Credit Contribution Club (ISUSU): A Veritable Indigenous Source of Capital Formation among the Igbo of Southeast Nigeria, 1900 TO 2015 (Published)
From the pre-colonial era to date (2015) the challenge of capital formation (finance) among Africans, especially those in the rural communities, cannot be overemphasized. Lack of capital adversely affected the growth of economic activities, which also negatively impacted on the standard of living of the people, leading to inequality, unemployment, and poverty, among others. In Nigeria, colonial and successive governments tried to address this issue without success. They established different types of financial institutions, which more or less served the interests of minority government officials, government employees, elite, and other such groups in the country. For the Igbo of Nigeria, credit contribution clubs were, and still are, veritable sources of capital formation, even before the emergence of colonial rule. In the face of economic challenges, especially in the area of capital formation, credit contribution clubs (Isusu) have been widely used to access funds over modern finance institutions (Banks, Stock exchange, and others). The focus of this work is to bring to the fore the indigenous institution, Isusu, which have been source for pooling capital (funds) for the benefit of the members. The popularity of this informal institution for capital formation amongst the people, even the successful elite, in our area of study will be emphasized. The paper concludes that contribution clubs (Isusu) is one of the non-agrarian pre-colonial institutions for capital formation that contributed immensely to the development of the economic activities of Igbo people. The scope of this paper is the Igbo of Southeast Nigeria. The approach adopted and in writing this work are the descriptive and analytical method. The period covered by the paper is between 1900 and 2015.
Keywords: Capital Formation, Fund, Indigenous, Institution, contribution clubs, pre-colonial, veritable
Indigenous Capital Formation Institutions among the Igbo: Factors for Change, 1914 2014. (Published)
For some time now, there has been a growing concern on how the ordinary man and woman in the town and rural communities of Africa can raise capital to start some micro-business and, thus, reduce poverty, and improve his or her standard of living. Within the period covered by this paper, successive governments and financial institutions have tried to address this challenge with little or no success. However, specifically for capital formation among the Igbo of southeast Nigeria, there exist traditional institutions through which the people raised resources to attend to their community and individual needs. These include, among others, Contribution Clubs, Family and Extended Family Pools, Age Grade Associations, Title Taking/Societies, Pawning, Inheritance, Land/Economic Trees Pledging, Imachi Nkwu and other Fruit Trees, Ilu – Elulu (Keeping Custody of Domestic Animal) and Ili – Ichi (Burial of Umbilical Cord). Consequently, this paper surveys those aspects of the traditional economic institutions that have become changed, transformed, or modified. Both internal and external forces have affected the traditional institutions for capital formation among the Igbo of southeast Nigeria, mostly by the later. This has caused the indigenous finance institutions to become altered from their original states. The paper concludes that in spite of the changes and modifications that had occurred overtime, the indigenous finance institutions have continued to exist. The descriptive and analytical methods were adopted in writing this paper. The period covered is 1914 to 2014.
Keywords: Capital Formation, Change, Igbo, Indigenous, Institutions
Overview of the Developmental Situation in South Sudan (2005-2015) (Published)
This study has given much consideration and concern to overview the current developmental situation in South Sudan during 2005-2015. Despite the efforts that have been made for economic development during the period the result did not fulfil the objectives of outset sustainable economic development of the country. Therefore, the basic question of this study that needs to be answered is that why economic development programmes did not succeed during the period 2005-2015? While significant bilateral and multilateral developmental assistance have been donated to the region since the signing of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005; in addition huge financial resources were generated from oil revenues. The key objective of the study is to highlight the role of economic planning as one of the important tools in economic development. The study has relied on combine methodology that comprises from quantitative and qualitative methods for data collection and analysis. The logic behind this combined methodology is to minimize various defects of each method in data analysis. Different techniques have been used in data collection, among them close-ended questionnaire, focus group discussion, and interview technique. In data analysis, descriptive statistics particularly the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) have been used as a tool to obtain logical and precise results and conclusions. The most obvious results of this study are that scientific and innovative researching can enhance economic growth and development since it could provide the needed information for development; diversification of economic and financial resources through economic integration and sound allocation of economic and human resources can improve the condition of financial resources to finance development. The extreme poverty levels could be reduced through elimination of unemployment and underemployment and creation of job opportunities and social security programmes to sustain and reduce families’ vulnerability; the government of South Sudan expected to pursue powerful policies, strategies and plans to successfully mobilize new private and public investments from local and international financial markets; and to have sound resources management towards fulfilling the desirable sustainable development of the country.
Keywords: Capacity building, Capital Formation, Sound policy
The Role of Stock Exchange in Economic Development and Capital Formation In Nigeria (Review Completed - Accepted)
This paper examines the functions and the expected role of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in economic development and capital formation in Nigeria. It adopted a survey method of analysis to show the relationship between the operations of the stock exchange and the level of capital formation in economic development in Nigeria. The objective of the study is to find out if the stock Exchange plays a significant role in capital formation and overall economic development of the various sectors of the economy. It is deserved that while the stock exchange in developed economies are vibrant agents of development, the contributions of stock exchange in developing countries are described as being a little above border line. Conclusions were reached among other things that though the stock exchange plays a very important role in the economic development of a nation, the extent to which an exchange will be able to play this role depends on the state of the economy. The paper thus recommends an expansion in the stock exchange role in the capital formation process.
Keywords: Capital Formation, Economic Development, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Stock exchange market, economic growth
