3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Exploring the contributions of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) on poverty reduction in Nigeria: a focus on the n-power beneficiaries’ perspectives in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nigeria(2023) Ukpoju, Freda EneThis study explores the contributions of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) on sustainable youth empowerment and poverty Reduction in Nigeria, focusing on the perspectives of the N-Power beneficiaries residing in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nigeria. There is not enough data to determine whether beneficiaries of the NSIP, particularly, the N-power empowerment programme are sustainably exiting poverty or falling back into poverty, if at all the intervention had previously lifted them out of poverty. Thus, this study was conducted through the lens of the Sustainable Livelihood Approach. Employing the qualitative approach, by means of the multiple case study design, the study recruited ten participants using the purposive sampling technique. Two of the participants withdrew from the study, and eight were engaged on a one-onone- interview to gain deeper insight into their experiences. Thematic analysis was employed to identify, record, and analyse emanating themes and subthemes from the qualitative data. Participants’ responses indicated that Participants had expected an exit package, in form of a financial settlement, or permanent employment before being exited from the programme; N-Power encouraged participants to diversify their income in Agriculture; and the lack of leadership and poor management of N-Power impedes N-Powers capability to improve livelihood sustainably. The study therefore recommended an improvement in the leadership and management of N-Power, to enable improved training and welfare for beneficiaries, and enhance its potential for sustainable livelihood improvement. Private sector partnership should also be encouraged to expand opportunities and make N-power transformative by linking beneficiaries to economic opportunities.Item Removing the veil for the shadow banking system in China(2016-01-29) Chen, Nuoya;The paper aims to analyze the development of the shadow banking system in China and its role in the rapid economic growth in China for the past three decades. The shadow banking system supports small and medium sized firms and agricultural development projects. This has an important impact on poverty reduction in China as farmers largely refer to informal financial channels to get credit support for seeds, chemicals and animals. The shadow banking system offers credit supplies to lenders who cannot easily obtain credit from the official banking system. The credit supplies they offered use different financial instruments, come with higher interest rates, and were often disguised as financial products landing within the regulatory framework of the administration. The commercial banks also used the shadow banking financial instruments to meet capital thresholds from the People’s Bank of China. As a result, the shadow banking products create longer credit chains, distort credit flows in the financial system by diverting investments into short-term, high return, more risky financial markets. The turbulences in the interbank transaction market, the financial derivative market, the stock exchange markets (including the main-board, the “second tier” market for SMEs and the “third tier” market for start-ups), and the real estate market are all heavily involved in transactions conducted by the shadow banking entities. The shadow banking system in China has been expanding at a pace beyond the current regulatory structure. The internet P2P investment platforms, for instance, become popular with investors and raise funds up to RMB 1 billion each platform. There exist over thousands of internet investment portals, the most popular one being “Yu E Bao”, offered by Alibaba.com. The traditional regulatory institutions, however, do not cover shadow banking investment activities made online. Neither are insurance offered to insurance made online; as the new deposit insurance scheme only cover deposits made in the official banking system. With the ambition of boosting the internationalization of the RMB, financial deepening and economic reforms in China, the financial regulators in China face the dilemma resulting from the regulatory arbitrage associated with the expanding shadow bankinBBC system. Individual investors in China purchase the shadow banking investment products and assume their purchases come with implicit government guarantees, such as wealth management products sold by commercial banks for trust companies and local government investment platforms. On the other hand, it is critical for investors to make rational investments; thus, regulators are obliged to remind investors of risks related to the shadow banking products, that the fantasy of governments repaying failing shadow banking investments will be not realized. It is also the responsibility of the regulators to divert funds collected by the shadow banking entities to long-term investments to build up industrial bases. The financial deepening in China required the transformation of the shadow banking entities and financial products offered into ones with adequate capital cushions and sufficient liquidity. The internationalization of the RMB necessates the opening up of the capital, hence financial account in China. However, the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and the hyperinflation resulting from the dollarization in Latin America has led the Chinese regulators to be cautious in conducting currency liberalization and financial reforms. The opening up of the financial account with the liberalization of the exchange rate regime doubles the financial risks, increases the possibility of financial crises, and may result in the stagnation of economic growth. The function of the central bank as the lender of the last resort demands effective and prudential regulations for SIFIs, and also seeks to functioned to boost market confidence. At this critical turning point of the Chinese economy, defining the role of the shadow banking system, bringing them into the regulatory framework, and identifying risks created should be the priority of the financial regulators in China.Item The political economy of poverty reduction in Kenya : a comparative analysis of two rural countries.(2014-09-04) Runguma, Sebastian NjagiEmploying empirical findings from Tharaka Nithi and Siaya counties, this thesis analyses the dynamics of citizen participation in development policy and planning process in Kenya and its effects on poverty reduction efforts in the rural parts of the country. The study is based on the premise that public participation enhances the quality and relevance of development processes and their outcomes and is, therefore, an important ingredient for achieving sustainable poverty reduction outcomes. It utilizes the political economy model and draws from the concepts of “power” and “interests” in understanding the poverty reduction „enterprise‟ in the two rural communities in Kenya. The study finds that the elites, bureaucrats, and institutions have dominated Kenya‟s post-colonial development policy and planning space to the exclusion and disadvantage of ordinary citizens. The capture of public decision-making spaces, processes and development outcomes by elites is widespread and has affected the extent and quality of citizen participation in decision-making and poverty reduction in rural Kenya. Although ordinary citizens generally view themselves as the front line duty bearers in the fight against poverty, they hardly fulfilled their perceived role in poverty reduction. Faced with a web of dominating forces and constraints, ordinary citizens have become passive and peripheral actors in the poverty reduction „enterprise‟ and local level development generally. As currently profiled, approached and directed, poverty reduction is an elitist project with its goals couched in populist terms, essentially in the service of powerful and influential people and institutions within the Kenyan society. This explains why, despite poverty reduction being a policy objective throughout the post-independence period, alarmingly high levels of poverty have persisted in Kenya, especially in the rural areas. The study concludes that the success of rural poverty reduction in Kenya is chiefly dependent on sufficient citizen participation in decision-making, quality of development planning, good leadership and the capacity and will of institutions at the grassroots to pursue sustainable development endeavors.