cognate empirical literature. Secondary data were collected from Refinitiv Eikon database for one hundred and sixty (169) listed firms in Nigeria. The data collected covered years 2012 to 2022. Census sampling method was selected as the entire listed firms in Nigeria were examined. Financial services firms and firms with no dataset were removed, resulting in eighty (80) firms across ten (10) sectors with data available for meaningful analysis. The variable of interest to this study is channel-stuffing, measured using the ratio of receivable-to-revenue. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis and analysis of variance. Findings revealed that receivable-to-revenue ratio is significantly different amongst firms and across different sectors in Nigeria (F-statistics = 2.870, p-value < .05). Based on this evidence, the study concluded that channel-stuffing appears prevalent amongst listed firms in Nigeria and across different sectors, and this practice is significantly different amongst the sectors in Nigeria. To stem channel-stuffing practices, the study recommended that regulatory authorities should step up their oversight responsibilities by subjecting the financials of the firms across these sectors to deeper scrutiny to uncover channel stuffing and impose deterrent fines to discourage these practices. Keywords: Channel-stuffing, Earnings management, Nigeria, Receivable-Revenue Ratio Sectoral Approach,

The need for tax harmonization stems from the existence of multiple, cumbersome, conflicting and competing tax regimes that have become a bane to business growth. The issue of multiple taxation has negatively affected many business operations resulting into business collapse, depleting capital base of listed firms, and depleting returns on investment. The study adopts a conceptual approach in analyzing the link between tax harmonization and business competitiveness in Nigeria. The study opined that the incidence of multiple taxation brings about hostile business environment for many businesses in thereby reducing their global competitiveness. The study further opined that harmonization of tax base, stimulates revenue mobilization, creation of a better business and investment climate in a country and mitigates or eliminates adverse tax competition. The study concludes that harmonization of tax promotes business competitiveness as oppose to tax competition or conflict that negatively affects business, trade and investment. In the light of the foregoing, the study suggests institutional and tax institutional reforms to harmonize and coordinate tax in order to create a conducive business environment that will stimulate business, trade and investment in Nigeria

Environmental, social, governance reporting plays a pivotal role in reporting, yet it has been riddled with mixed findings, having a negative effect on the market value. In order to increase trust, there is the need of reporting the non-financials of firm. To navigate this complex issue, this study investigates the effect of environmental reporting, social reporting, and governance reporting on the market performance of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Using a longitudinal research design where secondary data was collected from the annual reports of 27 listed manufacturing firms over a ten-year period (2013–2022), panel least squares was used to analyse the relationships between the variables. The results revealed a positive and statistically insignificant relationship among environmental reporting, governance reporting and the market performance however, social reporting revealed a negative and insignificant effect on the market performance of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The study concludes that environmental, social, and governance reporting does not significantly affect the market performance of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria.