The impact of traffic sign deficit on road traffic accidents in Nigeria

This study assesses the impact of traffic sign deficit on road traffic accidents in Nigeria. The participants were 720 commercial vehicle drivers. While simple random sampling was used to select 6 out of 137 federal highways, stratified random sampling was used to select six categories of commercial vehicle drivers. The study used qual-dominant mixed methods approach comprising key informant interviews; group interviews; field observation; policy appraisal and secondary literature on traffic signs. Result shows that the failure of government to provide and maintain traffic signs in order to guide road users through the numerous accident black spots on the highways is the major cause of road accidents in Nigeria. The study argues that provision and maintenance of traffic signs present opportunity to promoting safety on the highways and achieving the sustainable development goals.     

Supplementary Trade Benefits of Multi-Memberships in African Regional Trade Agreements

ABSTRACT

Few papers have investigated the trade effects of multi-memberships of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), but none has done this in an Africa-wide manner. This paper investigates the supplementary trade effects of multi-memberships of RTAs after controlling for single-membership for all African RTAs. We use (1) overall number of RTAs by country pair; (2) dummies of number of RTAs; and (3) number of RTA memberships by countries within each RTA grouping, in a panel of 53 African countries from 1995 to 2014. The gravity models are estimated with the Eicker-White robust covariance Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) which is superior to previous ones. All the estimates concur that multi-memberships have significant additional intra-Africa trade benefits which increase with the number of memberships. The implication is that although RTAs enhance trade in Africa, it is only a second-best to a complete integration of the African continent. A complete dismantling of politically induced trade barriers and even inter-RTA boundaries within Africa will yield significant intra-Africa trade benefits. The results support the ongoing efforts in Africa in pursuing a “one Africa” vision. Such efforts have to transcend regional integration and pursue the ideal of an integrated Africa for the full trade benefits to be realized.     

An Alternative Development Model: A Socio-Cultural Analysis of the Existential Conditions for Growth with Equity and Diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract: An analytical framework is used to review the socio-cultural experiences of African societies with an emphasis on their organizations, interaction and action toward development as well as their demographic experiences. In this framework, the socio-cultural setting which influences the way of life— values, beliefs systems, norms, ideas and idealogies—evolved in response to the people's existential experiences. This variable influences both the demographic experiences and the social organization (family and kinship) of a society as well as its value system. These, as intermediate variables, in turn influence the appropriate strategy to be adopted for the development of society. Résumé: S'inspirant d'un cadre analytique, les auteurs examinent les expériences socio-culturelles des sociétés africaines en privilégiant l'organisation de ces sociétés, leur interaction, leur action de développement ainsi que leur expérience démographique. Vu sous cet angle, le cadre socio-culturel determinant le mode de vie—valeurs, systèmes de croyances, normes, idées et idéologies—a évolué en réponse à l'expérience existentielle des populations. Cette variable influence tant l'expérience démographique et l'organisation sociale (famille et parenté) que le système de valeurs de la société. Et en tant que variables intermédiaries, ces variables influencent à leur tour la stratégie à adopter pour le développement de la société.