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The purpose of this paper is to examine the appropriateness of faith‐based model (FBM) as a veritable policy response to the issue of poverty alleviation and actualisation of the millennium development goals (MDGs) in Nigeria.

The paper combined qualitative and quantitative date to validate the appropriateness of FBM, to tackling poverty issues in Nigeria. The first section presents a brief introduction on poverty issue in Nigeria. The second section outlines the theoretical and methological approaches adopted in the paper. The third section casts a cursory look at the conceptualisation of poverty in the literature. The fourth section explores poverty‐eradication efforts in Nigeria. The fifth section highlights the failure of previous poverty reduction strategies (PRS) in Nigeria. The sixth section presents a background to MDGs. The seventh section show‐cases application of Islamic economics models (faith‐based model and business system model (BSM)) to MDGs. The eighth section is devoted to data projections, analysis and interpretation. The final section concludes with policy prescriptions.

On the basis of projection which is hinged on Shari'ah assumptions (minimum zakatable wealth and 2.5 per cent Zakat rate), the paper shows that Zakat and Sadaqat collections from year 2009 to 2015 would amount to N357,038 billions and N31 billion, respectively. These funds would go a long way in helping to alleviate poverty and actualisation of MDGs in Nigeria.

The faith‐based poverty reduction strategy enriched by BSM as conceptualised in this study can be used to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger (MDG 1), achieve universal primary education (MDG 2), promote gender equality and empower women (MDG 3), reduce child mortality (MDG 4), improve maternal health (MDG 5), combat, HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (MDGs 6), ensure environmental sustainability (MDG 7) and develop a global partnership for development (MDG 8).

The results of this paper support the Islamic economics view that Zakat and Sadaqat are viable fiscal mechanisms for poverty alleviation where adopted. The FBM as conceptualised in this paper would therefore complement and pose a positive challenge to contemporary PRS in use in many poverty‐ridden nations where economic indicators have justified prevalence of poverty, despite the various PRS put in place by policy makers.

This study presents a fuzzy synthetic evaluation of the challenges of smart city realisation in developing countries, using Nigeria as a case study. By defining and delineating the problems faced by the country, more viable directions to attaining smart city development can be achieved.

The study adopted a post-positivist philosophical stance with a deductive approach. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from built environment professionals involved in the delivery of Nigerian public infrastructures. Six dimensions of the challenges of smart cities were identified from literature and explored. They are governance, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal issues. Data gathered were analysed using Cronbach alpha test for reliability, Shapiro-Wilks test for normality, Kruskal-Wallis H-test for consistency and fuzzy synthetic evaluation test for the synthetic evaluation of the challenges of smart city attainment.

The findings revealed that all six assessed dimensions have a significant impact on the attainment of smart cities in Nigeria. More specifically, issues relating to environmental, technological, social and legal challenges are more prominent.

The fuzzy synthetic approach adopted provides a clear, practical insight on the issues that need to be addressed before the smart city development can be attained within developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic relationship between Nigeria-US exchange rate (XR) and crude oil price (OILP) using daily data from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2015.

The study uses alternative methods, including vector autoregressive-generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (VAR-GARCH) within the framework of Baba-Engle-Kraft-Kroner model, constant conditional correlation (CCC)-GARCH and dynamic conditional correlation (DCC)-GARCH models.

The results from the VAR-GARCH model indicate unidirectional cross-market mean spillovers from oil market (OILM) to foreign exchange market (FXM). In addition, the results show a positive effect of OILP on XR, suggesting that an increase in OILP appreciates Nigerian currency relative to US dollar and a fall in OILP depreciates it. The authors find that the effects of cross-volatility spillovers between the OILM and FXM are bidirectional. The CCC results indicate positive correlations of returns of 16 per cent between the FXM and OILM. Finally, the DCCs results indicate positive correlations between the two markets since the fourth quarter of 2008 (the world financial crisis period) until the recent period of world oil glut and slow demand for crude oil.

Following the depreciation of the Nigerian currency vis-á-vis US dollar since the onset of the recent world oil glut and lower oil prices, Nigerian authorities should embark on subsidy reform, such as reduction in fuel subsidies. This may enable the release of fiscal resources that may be used to either rebuild fiscal space lost or finance investment in non-oil sectors in order to reduce overdependence on oil income. Lower fiscal revenues, coupled with the risk that crude oil maintains its low price for some time, imply that government should reduce its expenditure, and continue to draw on available accumulated funds from the excess crude account for some time until the real depreciation required for adjustment is achieved.

Studies on volatility spillovers between OILM and FXM are limited in the literature, particularly in Nigerian case. Moreover, the study employs different approaches for broader analysis. These alternative methods, a clear departure from the previous studies, provide comprehensive dynamic nature of the relationship between the FXM and OILM.

This study aims to attempt to investigate the time-varying causality and price spillover effects between crude oil and exchange rate markets in G7 economies during the COVID-19 and Russia–Ukraine crises.

This study uses time-varying Granger causality test and spillover index.

This study finds a time-varying causality between exchange rate returns and oil prices, implying that crude oil prices have the predictive power of the foreign exchange rate markets in G7 economies in their domain. Furthermore, the total spillover index is estimated to fall significantly around COVID-19 and war events. However, this index is relatively high – more than 57% during the first wave of COVID-19 and decreasing slightly during the Russia–Ukraine conflict.

This outcome supports the hypothesis that the majority of the time-varying interaction between exchange rates and oil prices takes place in the short term. As a result, the time-varying characteristics provide straightforward insight for investors and policymakers to fully understand the intercorrelation between oil prices and the G7 exchange rate markets.

First, this study has reexamined the oil–exchange rate nexus to highlight new evidence using novel time-varying Granger causality model recently proposed by Shi et al. (2018) and the spillover index proposed by Diebold and Yilmaz (2012). These approaches allow the author to improve understanding of time-varying causal associations and return transmission between exchange rates and oil prices. Second, compared to past papers, this paper has used data from December 31, 2019, to October 31, 2022, to offer a fresh and accurate structure between the markets, which indicates the unique experience of the COVID-19 outbreak and Russia–Ukraine war episodes. Third, this study analyzes a data set of seven advanced economies (G7) exhibiting significant variations in their economic situations and responding to global stress times.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to review the responses of low-income earners to micro-takaful and its implementation in Banda Aceh.

Methodology/approach – The data for the study were obtained by interviewing three parties. These parties were practitioners, academic experts and low-income earners selected by purposive sampling in each zone of Banda Aceh.

Findings – The study found that there is a potential for micro-takaful to be offered in Banda Aceh due to the needs of low-income groups for it; however, there are many challenges which need to be overcome for successful implementation.

Research limitations – The study is limited to the potential implementation of micro-takaful in Banda Aceh. Therefore, the study involves only its residents.

Originality/value – This study makes a positive contribution to stakeholders by ensuring that they can provide micro-takaful schemes for the benefit of low-income earners. The study also adds to the literature on the concept of micro-takaful.

This study aims to investigate the impact of governance indices (especially control of corruption) on economic growth in some selected Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries with a view to making policy recommendations. Specifically, the study attempts to assess whether either governance reforms (especially those relating to control of corruption) or simultaneous policy reforms could have any impact on the growth of the sample SSA countries.

The governance indicators used in this study were drawn from the PRS Group and the Worldwide Governance Indicators for 2002-2009, while the real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth data were obtained from the World Bank database. The study covered 47 SSA countries, and it adopted the panel data framework, the fixed effect, the random effect and the maximum likelihood estimation techniques for the analyses.

The study found that political stability and regulatory quality indicators have growth-enhancing features, as they impact on economic growth in the region significantly, while government effectiveness impacts negatively on economic growth in the region. Despite, several anti-corruption policies in the region, the impact of corruption control on economic growth is not very obvious. The study also found that simultaneous implementation of the voice and accountability and the rule of law indicators has more positive impact on economic growth in the region. Both policies are complementary, and, hence, can be pursued simultaneously.

The results suggest that reform efforts that aim at enhancing accountability, regulatory quality, political stability and the rule of law have more growth-enhancing features and, thus, should be given more priority over reform efforts that singly address the issue of control of corruption due to the endemic, systemic and ubiquitous nature of corruption in the region.

The study suggests that reform efforts that aim at enhancing accountability, regulatory quality and rule of law have more growth-enhancing features and, therefore, should be given more priority.

Many previous studies attempted to examine the impact of corruption on economies, but this paper tries to assess the effect of corruption control and other governance indices on economic growth in the most vulnerable region of the world, the SSA. Besides, the study adopts the panel data framework which makes it possible to allow for differences in the form of unobservable individual country effects.

Bangladesh is home to one of the world's leading ship breaking and recycling industries. Whilst these industries are booming in Bangladesh, it is not safe for workers or the environment. According to International Maritime Organization's (IMO) regulations, Bangladesh is lacking in a number of areas such as having a safe recycling plan and environmental protections reviewed by a competent authority. There is a need to develop safer working conditions, more stringent regulation and corporate responsibility programmes towards protecting human health and the environment. Possible solutions require stakeholders (industry, governments and the IMO) to work together in order to develop sustainable practice. This research contributes by taking a step forward by focussing on the implementation of sustainable practices in the supply chain of global shipping industries in a developing country. Using stakeholder theory, this research offers insight into the need and barriers to implementing social sustainable initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of expectation in fighting corruption in a society.

The methodology is analytical in nature, drawing evidence from the Quran, Hadith and Seerah. It has a strong theoretical basis on the role of expectation in eliciting desirable response.

The paper suggests that a continuous disregard to corruption‐reducing impact of the revealed ethics would always lead to a suboptimal anti‐corruption policy and exacerbate a drifting pressure to locally stable corruption equilibrium.

The paper focuses on the role of expectation at micro level, a macroeconomic perspective can be a good research effort. Also, due to the paucity of data as a result of the nature of the topic being investigated, new research can further investigate this issue empirically.

Potential outcome of this paper is to stem the wave of corruption through revealed ethics or God consciousness which is relatively easier to administer and less costly, since reform effort is internally supported not externally imposed.

This paper would positively impact on the society, by stemming the upsurge of corruption through religious ethics. It further allocates a greater role to the society in curbing corruption through the revealed ethics. This paper would positively influence public attitudes towards corruption, hence improve the quality of.

The paper is novel, in that it applies an economic theory to solving a social menace. It further optimally combines both conventional economic theory with revealed religious teachings and argues that both may not conflict if properly understood or properly applied. The paper is a necessary bridge between Western perspective and Islamic Position, more importantly now that the world is looking for a viable alternative to the inadequacies of the conventional Western perspectives.

The purpose of this paper is to examine if the simultaneous openness to trade and capital account can promote financial sector development.

Based on a sample of 12 Arab countries over the period from 1985 to 2011, the data were analyzed using the dynamic and static panel data analysis. In particular, the authors apply three estimate techniques: the generalized method of moments, fixed effects and random effects.

The empirical results do not support the simultaneous openness hypothesis. Even trade and financial openness have an important separate role in enhancing financial sector development; their interaction effect is harmful. This empirical evidence indicates that opening Arab countries to both trade and capital account will not necessarily promote financial sector development.

Some Arab countries are not included in the study sample because of the lack of data.

The main implication of this study is: opening Arab countries for trade and capital account at the same time will not improve the development of financial sector.

The paper examines one of the most important issues in developing countries; where, the people want to know if the country openness to trade and finance will generate a social and economic welfare for them.

This study can be considered as one of the rare studies that examine the simultaneous openness issue in the developing countries. It recommends regulators and policy makers to take gradual steps toward adopting trade and financial openness in the Arab countries.

Today, many countries strive to develop their small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) sectors because of their acknowledged capacity to facilitate the optimal utilization of locally available resources while engaging local technology for the production of goods and services for local consumption as well as export trade. Also in area of agriculture, these enterprises serve as means of sustainable food production, improve employment generation, combat food shortage, and enhance economic growth and development. However, the growth performance of this sector in Nigeria has been dwindling over time, which requires government expenditure (GE) policy intervention. Therefore, this study examines the influence of public expenditure on the growth of SMEs in Nigeria employing unit root and co-integration tests for the period 1981–2019. The results reveal that SMEs and selected macroeconomic variables have a long-run relationship with SMEs output performance. It also shows that GE has direct and significant impact on the growth of SMEs in Nigeria, while government deficit financing (GDF) has adverse and insignificant effects on the Nigeria SMEs both in the short- and long-run period. Inflation rate (INF) has an inverse but significant effect on the growth of SMEs in Nigeria both in the short- and long-run periods. This study thus recommends, among others, that government should ensure the proper management of capital expenditure and recurrent expenditure in raising the growth of SMEs in Nigeria to achieve inclusive growth.