Annotated Bibliography: Healthcare in Nigeria

Section 1: Healthcare Standards

This group of sources relate to the health care of Nigeria. The grouping consists of sources that deal primarily with the difficulties with achieving a positive health care model and sources that serve dual purpose in discussing the challenges and moving forward to policies and tactics. These sources will target low-income individuals as well as specific places.

Aliyu, A. A., & Amadu, L. (2017). Urbanization, cities, and health: The challenges to Nigeria - A review. Annals of African medicine, 16(4), 149–158. doi:10.4103/aam.aam_1_17

The author takes an academic approach to writing. The diction is measured and purposeful, relying heavily on scientific terminology while still using a tone that conveys the direness of the issues in Nigeria in regards to urbanization and health. The author is claiming that the urbanization of Nigeria and various aspects such as the environment, water supply, settlements, the population, and sanitary processes that accompany it have contributed to the health crisis as they have been managed poorly. He directs the various issues he highlights to those in power, specifically, the government as he proposes steps they (the government) could take. The author uses qualitative data, intertwining it with historical trends.

The author, Alhaji A Aliyu, is a qualified and credible individual evident in his credentials. Throughout the article, the author employs various numerical facts derived from census data and information available to the general public. Additionally, he purposefully integrates ideas and agreed upon factors such as previously performed studies and historical knowledge to back up his claims and make it difficult to insist he is partial or influenced in some way, shape, or form. The author engages various reliable figures and statistical data to such as in describing the capital income of Nigeria while conveying the environment as a central feature of the urban health crisis in Nigeria.

My argument will derive the parts of this source that deal directly with addressing the elements of urbanization. Since I intend to discuss, causes for the subpar health system in Nigeria, it is important to discuss forces that promote diseases. Furthermore, since the end goal is to discuss policies to improve the quality of life in Nigeria, to put it broadly, the aspect of urbanization since it deals directly with the people is important.

Bright, T., Felix, L., Kuper, H., & Polack, S. (2018). Systematic review of strategies to increase access to health services among children over five in low- and middle-income countries. Tropical Medicine and International Health, 23(5), 476-507. doi:10.1111/tmi.13044

The research question, in this case, would be phrased as an assessment of various strategies and their effectiveness in promoting access to health services. The goal was to study the response from the target population, the young in low-and middle-income countries, to different "interventions" to increase access to health services such as education, incentives, outreach, process indicators, and SMS appointment reminders. The results show a relationship, but there were not concrete enough to allow for specific conclusions.

This study addresses the problem of looking at different and distinct ways to improve access to health care services principally in the younger population of low and middle-income countries. The solutions proposed are those that do not require intensely drastic measures but are quite simplistic in theory but warrant additional effort. There is limited evidence due to the lack of information. Certain uncontrolled variables are present but there appears to be a relationship because groups are affected by the changes made. The sample size was not as large as I, nor they, would have preferred, as they wisely note when discussing the results and providing an explanation of why they cannot draw certain conclusions.

This source is useful for the non-hospital heavy and politics reliant suggestions made in increasing health access to younger children in lower and middle classes Nigeria. These ideas gave me a new outlook on the various means and solutions one can propose that can aid in beginning the process of a higher number of individuals being able to and taking full advantage of the resources available to them. Since the end goal is to look at policies, there are propositions to target increasing health system awareness.

Eboreime, E. A., Idika, O., Omitiran, K., Eboreime, O., & Ibisomi, L. (2019). Primary healthcare planning, bottleneck analysis and performance improvement: An evaluation of processes and outcomes in a nigerian context. Evaluation and Program Planning, 77 doi:10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2019.101712

This research deals with analyzing the outcomes of using participatory action research (PAR), which works on supervising changes that target real-world issues, as they relate to the success of a health plan that involves "bottleneck identification and analysis." Bottleneck analysis involves looking at the flow of a specific process through various stages and which stages. This study made use of data from Chikun LGA in a state in Nigeria, Kaduna. The implemented design was made use of in different areas in tandem with PAR.  In the different areas assessed there were changes in the improvement that were measured using percent mean values. This change was not consistently positive, but there were some improvements. The design used, known as Diagnose-Intervene-Verify-Adjust, appears to behave positive effects on promoting health system success.

The problem was identifying which areas in health systems can be better maximized for the success of proposals to gather more individuals into the health programs. It is important in the sense that those in charge must access weak areas of the health system both internally and in compelling the general populous into health programs. The results were convoluted and did not easily make clear whether or not their assertions were supported.

In all honesty, I did not find this source as useful as I thought it would be. From the title, I had hopes of discussing ideas about performance improvement, but although this source does not directly help with this idea it does provide areas in hospitals that can be maximized for greater efficiency, which will help choose areas that policy changes can affect in a positive light.

Umeh, C. A. (2018). Challenges toward achieving universal health coverage in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania. International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 33(4), 794-805. doi:10.1002/hpm.2610

The goal of this investigation was to look at the specific challenges facing different sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria, and propose changes to aid in increasing health access. Information from the World Health Organization, World Bank, and data regarding the national health insurance of these countries went through analysis.  An examination of the aforementioned revealed various potential challenges including, an enormous percentage living in poverty, few individuals with insurance, a high rate of individuals leaving insurance plans, and a lack of funding in primary health care. The author goes on to discuss the need for proper funding and proper use of funds. The author discusses the need to focus on the population in need. These are those that are uninsured, in rural areas, or make up the lower-class.

This paper assesses the relevant area of what obstacles are present in health access and which population needs to have the attention of funds. This is important because as often, the areas of issue with the health system is often given to hospital, but this source discusses the importance of focusing on the population itself and making health an accessible tool. The results do support the assertions made. The data came from very reputable sources, so the numbers and results supported the suggestions made by the author.

This reference strikes a healthy balance between numeric data, political policies, and conclusions drawn from them. This source ties together the two prior sources on hospitals and policy by addressing related to health care plans and the inability of lower-class individuals to afford them. In this research, I plan to look at policy changes that are needed, and this source identifies the target populations that I will discuss.

Section 2: Unemployment Assessment

This group of sources relate to unemployment in Nigeria. The grouping consists of sources that deal primarily with the growing unemployment rates in Nigeria and areas that may be contributing to this continuing increase. Some of these sources also recommend ways to improve the proportions by targeting the outlined issues.

Bamidele M. Ilo. (2015). Capital market and unemployment in Nigeria. Acta Universitatis Danubius: Oeconomica, 11(5), 129–140.

This research was analyzing the effects the Nigeria capital market is having and is continuing to have on the unemployment recently.  The researcher, Bamidele, takes advantage of unemployment focused numerical data from the time frame 1986 to 2012 as well as figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria. Analyses of the data involved the Johanson cointegration vector error correction technique.  The results derived from the data and the analysis model support a connection between the rising unemployment rate and capital market. The results also reveal that steps taken to limit the capital market's involvement with unemployment have been futile as there was a little to no reduction.  Therefore, it is critical, according to Bamidele, that effective changes that result in positive goals such as increasing job opportunities. He concludes by addressing the government directly and their need to build up and strengthen the weaker parts of the economy, which are currently the labor-intensive sectors.

This study addresses the capital market specifically and how that relates to the unemployment rate. This is important as there are various reasons, researchers attribute the medal of causing the increase in the unemployment rate. However, this specific reason deals with the day to day encounters of individuals in Nigeria, and how lack of work is affecting the economy. The methodology seems sound. Of course, it is difficult to understand as it uses techniques that are specific to fields, but the study includes data from sources such as the Central Bank of Nigeria. The results support the findings, but not in an infallible manner. There is an increase in unemployment with poor market capitalization, but this increase is not as drastic.

This research provides a potential reason for the unemployment rates in Nigeria found in the capital market and its favoring of certain parts of the population. Furthermore, the data includes some comparison to other developing countries, which leads to offering examples of systems that are more productive than Nigeria. Since I will, be discussing the lower-middle-income class, this source identifies labor-intensive areas of Nigeria as being undervalued and under targeted and how that relates to the economy (market) thus tying in with the section and discussion about the economy of Nigeria.

Isiaka Akande Raifu. (2017). On the determinants of unemployment in Nigeria: What are the roles of trade openness and current account balance? Review of Innovation and Competitiveness, 3(4), 5–30. https://doi.org/10.32728/ric.2018.34/1

This study begins by stating the lack of focus on account balance and how it correlates with unemployment rates in addition to “trade openness.” With an emphasis on the short and long term effects of trade openness and current account balance, the researchers employed a statistical analysis. The researcher's found that trade openness increased the unemployment rate drastically and over time.  The findings prompted the researcher to suggest successful management of trade to gain a handle on its dire effect on unemployment rates. Furthermore, he suggests augmentations to the branch of economics that analyzes the behavior and performance of an economy that will increase the competitiveness of business firms to increase access to jobs.

This study addresses two problems simultaneously: the lack of research in a specific area and the umbrella issue of how trade openness and current account balance affect unemployment rates. This research is extremely important as it deals with both internal and external contributions to increasing and decreasing unemployment rates. Therefore, this research brings attention to a potential positive point. A vast amount of time is set aside to define and explain pre-existing literature and theories. Also, this research relies heavily on qualitative calculations that can grow cumbersome at times.

I found this research useful in the suggestions it makes during its concluding remarks about targeting the issues they were analyzing. I plan to discuss ways that external forces and aspects may be augmented to help Nigeria’s employment issues and this source does a great job of weaving the international aspects of trade with the internal aspects of businesses and asserting how a harmonious relationship needs to be formed to increase job opportunities. 

Ogbeide, F., Kanwanye, H., & Kadiri, S. (2016). Revisiting the determinants of unemployment in Nigeria: Do resource dependence and financial development matter? African Development Review, 28(4), 430–443. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8268.12222

This research analyzes potential causes of unemployment in Nigeria with a focus on 1981 to 2013. The researchers used statistical modeling. The tests revealed that banks that became more dependent and grew in private credit reduced unemployment opportunities drastically. Moreover, trade openness and reductions in exchange rates lead to substantial reductions in unemployment. This research heavily emphasizes the need to manage natural resources, carefully cultivate the taxing process, foster a positive macroeconomic area that will promote proper and lasting investing, which will increase "economic competitiveness."

This study looks at analyzing how resource dependence and financial development may influence unemployment in Nigeria. This research is relevant as unemployment can be directly related to the business and bank-centric field. It analyzes how certain priorities or decisions impact a specific aspect of the economy, and this change may influence unemployment. The findings are supported by the evidence, to a certain extent. Some results were not statistically significant, but an undeniable correlation is present. This alludes to the point that other factors, such as exchange rate reduction and trade openness, contribute. 

This study will be useful for analyzing the internal and business structures of Nigeria. I intend to highlight the relationship between banks and unemployment in Nigeria. Furthermore, since the government is involved, to some extent, with regulating the bank and cash flow in and out from both citizens and foreign influences, this source will prove useful as it connects these areas with that of fostering economic prosperity, including taxation which impacts the middle-lower class and the upper class in different ways. 

Philip Nwosa. (2016). Impact of macroeconomic policies on poverty and unemployment rates in Nigeria, implications for attaining inclusive growth. Acta Universitatis Danubius: Oeconomica, 12(2), 114–126.

This paper serves the dual purpose of looking at the issues surrounding unemployment rates and poverty rates when economy behavior policies are concerned. The author discusses the social aspect of economic growth and how, despite the increase in it in recent years, macroeconomic policies fail in capping and reducing the unemployment and poverty rates. This investigation used the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) technique, which works by attempting to estimate unknown values from known and predicted values. This research added exchange rate to ineffective macroeconomic policies as affecting the unemployment rate. The results assert the ineffectiveness of the policies in Nigeria and the need to strive for inclusive economic growth that promotes employment, which in turn would result in a reduction in poverty rates.

The research works on, through various calculations, providing evidence regarding exchange rate, "fiscal policy," and inflation rate and their respective impacts on unemployment and poverty rates.  This is important as it highlights weak policies as being one of the main contributors to the notable increase in unemployment and poverty rates. The data used in this study is based on qualitative information, however, statistical models are not certain and therefore, concrete assertions cannot be made.

This investigation will be incredibly useful when it comes time to formulate political-related propositions about what is not working currently with the policies in place. In this source, the lack of inclusiveness in the current policies is a major weakness. As a result, this will serve the discussion of my target population which is the lower-middle-class as they need to be considered in macroeconomic policies.

Section 3: Foreign Aid, Government, and Economy

This group of sources relate to the government and foreign aid of Nigeria and how both areas affect the economy. The grouping consists of sources that deal primarily with the pros and cons of foreign aid and the contributions to the lack of economic growth. Also, these sources provide explanations and suggestions that relate foreign aid and government action to areas such as poverty alleviation and, likewise, unemployment rate reduction.

Elijah, S., & Musa, A. B. (2019). Dynamic impact of trade openness on the economic growth in Nigeria. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology, 8(5), 609-616. doi:10.35940/ijeat.E1087.0585C19

This investigation studies the varying consequence of trade openness on the economy in Nigeria. The researchers employ data from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin in addition to performing various statistical tests, including unit root test and error correction model, and cointegration test. The results provide more support for "trade openness," having adverse effects on the economy. The results attribute a great deal of responsibility to the government in monitoring trade in the realm of imports and exports. Additionally, the researchers suggest the government work with "private sectors" in promoting the exportation of specific products as well as regulate a policy known as the "Treasury Single Account" to remove loopholes that only benefit the few and leave out the masses.

This study addresses just how badly an effect trade openness has on the economy of Nigeria. The information the study provides is specific and deals directly with the import and export balance and how the government should regulate such and who the government should assist in regulating. The methodology is sound in the sense that the data the researchers use is factual and not biased. Also, they employ statistical tests, and the results tended to fall within the realm of significant.

This source was helpful to me as it clarifies the information in the sources from the unemployment section. Those sources stated that trade openness negatively impacted unemployment rates (there was an increase). This source presents the effects on the economy. Since I plan on discussing the government's roles in the realm of trade openness, this source identifies exports as an area of immediate concern and the specific areas that should be regulated (private sectors).

Fashina, O. A., Asaleye, A. J., Ogunjobi, J. O., & Lawal, A. I. (2018). Foreign aid, human capital and economic growth nexus: Evidence from Nigeria. Journal of International Studies, 11(2), 104-117. doi:10.14254/2071-8330.2018/11-2/8

The investigation focuses on a potential connection between foreign aid and human capital in improving economic growth in Nigeria. The researchers use two models known as the Engle-Granger and Vector Error Correction Models. The first model helped in assessing the efficacy of the "medicine model" in Nigeria, while the latter analyzed the effect on the economic growth of both aid and capital. The data shows that foreign aid in excess in regards to the medicine model may have negative consequences and that human capital has an effect on economic growth, but this is not the case for aid shock. The results reveal that the decisions of countries receiving aid plays a huge role and that entirely aid-dependent countries are not forging a path towards economic growth.

This study addresses the problem of is there such a thing as too much aid. This is important as it addresses that countries may be providing aid, but the sensitivity of recipient countries may be contributing to lack of desirable results, which, in this case, is economic growth. This study relies heavily on scientific and statistical modeling and equations that are quite cumbersome, which may be a pro as the results depend on factual numerical data.

This source was helpful as it is one of the first sources that outlines the potential for cons in foreign aid, which is especially useful for the discussion regarding what developed countries should continue and limit. Since I intend to discuss policy changes, especially in rural areas, this study talks about the importance of education in rural areas striving to economic growth. Also, this study supports the existence of connections between investments from foreign countries, trade openness as the data provides statistically significant results.

Omodero, C. O. (2019). Government sectoral expenditure and poverty alleviation in Nigeria. Research in World Economy, 10(1), 80-90. doi:10.5430/rwe.v10n1p80

This study investigates how the amount of money the government spends in certain areas is affecting the poverty in Nigeria. The researchers used a statistical test known as the ordinary least squares technique to analyze data from 2000 to 2017. The results from the statistical test showed that the amount of money for specific areas such as agriculture, building, construction, education, and health was not supporting less severe poverty standards. The researchers conclude that the government should consider raising the funding to the sectors to aid in reducing the intensity of poverty.

This study addresses the amount of money that the government is allotting to relevant sectors. Knowing the amount of money is essential as it guides making assertions about the lack of funding to certain areas and can lead to exposing misused reserves. The methodology is sound as the researchers use a statistical test based on data from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin. They also used information from the World Bank. The results provided in the figures and graphs show the need for the government to consider all aspects of the economy. These aspects are essential to the success of the economy.

This study is helpful as it directly ties in information regarding funds and the apportioning of these funds. Furthermore, in contributing to the overall proposal I plan to make of government changes, this source provides recommendations that point out the need for more funds toward agriculture, educational, and health sectors. The latter two sectors tie in directly with health standards and education monitoring.

Shitile, T. S., & Sule, A. (2019). Reassessing the efficacy of foreign aid and grants in poverty reduction in Nigeria. Asian Economic and Financial Review, 9(4), 450-460. doi:10.18488/journal.aefr.2019.94.450.460

The investigation's goal was to assess the usefulness of grants and foreign aid in alleviating poverty in Nigeria. The researchers used data from various sources, such as technical cooperation grants (TCG), official development assistance (ODA), Grants (GRTS), and External Loans. The statistical test used was the Autoregressive Distributed Lab bounds. The results provide support that TCG and ODA have adversely affects poverty reduction while GRT and EXL, in the long run, have positive effects. Vice-versa is the case for the aforementioned in the short term. Therefore, foreign aid and grants that are from TCG and ODA do not have positive relationships with alleviating poverty in rural areas.

This study addresses specific grants and their purpose, which is essential because, in idea, foreign aid and grants are useful. It is crucial, however, to assess which grants are beneficial and to what extent. The methodology focuses on statistical analysis and uses numerical values to assess areas such as "poverty reduction." Furthermore, the study highlights the need for policy implementations that will aid in making foreign aid and grants effective in improving the economy.

This source helped discuss specific grants which I will use when talking about the origin and forms of foreign aid. As I plan to discuss foreign aid, it is essential to know the forms which are beneficial and what common qualities can be marked as being responsible, potentially, for their success.