ENEMS PROJECT: May 2016

Monday, 30 May 2016

LEADERSHIP QUALITY - GIVE NIGERIA AS AN EXAMPLE

LEADERSHIP QUALITY – GIVE NIGERIA AS AN EXAMPLE

INTRODUCTION

It has been established by great minds of ages that the greatest problem of humanity is that of leadership despite the technological, scientific and economic advancement in the global context. Among such great minds of ages was Kunz – Futzu (“Confucius”, as Latinized).

Confucius (551-479 BCE) was achines moral philosopher. He was a comporary a Buddha (556 BC and lived when the conduct of Chinese officials were greatly corrupt. The need arose for him after hundreds of schools of thought contended to provide answers to the leadership problem. The position Confucius occupied was not that of a saviour but as one who put the people back in touch with the ancient. “I tranmist but do not create. I believe and love the ancients. I venture to compare myself to our old pangen ancient official who liked to tell stories

LEADERSHIP

Before going into what leadership qualities are, it is pertinent to know what leadership itself is all about.

Leadership in its simplest form can be depicted as the ability to inspire, direct, motivate and encourage others positively to targeted end. Also, leadership is about rising up to the occasion by organising and adequately coordinating the resources of time, relationship, skills, expertise and finances to achieve a goal for the common good of all.

Leadership is the ability to lead others and not necessarily an availability to lead even though availability might at times lead to leadership position, it is not leadership itself.

Dennis is his research on understanding leadership concludes that it seems, the concept of leadership eludes us and turns up in another firm to taunt it again with its slipperiness and complexity. Flowing from the foregoing, it can be deduced that the concept of leadership is complex and dynamic, hence, it connotes assignment, effectiveness, responsibility, accountability, vision, character, productivity, persuasion and realisation of targeted goals.

According to McFarland, a leader is one who makes things happen that would not happen otherwise, “if the leader causes changes that he intended, he has exercised power. But if the leader causes changes that he did not intend or want, he has exercised influence, but not power” (McFarland, 1969, pp.167 – 178; Kofele-Kale, 1976, pp. 81) Sidney Hook shares a similar view as McFarland. In his work, the Hero in history, Hook depicted a heroic leader as one who makes things happen that ordinarily would not have happened. “The hero in history”, he opined “is the individual to whom we can justify attribute preponderant influence in determining an issue or event whose consequences would have been profoundly different if he had not acted as he did”. The hero is an event-making individual who-re-deter-mines the course of history. (Hook, 1943, pp. 229)

A person who is endowed with these qualities in the context of a group, community or nation has the personality of a leader. Leaders have duties too. John Gardner has pointed out that the task of leaders is to help societies understand the problems that all must face, to aid in the setting of goals and priorities to work with others in finding paths to those goals chosen, maintaining public morale, and motivation and nurturing a workable level of public unity. (Gardner, 1978, pp. 132 – 135) leaders must activate existing institutions in pursuit of the society’s goals, or when necessary, help redesign institutions to achieve that result. Leaders must also help people know how they can be at their best “with malice toward none, with charity for all”. In a free society leaders performs these functions also known as Qualities within a framework of constraints. This includes an uncorrupted electoral process, the rule of law, institutional checks and balances and free press (Ibid, 1978, pp. 132-135). Leaders make things happen; they are wave makers. A society without talented and committed leaders will retrogress or at best remain stagnant. That has been the problem with Nigeria. A careful examination of the attitude and behaviour of the leaders of post-colonial Nigeria shows that many of the civilian, as well as military leaders, were mired in the pursuit of selfish personal goals at the expense of broader national interest or needs. In other words, they were instrumental leaders, or what David Apter called “consummatory” leaders (Apter, 1960).

Chinua Achebe, one of Nigeria’s legendary writers in his little but powerful and widely cited book “The Trouble with Nigeria” rightly pointed out that “the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership” He pointed out that “there is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else” but leadership (Achebe, 1983, pp.1).

The lack of selfless, non-corrupt and committed leaders have contributed immensely to the socio-political and economic predicaments facing Nigeria today. Corruption and lack of committed leadership could be traced back to the ethnic acrimony and corruption among the founding fathers of the nation prompted the first military coup on January 15, 1966. Clearly, not everybody has the leadership acumen to lead an organization, not to mention ruling a country. And clearly no society should expect to have an endless succession of great and extraordinary leaders like Roosevelt of the united states, Churchill of Britain, or De-Gaulle of France.

Unfortunately, Nigeria has had many non-leaders in leaderships seats. The disaster that marked the administration of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Babangida atrocious regime, and the horrible looting that occurred during the time of General Sani Abacha are quick reminders. During Shagari’s inept administration there was widespread corruption and gave economic mismanagement. With corruption and the decline in international petroleum price, the economy went sour. The economic down turn caused an increased hardship for the majority of Nigerians. From my investigation and research on leadership quality, given Nigeria as example, I must say that Nigeria fundamental approach to leadership quality is troubling. The leaders leave the capacity to influence public policies to make a difference in the lives of the citizens, but have failed to do so because their primary goal of assuming leadership position is self enrichment.

ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN A DIGITAL WORLD

A good working definition of academic research and writing can be given as follows: investigation and writing based upon the idea of scientific inquiry. A reader may at this point wonder if this definition sheds any light on the subject. The key here is to focus on the term “scientific inquiry”.

The scientific method is based on the assumption that everything in the universe is linked by cause and reaction. There is a logical explanation for all observed behavior. So a researcher using the scientific method of inquiry may starts by making assumptions about what he or she expects to find after conducting research on a topic. This initial assumption is called a hypothesis. Researchers typically talk about a null hypothesis. A null hypothesis generally asserts that there is no meaningful relationship between two observed phenomena.

The researcher then seeks to conduct academic research that will either prove or disprove the null hypothesis. The researcher develops a methodology, or method of testing the null hypothesis. Research is completed and the results are analyzed. Research may be qualitative or quantitative. To simplify matters, quantitative research uses the application of mathematical tools to analyze data that is collected during the research. If this method is not used then the research can be considered to be qualitative.

Students are typically not conducting their own research when writing answers for class assignments or even when writing papers for a class. Nevertheless, students must understand what scholarly research is so that they can know the difference between reliable and unreliable findings (as written up by someone). The idea of “reliability” is important when considering scholarly research. Can someone other than the original researcher obtain the same results when conducting the same research at a different time and place? Did the original researcher use sound methods and analytic tools when conducting the research?

A student can never be sure of this without spending time reviewing the actual research and reported results. So how is a student going to know what sources are good, reliable ones and what sources do not meet the rigorous standards required for scientific research? The answer is that a student must learn to recognize what sources are scholarly in nature and what sources do not adhere to those standards. There is no way of simply going to a list and looking up a particular source to find this answer. It can be said, however, that scholarly

articles are those written by, and addressed to, experts in a particular discipline. These experts are concerned with academic issues, particularly in research. Their work demonstrates the methods and concerns of scholars. It is usually, though not always, peer reviewed.

A student can figure this out by going to a particular journal or to its website and reading the information provided by the publisher. It is also safe to assume that any publication put out by a scholarly, professional organization is going to be a peer reviewed publication. “Peer review” means that before publication an article is read and reviewed by qualified experts in the particular field. It is analyzed for its methodology as well as for its findings. Its writing style is also held to a high standard.

A student can also consult online or in print form Uhlrich’s International Periodical Directory for an independent review of a particular publication. Any article published in a publication not listed in Uhlrich is more likely than not a non-scholarly source.

Database Research
In a digital world most students want to find short cuts to search for articles. That is why databases were developed. A database is simply a collection of articles from different journals that are indexed into an electronic database that can then be searched electronically using keywords, author or title names, Library of Congress subject headings, etc.

Companies called database aggregators enter into agreements with a number of publishers to assemble indexes using many different journals. This saves the user time and allows one simultaneous search of any number of journals.

Databases are typically arranged broadly according to subject areas. Academic Search Elite is a database aggregation containing articles of journals dealing with general academic, interdisciplinary subjects. JSTOR ideals with social science and education databases. Science Direct deals with science and technology databases..ABInform deals with business databases.
The Academy library offers several databases selected for their relevance to the courses taught here. These databases can be accessed on course pages by clicking on the “Academy Online Library” link. Using these databases is an art, not a science. The library page also contains links to PDF documents that discuss how to search EBSCOhost and ProQuest.

Most databases use the same search techniques. There is also a link on the library page to an article discussing a special type of search technique called Boolean searching. All students should read this article before beginning to conduct database searches. These databases will produce results that are not from scholarly journals. A user can, however, click on a setting that will produce only results from scholarly journals and thus let the program itself do the selection work.

Research and the Internet
There is a great temptation today among students to feel that any information available through the internet must be reliable or else it wouldn’t be there. Students need to understand that there is no entity monitoring or policing the internet. Some sites have administrators who attempt to control what kind of content is put out. The reality, however, is that almost anyone with technical knowledge or money can obtain a website and post content to the internet.

The internet has also promoted the idea of “self publishing”. There are now publishers who for a fee will publish a person’s writing with no regard for quality. It is also possible to post content to the internet with no quality controls in place at all.

Additional Research Tips
Students need to recognize that there is very little original thought in the world. Poets and novelists create works entirely from their own creative impulses. In academic research, a student is always engaged in analyzing and commenting on the work of others. A

THE ROLE OF E-LIBRARY IN EDUCATION

There are three distinct roles that e-library play in education:

As an environment for learning (student experience);
As an authoring space (again, in support of student experience e.g academic research);
As a resource for teaching (course development).

All libraries – physical and digital – are service organizations, based upon the fundamental requirement to serve their users. When examining the applications of digital libraries in education we need to consider the needs of various users and stakeholders: students, teachers, educational authorities, including governments and teaching standards organizations. Each group has different requirements for the content and organization of educational digital libraries.

Material on the Internet can be used in educational applications, but will not be presented in the same controlled environment as material in a E-library. Teachers may appreciate the limits that curated collections set for students because they can: specify resources to focus student activity, limit access to some resources (for reasons of student age or content type) and monitor the usage of resources.

The organization of content for teachers in educational E-library depends on the metadata of the elements of the collection. Educational metadata is organised around concepts that are useful for teachers, whereas the metadata of many libraries tries to cater for a wide target audience, such as the general public. A categorization that supports access by one group of users might not be useful for another group, such as teachers.

E-library present educators with many exciting new opportunities. They can incorporate a huge variety of different content types. While one naturally thinks first of textual documents, upon reflection digital libraries cancontain any media type – for example, images, maps, audio, video, even virtual manipulatives. So can conventional libraries, of course, but it is more difficult for them because of physical packaging and different viewing requirements for library users. Digital libraries are viewed on general-purpose computers, which can present all kinds of media in a relatively uniform way. Moreover, they are not restricted to conventional media: digital libraries can include raw data and even interactive software modules, as we saw in the example of the NLVM. Another opportunity lies in the possibility of global access: now teaching material can be shared on a scale that transcends the wildest dreams of a generation ago.

In addition to expanding the format of information (e.g., multimedia, simulations), digital libraries offer more information than most individuals or schools have been able to acquire and maintain. Digital libraries are accessible in classrooms and from homes as well as in central library facilities where specialized access, display, and use tools may be shared. Remote access allows possibilities for vicarious field trips, virtual guest speakers, and access to rare and unique materials in classrooms and at home. The promise is one of better learning through broader, faster, and better information and communication services. These physical advantages promise several advantages to teachers and learners by extending the classroom, however, as with all technologies; there are costs and tradeoffs to these advantages.

One clear difference between traditional libraries and E-library is that digital libraries offer greater opportunity for users to deposit information as well as use information. Thus, students and teachers can easily be publishers as well as readers in digital libraries. The number of student-produced “Mosaic home pages” and gopher sites continues to grow as teachers and students not only bring digital library information into the classroom but move the products of the classroom out into the digital libraries. Just as distinctions between publishers and readers are becoming less clear in networked environments, Internet access in classrooms blurs distinctions between teaching and learning. Students bring interesting and important information to class discussions and in many cases lead teachers and classmates to new electronic resources and tools. Teachers’ increasingly will find themselves in the important roles of moderator and critic, modeling for students how to examine and compare points of view and look critically at information. Teachers who have begun using networked materials in their classes are early adopters of new ideas and technologies and are comfortable sharing power with students. Just as “authority of information” has become an issue in professional communities that leverage networks, the authority of information in classrooms that has traditionally rested solely with teachers will increasingly be challenged by students locally and remotely.

Clearly, E-library have important roles to play in teaching and learning. Existing physical schools and libraries will continue to exist since they serve cultural and social roles as well as informational roles. There will always be a need for physical objects and social settings in learning; the vicarious is not enough. Parents will continue to demand child care, assurances of organized and shared culture beyond television, and human direction and guidance in learning at all levels. These demands will also be augmented by digital environments. Digital libraries will allow parents, teachers, and students to share common information resources and communicate easily as needed. In special cases, work, school, and play may become one–novice and professional learners collaborating with common information resources to solve real problems. In many respects, digital libraries will become digital schools. This represents a return to Alexandria, where learners of all types come together to share and explore information and expertise.

Saturday, 28 May 2016

FOOD SPOILAGE

Food Spoilage refers to as undesirable changes occurring in food due to the influence of air, heat, light, moisture, which foster the growth of microorganism, or pest. In other words, food spoilage means the original nutritional value, texture, flavour of the food are damaged, the food become harmful to people and unsuitable to eat. Foods take different period of time to lose their natural form through spoilage. In context to food preservation foods are classified as perishable, (meat, Fish, milk Fruits and some vegetable,) semi perishable (eggs, onions, potatoes, carrot, beans) and non-perishable (cereals, pulse nuts). (carpenter, 2005)

CAUSES OF FOOD SPOILAGE

There are so many causes for spoilage in the post – harvest food chain that it helps to classify them into 2two groups and a number or of sub- group, which are:

1. PRIMARY CAUSES OF SPOILAGE
2. SECONDARY CAUSE OF SPOILAGE

PRIMARY CAUSES OF SPOILAGE Are those causes that directly affect the food. They maybe classified into the following groups.
a Biological
b Chemical
c Mechanical

BIOLOGICAL: Consumption of food by rodents, birds, monkeys and other large animals causes direct disappearance of food. Insects such as weevil, grain battle etc, cause both weight losses through consumption of the food and quality losses because of their frass, webbing, excreta, heating and unpleasant odours that they can import to food.

Damage to stored foods by microorganism such as bacteria, yeasts, moulds. Microorganism usually directly consume small amount of food but damage the food to point that it be comes unacceptable because of rotting or other defects.

CHEMICAL/BIOCHEMICAL REACTION: A number of enzyme activated reactions can occur in foods in storage giving rise to discoloration and softening. Many of the chemical constituents naturally present in stored foods spontaneously react causing lose of colour, flavour, texture and nutritional valule. There can also be accidental or deliberate contamination of food with harmful chemicals such as pesticides or obnoxious chemicals.

PHYSICAL EXCESSIVE or insufficient heat or cold can spoil foods. Improper atmosphere is closely in confined storage at times causes spoilage. Bruising, cutting excessive pooling or trimming of horticultural products are also causes of spoilage. (BOURNE,2004)

SECONDARY CAUSES OF FOOD SPOILAGE
Those that load to conditions that encourage a primary cause of spoilage. They are usually the result of inadequate or non-assistant capital expenditures, technology and quality control. Some examples are:
a Inadequate harvesting, packaging and handling skills.
b Lack of adequate container for the transport and handling of the food product.
c Storage facitie :- Inadequate to protect the food.
d Transportation:- Inadequate to move the food to market before it spoils.
e Indaquate drying equipment or poor drying season.
f Traditional processing and marketing system can be responsible for high spoilage.
g Bumper crops can over load the post – harvest handling system or exceed the consumption need and cause excessive wastage. (Bourne, 2004)

RECOMMENDATION
It recommended that because of the many causes of post harvest loss, it is necessary to identify the spoilage vector or vectors to select the preservation technology appropriate for each situation.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded that both the primary and secondary causes of spoilage brings about loss of original nutritional value, texture and flavour of the food and therefore proper preservation method or technique is required.

REFERENCE

Bourne, M.C.(2004) preharvest and post harvest losses of crops. In where,

P.L. and Selvey, N.Cods. Malnutritin: Determinants and consequences. New York: Alan R. Inc:327-335

Bourne, M.C. (2002)Post Harvest food Losses- The Neglected Dimension of increasing the world food supply.

Bourne, M.C.(2004) Causes of loss and control of post harvest losses in foods.

Carpenter (2005). Healthy Eating Every day. Human cine-ties
ISBN O – 7360 – 5186 – 4

COMPONENTS OF RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT

Property development is defined in section 19 of the Nigeria urban and regional planning decree No 88 of 1992 (NURPD) as the carrying out of any building, engineering, mining or the other operations in or under or over land or the making of any environmental significance changes in the use of any land or demolition of building including the felling of trees, and the placing of the tree standing erection used for display of advertisement on the land.

Residential real estate development is meant for dwelling purpose either by individual or cooperate body. This could be inform of blocks of flats, detached houses, and complex, or Tenement building e.t.c.

The components which are necessary for residential real estate development are those input which are necessary to actualized real estate development, couple with the technicalities applied by skilled labour. The major input are:

1. Land: land is an essential input necessary for development. Being a vital input in development, the process of a professional are employed. The process of acquisition, the location, and physical, legal attributes e.t.c of the site put into consideration before acquiring it.

2. Capital: Capital is necessary for development in the absence of capital, no development can be implemented. It is the life blood of development, required to finance a proposal project. As far as a scheme is concerned, its financial viability must be calculated and cost measures against value.

3. Labour: The suitability of capable and skilled labour and professional is also one off an important input necessary for development. That is the construction period requires different knowledge. To this end, skilled and unskilled personal of varying background (interms of formal and informal training and experience) are required to participate in the development process.

4. Entrepreneur: the entrepreneur talent of the property development is to identified opportunities, exercise vision, initiate the property development process, and to ensure that the entire process is conducted efficiently.

INFRASTRUCTURAL FACILITIES AS A PUBLIC AND ECONOMIC TOOL

Like any other nation in the world. The financing of infrastructure necessary for the development of new housing on the urban fringe. In Nigeria infrastructure companies economic, social and environmental infrastructure.

Economic infrastructure includes networked services such as hydraulic facilities (water, sewage and drainages) roads and other transport facilities energy distribution networks and telecommunication. Social infrastructure includes facilities that provides services such as welfare and general community support, open space and recreational facilities health and education.

Environmental infrastructures includes the land systems, installations and other measures aimed at protecting the natural environment and heritage especially water ways, habitats, flora and fauna.

(Nubi, 2003) constitutionally, some of the services fall within the statutory function of one tiers of government or the other for instance, the 1989 constitution assigned to city councils, the responsibly for the construction and maintenance of some categories of road streets, drains, installation of street lighting and provision of refuse disposal services in practice, however, the state government sometimes step into complement the efforts of municipal council particularly in these cities that are state capitals.

Professor Janet river and Micheal and Heaney have connected infrastructure investment to all facets of economic development often, the concept of infrastructure investment and economic development are considered one and the same variable since economic development is universally connected with increasing property values near the infrastructure projects.

Infrastructure is a key element in the generation of economic growth and development and the main driver of urban activities. The efficiency of economic and social system is to large extent depend on the efficiency of infrastructure. For a nation to experience sustainable development and growth It may have developed an efficient infrastructure system. This is essential for efficient and proper functioning of urban economic and social activities.

Some of the prominent publics agencies responsible for the provision and management of the facilities are:

Power holding company of Nigeria PLC. In charge of electricity, generation, distribution and supply to consumers.
Nigeria telecommunications limited (NITEL)
State water cooperation.
Nigeria post service limited (NIPOST)
State water management board e.t.c.

CONCEPT AND CHARACTERISTIC OF INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure network is a very social-economic climate created by the institutes (public or private) that serve as conducts of trade and investment.

The roles of infrastructure in the context of integration are transformative, helping to change resources into outputs or to enhance trade by removing barriers.

Therefore, an improvement in a country’s infrastructure is one of the key factors affecting the long term growth of such a country. The linkages between infrastructures and economic growth are varied and complex.
Infrastructures does not only affect production and consumption directly, it also creates many direct and indirect externalities. It involves large flow of expenditure, thereby creating additional employment. Equally, infrastructure can have a significant impact on output, income, employment, international trade, and quality of life.

Nubi (2002) describe infrastructure as the aggregate of all facilities that allow a city to function effectively it is also seen as a wide range of economic and social facilities crucial to creating an enabling environment for economic growth and enhances quality of life.

This includes housing, electricity, pipe-borne, water, drainage, waste disposal, roads, sewage, health, education, telecommunication and institutional structures like police station fire fighting station, banks and post offices e.t.c. infrastructure is the large scale public services or systems, service and facilities of a country or region that are necessary for economic activity. Including power and water supplies, public transportation, roads and schools.

Donald (1974) also defines infrastructures as the physical structures and facilities that are developed or acquired by public agencies to enhance government functions and provides water, power, waste disposal, transportation or similar services to facilitate the achievement of common social and economic objectives.

Akujuru (2000) identified the following characteristics of infrastructures.

– It enjoys considerable economic of scales which result in monopolies.
– It requires a large sum of investment, this perhaps justifies the reason why the citizens usually look forward to their government for the provision of the facilities.
– It has intermediate input characteristics.
– It posses important network effects.
– It posses difficulties in cost recovery.

THE IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL MARKETING ON NIGERIA ECONOMY

Nigeria, one of Africa’s most populous countries has a highly diversified agro-ecological condition which makes the production of a wide range of agricultural products possible. Agriculture is one of the most potentially viable sectors of the Nigerian economy, particularly in terms of its employment generation potentials as well as its contribution to Nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and export revenue earnings.

Inspite of Nigeria’s rich agricultural resources endowment there has been a gradual decline in agriculture’s contribution to the nation’s economy: in the 1960s, agriculture accounted for 65-70% of total exports; it fell to about 40% in the 1970s and crashed to less than 20% in the late 1990s.

The decline in the agricultural sector was largely due to rise in crude oil revenue in the early 1970s. However, by 2007 the decline in crude oil revenue had become evident and the government (state and federal) recognized the need to diversify the nation’s economy by taking steps to promote the development of the agricultural sector.

Nigeria being an agrarian nation cannot de-emphasize the importance of agriculture not only to her economy but also to general well being of the populace.

The basic impact of agricultural marketing to the Nigerian economy includes but not restricted to:

i. Provision of food for all
ii. Provides employment for about 70% of the population
iii. Source of family and national income
iv. Generate savings both external and internal revenues
v. Supplies raw materials for use in other productive sector of the economy
vi. A major user of products of other sectors, thus encouraging economic activities
vii. Finally contribute significantly to the GDP (about 32%)

Agriculture is the most basic of the national economy of material production sectors, is the source of human food and clothing, survival of the country, industrial and other material production sectors and all non-material production sectors of the necessary conditions for the existence and development, supporting the continuous development and progress of the whole national economy.

REFERENCES

Ronald Schrimper (2001): Economics of Agricultural Markets. 1^st Edition Prentice Hall: Upper Sadiller River, New Jersey USA. Pg 120 – 135.

Bola, O. (2007): Nigeria Agricultural Sector, Oxford University Press, Central Bank of Nigeria 2007, Statistical Bulletin Vol. 18, Pp 132 – 149.

THE ROLES OF GOVERNMENT IN MARKETING OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE

Since Nigeria become independence in 1960, it various administrations have pursued a number of policies in respect of agriculture and agricultural marketing. Some of these are been discussed below:

1. The government has been actively engaged in the enactment of rules and regulations related to the granting of monopoly riches restriction or the activities of traders, licensing and market regulation.

2. The government has also attempted to assist farmers reduce post-harvest losses and marketing costs by providing facilities for storage facilities for storage and warehousing, transportation and communication, the granting of farm credits, grading and standardization and the encouragement of the formation of farmers’ cooperative marketing societies, the government as well set up processing plants for agricultural raw materials.

3. They grant tax incentives and administer prices at different levels of the marketing system. This comes in form of guaranteed minimum support prices to producers, providing commodities to consumers at fair prices and the fixing of rates of commission to be charged by commission agents. All these are aimed at encouraging the farmers to produce more for local consumption and for export.

4. Government has also attempted to influence the supply and demand for agricultural produce through importation, exportation, internal procurement of the surplus supply during the harvest period and distribution of the same during periods of scarcity.

5. The government has also established modern markets in many areas to aid marketing of agricultural produce.

GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS AND CONTROL IN AGRICULTURAL MARKETING

The government has at various times attempted to regulate and control agricultural marketing. The intention has always been to improve the agricultural marketing in the country. The following are some such regulations and control:

1. Agricultural produce (grading and marketing) Act, 1937: This act provides for the grading and marketing of agricultural and other produce.

2. Standard Weights and Measures (Packed goods) Act 1976: This act protects consumers from the packaging of wrong goods in boxes, labeling of boxes and for packaging of correct weight produce in packaging.

3. Rice Milling Industry (Regulation) Act, 1958: This act regulates the modernization of rice mills and safe preservation of stock.

4. Fruit Product Act: Regulates the manufacture, storage and sale of fruit and vegetable products

5. The prevention of food adulteration Act; 1954: This act prohibits the manufacture, storage and sale of adulterated and wrongly branded food items meant for human consumption

6. The Wheat flour mills Acts: Controls the purchase of wheat, manufacture and disposal of different kinds of wheat products of flour mills and self preservation.

7. The insecticides Acts, 1968: Provides for compulsory registration of all insecticides. It regulates the import, manufacture, transport, storage and use of all pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides.

REFERENCES

Bola, O. (2007): Nigeria Agricultural Sector, Oxford University Press, Central Bank of Nigeria 2007, Statistical Bulletin Vol. 18, Pp 132 – 149.

Ekpo, A & Egwaikhide, F. (1994); exports and Economic Growth in Nigeria: A reconsideration of the evidence: Journal of Economic Management 1(1): Pg. 100 – 115.

James Vercammen (2011): Agricultural Marketing; Structural Models for Price Analysis, Routledge Howick, Place London. 1^st Edition, Pg 156 – 189.

Philip Kotler and Kelvin L. (2006): Marketing Management 12th Edition. Prentice Hall London. Pg 205 – 208

Ronald Schrimper (2001): Economics of Agricultural Markets. 1^st Edition Prentice Hall: Upper Sadiller River, New Jersey USA. Pg 120 – 135.

TRANSPORTATION AN ESSENTIAL TOOL IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

Transportation plays an essential role in the agricultural sector. This is because without modern modes of transportation, agricultural products will be left in the farm to rot.

It would be almost impossible to deliver them to consumers for farmers to earn a living and increase their production.

Transportation therefore is the movement of people and goods from one location to another.

Transportation provides access to natural resources and promotes trade, allowing a nation to accumulate wealth and power.

Methods of Transportation
Transportation is usually classified by the medium in which the movement occurs, such as by land, air water and pipeline.

The transportation of agricultural products is mostly done by the following:

a. Road Transport: This is the most flexible means of transporting agricultural products both in terms of the routes covered and time schedules. It can be used to move goods door-to-door. It is a fast means of transportation but it is risky in terms of accident.

b. Rail Transport: Rail transport provides a cost-effective means of transport and it is used for moving bulky products such as coal, timber, farm products etc over long distance. It is however a slow means of transport compared to the road and air transport. Again it is not as flexible as road transport because of restricted rail network.

c. Water Transport: A large portion of agricultural products are also transported by water which consists of in land water ways such as cannels and rivers and ocean or coastal waterways by use of ships. Water transport is low cost and is used for non-perishable products such as grains and timber. It is however the slowest mode of transport.

d. Air Transport provides the fastest means of transport and sis used for transporting highly perishable and valuable products such as fish, flower etc. it is however a very costly means of transport.

AGRICULTURAL MARKETING (ACTIVITIES INVOLVED)

Agricultural marketing covers the services involved in moving agricultural products from the farm to the consumer. Numerous interconnected activities are involved in doing this, such as planning production, growing and harvesting, grading, packaging, transport, storage, agro- and food processing distribution, advertising and sale.

Some definitions would even include “the acts of buying supplies, renting equipment and paying labour. These activities are listed below:

Production planning: production planning means to fix the production goals and to estimate the resources which are required to achieve these goals.

It prepares a detailed plan for achieving the production goals economically, efficiently and in time. It forecasts the problems, which may arise in the production process. It tries to remove these problems it also tries to remove the causes of wastage. Planning production provides answers for two major questions viz:

What work should be done
How much time will be taken to perform the work.

Planning production is concerned with the determination acquisition and arrangement of all facilities necessary for future operations. (Ray Wild: Essentials of operations Management).

Growing and Harvesting

Growing and harvesting are activities in agricultural marketing that involve the science, art and business of cultivating soil, producing crops and raising livestock farming and also the act or process of gathering a crop

Grading and Standardization

Grading is an agricultural activity which involve sorting out products into different groups according to the quality specifications already determined and laid down. It is a method of dividing products into groups according to pre-determined standards. Grading comes after standardization and it is a sub-function of standardization.

Standardization means the determination of the standards to be established for different productions, it is the determination of the basis limits of the process and methods of producing, handling and selling goods and services.

Grading and standardization is very important in agricultural marketing. Some of which are listed below:

It makes it possible to purchase goods by description.
It conforms to the different qualities expected by different buyers according to their purchasing power or expected satisfaction.

Grading and standardization encourages prices discrimination and this enables the seller to obtain better prices.

It helps in the handling and transportation of agricultural produce.
In the case of raw materials, grading is absolutely necessary in order to exercise control over the quality of the finished product.

Apart from those importance, it has the following shortcomings:

For some agricultural products, the basis of the grade standard is sensory taste. Sensory taste varies from person to another person and the best product for one person may not be liked by another person.

Agricultural products such as fruits are perishable or semi-perishable commodities which deteriorate n quality after they have been graded and packed. By the time they get to the final consumers there are complaints about the poor quality of the graded product.
Consumers are sometime confused because different standards have been laid down by different departments for the same product.
Lack of uniform quality: the grading of agricultural products is a more difficult task than that of industrial goods because when they are produced they are not of uniform quality.
Most consumers are quality conscious when it comes to agricultural products so this produces a poor incentive for the farmers to adopt grading.

PREMIUM PRICING

Premium pricing is used when the product has one or more unique characteristics. This uniqueness differentiates the product greatly from competition and creates a significant competitive advantage.

This strategy demands a high-quality item to merit the high price. Because of the extremely high price, premiums pricing generally is a short term strategy as competitors are attracted to markets with high-margin items.

The length of time you can charge customers a premium price depends on the sustainability of the competitive advantage – the greater the sustainability, the longer time premium pricing is a viable option.

A premium ‘pricing strategy yields the highest product prices of the strategies available.

It is best to use premiums pricing when there are no substitutes for your product, substantial barriers to enter the market exist, and your potential customers are price incentive because they value the benefits provided by the product.

Also, economies of scale are not necessary for this strategy to work. The most important detail to remember is that you cannot use premium pricing when facing competition.

Competition would undercut your price, leaving you with an ineffective pricing strategy and poor product sales.

FACTORS AFFECTING PRICE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

FACTORS AFFECTING PRICE
The factors that affect pricing of agricultural products include:

Seasonal products
Perishability nature of products
 Cost of transportation
Bulky nature of the products.

Seasonal products: Seasonality can greatly affect price of a products such as fruits or vegetables. During certain seasons, these products are harder to produce and therefore, will have a higher cost than when they are in season.

Perishability nature of products: Perishability nature of products can also affect the price of products. Some products that perish easily are sold at cheaper prices to customers.

Transportation: Transportation of a product can affect how much it will cost. The farther a product has to travel or the farther the producer travel to sell the product, the higher the cost of that finish product.

Bulky nature of product: Agricultural products are bulky in nature and cannot be easily carried from one place o another, therefore, the prices of the small quantity that can be carried to point where it is needed is high.

Other factors include:
Competition: Competition between companies with similar product will affect pricing of that product. If a company has a hold on the market, meaning they are the top seller or offer a product other companies cannot compete with, they have the ability to sell the product at a higher price.

Products that have heavy competition on the other hand, may offer products at a discounted rate or lower rates to stay within competition.

Product development: It costs money to make just about anything. Even items grown by nature such as fruits, still have to cost someone to grow them, harvest them, inspect them, package them and deliver. The overall costs it takes to develop a product can affect the pricing. The more labour, materials and costs put into a product, the higher the cost will be.

Demographics and Customers: The target customers and area they are in will affect the amount of a product. Factors such as the age group of customers will affect the amount of a product because younger individuals have less to spend than older individuals. The location of customers and the business will also affect the amount of a product. Products sold in rural areas will cost significantly less than those sold in busy metropolitan areas because of income, education and overall cos. factors for the area.

PRICING STRATEGY OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

Pricing: Price is the amount of money charged for a product or services. It is the total amount that is being exchanged by the customer to obtain a benefit of the product or service owing (Philip Kotler, 2000).

Stanton 2002, define price as the amount of money or goods needed to acquire some combination of another goods and its accompanying services.

Pricing therefore is the process of determining what a company or an organization will receive in exchange for its products.

It refers to the various method used in setting the prices of commodities. The pricing of agricultural products is similar but at the same time different from the pricing of manufactured goods.

It is similar in the sense that is based on the demand cost and competitive consideration. In other words both the agricultural and the manufacturing sectors obey these factors in setting prices of the produces.

However, it is different in the sense that the pricing of agricultural products takes into consideration the seasonal and permissible nature of the goods.

In the case of seasonal goods with no good storage system to help stabilize their supplies, the tendency is for the prices to be very low because the goods can only be in the market at a particular time during the harvest period but will be so scarce during the period of cultivation thereby pushing up the price to ‘sky’ limits.

In the case of perishable goods that have no good storage systems, prices are relatively lower because much of the handling that would have attracted higher costs and subsequent high prices are always avoided by selling directly to consumers. Generally, however, the following methods of price setting are adopted:

1. Private Negotiations: In this method, prices are fixed by mutual agreement. The buyers come 10 the shops of commission agents and offer prices for the product which they think are appropriate after they have inspected the samples, if the price is accepted the commission agent communicates the decision to the seller and the goods are given to the buyer.

This method is common in unregulated markets or village markets. Private negotiations take place directly between the buyers and the sellers.

The advantage of this method is that the seller gets a good price because the buyers may not be aware of the prices offered by other buyers. However, this method is slow and time consuming process and is not suitable when either large quantities have to be sold or a large number of buyers exist in the market.

2. Quotations on sample: Here, the commission agent takes the product to the buyer, the price is offered by the buyers on the sample. The commission agent moves from shop to shop until the buyer is ready to offer a price higher than the one who offered the highest price.

3. Open auction method: prospective buyers gather at the shop of the commission agent and examine the produce. They then offer their bids loudly, the produce is given to the highest bidder after taking permission from the seller farmer.

This method is the most preferred method because it ensures that farmers who being a superior quality of produce will receive higher price. It also ensures far dealing for all the parties.

4. Credit sale method: Here the seller offers his produce to the buyer on the basis of a verbal arrangement without a pre-settlement of the price but on the understanding that the price of the produce be paid by the buyer to the seller on a later date. This method is common in the village market.

5. Variable prices based on market conditions: In this method, the sellers go round the market in the early hours of the morning and collect information on the total supplies for the day, the quantity that is likely to be demanded and the views of their competitors of fellow traders.

As the day progresses, and the sellers find that their stock are moving satisfactorily, they lower their prices to clear the available suppliers.

Friday, 27 May 2016

MEASUREMENT OF CASH FLOW

MEASUREMENT OF CASH FLOW

A cash flow describes a real or virtual movement of money: a cash flow in its narrow sense is a payment (in a currency), especially from one central bank account (wikipedia).

They are two approaches to the measurement or movement in cash flow that is two alternative framework which can be used as a basis for reporting, monitoring or forecasting cash movement they are regarded to as the “cash book and the “cash tank” approaches.

The cashbook approach is so called because it is simply as summary of what a recorded typical corporation cash book is, it therefore reveal that source of cash receipt and the distribution of cash payment.

The cash tank approaches on the other hand concentrate on those management decisions which cause the cash to flow other than on the book keeping consequences of such decision.

The final cash position must be the same irrespective of the approach of measurement used, but it is believed that the financial stability of the corporation believed that the financial stability of the corporation is much more hopeful as a forecasting framework and also as a much a predictor of impending financial difficulties.

MOTIVES FOR HOLDING CASH

The following are motives for holding cash:

1. Transaction Motive: This is money held by people to take care of day to day expenses or expenditure e.g money for transportation etc. transaction etc. transaction motive is influence by level of income, current price level, length of time between pay days, spending habit etc. the higher the income the more money is held for transactions.

2. Precautionary Motive: This motive for holding cash help for unforeseen/ emergencies such as ill health accident e.t.c. It is money kept for the rainy days.

It is influenced by one’s level of income, health condition environment e.t.c

3. Speculative Motive: This is money held for investment purpose as in purchases of bonds, securities good at period of low price for resale’s at period of high price e.g when bond price are very high and investor speculate a price fall in price.

Also if the future of an investment is bright, people will invest now with liquidity preference falling. Speculative is influence by prevailing investment condition, interest rate, inflation e.t.c.

4. Optimum Cash Level: Determining the amount of cash the corporation needs at a point in time is a difficult task.

The amount of cash required by corporation both in hand and at bank to a large extent depends on the volume of the business and to the industry.

5. Cash balances are required to overcome unusual and unexpected rush for cash if the corporation has little cash, it can be in liquidity difficulties to earn profit.

Maintaining a sound liquidity position of the corporation so that due may be settled in time is one of the primary responsibilities of the financial managers.

As cash constitutes a proportion of current asset the ratio of the cash balance to their level of current asset is a measure, which will assist in the management of cash.

METHOD OF EASING CASH SHORTAGE

The method of easing cash shortage is to accelerate cash collection and to decelerate or delay cash disbursement. The following are method of easing cash shortage:

i. Accelerating cash collection: The Corporation can conserve cash and reduce its requirement for each balance if it can speed up the cash collections.

The corporation can accelerate its cash collection by making use of the technique known as decentralization collection.

It is a system of operating through a number of collection center instead of a single collection, the corporation will have a large number of bank account operated in the areas where the corporation has its branches the collection entirely will transfer fund above some predetermined minimum to a central bank account generally at the corporation head office.

ii. Controlling Disbursement: Effective control of disbursement can also help the corporation in controlling cash and reducing the financial requirements while the objective of the corporation in collecting cash is to speed up collection as much as possible, the objective of disbursement by delaying payments the corporation can make use of the trade credit given to them as a source of finance which is interest free and this results in maximum availability of funds.

Although developing disbursement may danger its credit standing as this can put the corporation in difficulties in obtaining enough finance.

MARKETING STRATEGIES

According to Aaka David Strategic market management (2008) ISBN. Defined marketing strategies as a process that can allow organization to concentrate its resources.

Bank marketing environment are changing ever now and then because of the dynamic changes of the economy, new technology increase in competition and most importantly because the customer have changes in test.

The effective practices of marketing in banking environment condition is becoming highly recognized as a vital objective.

As marketing is becoming necessary in today’s banking competitive environment bank now apply some strategies which are discuss below:

PEOPLE: Financial service for a longtime come will remain a people business. Quality people will make different between a good bank and a bank that is not considered up to standard. Thus bank have to train their staff to be responsible to the needs of their customers. Banking professional must continually keep in touch with the customers.

SERVICE: Quality and effective services will make a wider margin whether customer of the bank are fort coming or not. The increasing use of computer technology by most banking firm in improving the speed of delivery and processing of transaction to their various customers need has been identified as another strategy.

PRICE: Bank should provide to their customer value added services of price they afford, customers are now shopping around for the best price they can get from banks. There is a limit to how banks can compete on price and also on the quality of service.

SEGMENTATION: Banking firms have to define the customer needs more clearly and design product and service that best meet these needs.

PROMOTION: Bank need to inform and persuade prospective customer to use their services in preference to the competitors procedure of banking, in an attempt to stimulate demand for their goods and services by communicating with both existing and palatial customer.

Cracks in Empty Building Building

INTRODUCTION:
Cracks can occur due to chemical reactions in construction materials, changes in temperature and climate, foundation movements and settling of buildings, environmental stresses like nearby trains, earth quakes etc. Faulty design, bad quality materials, wrong method of construction, weather effects and lots of wear and tear can create cracks in walls, floors and ceilings.

Here are given various reasons of cracks which is applicable to both occupied and un-occupied building. However we shall consider reasons why empty buildings (i.e. un-occupied) cracks easily compared to occupied one.

1) Thermal Movement: All materials expand on heat and contract on cool. Thermal movement in components of structure creates cracks due to tensile of shear stresses which is particularly severe in an empty house. It is one of the most potent causes of cracking in buildings and needs attention which is not commonly attended to in an empty house.

2) Shrinkage: Most building materials expend when they absorb moisture from atmosphere and shrink when they are dry. Cement made materials shrink due to drying up of the moisture used in their construction. This is very severe in empty building as the rate of dryness and moisture absorption is reduced in an occupied house.

3) The local trees put hundreds of pounds or leaves and seeds on the roof each year. If these aren’t regularly mucked out, they flow downhill with the water to the drains, where they stop them up.

The water, especially when it is snowing, weighs 8lbs/ gallon, and there can quickly be several tons of water on our roof which can easily crack down the building

4) A leaking Roof: Over the course of time the water leaches all the glue and materials from the plywood, causing the plywood or roofing to snag and snap, tearing the membrane of the roofing materials. It literally falls in, about years later. Now it’s raining in side.

It’s also likely to be downhill towards the drain, so all the water flows towards it and into the interior of the building.

5) People come in and steal the copper out of the building, ripping and tearing the walls and conduit. People hang out inside and destroy drywall for fun. Paint, feces, etc.

6) The mold starts to grow: Tree seeds take root inside. The mold destroys the drywall and the wet-and-dry process begins to dry on the walls. You wouldn’t believe how fast everything would ‘go back to nature’ if the people weren’t around. If there wasn’t street cleaning, the years particulants and leaves would build a 2″ dirt layer which would cover the pavement, and in a very short order of time tree roots would tear apart the pavement. Dead letter how brick row houses fall apart; the (flat) roof leaks, rotting the cross beams, allowing the walls to bow. gravity pretty much takes over after that.

7) Buildings that are not abandoned are maintained: Wood is protected from rotting, iron and steel is shielded from the environment to slow down rusting, plants are prevented from growing and breaking apart concrete and mortar, etc. Basically, most man-made structures are not designed to be able to withstand the harsh effects of nature without intervention (maintenance).

8) This is a significant factor: Once windows get broken, moisture, plant and animal life can effect ingress. Mould, decay, frost-shattering, animal damage and rot can then occur relatively quickly. All these have a big cosmetic effect and a brick or stone building may be relatively sound structurally but look in extremely poor repair for the reasons arble mentions above.

9) Plants grow and find holes (or make their own) which destabalize infrastructure. Humans living there can prevent this manually.

10) Humidity and massive temperature changes encourages rot and bacteria growth. Humans living there prevent this by having the heat on. Age and light tarnish things (paint, finishes, etc) and causes humans to react with improvements, and increasing standards in building maintenance forces them to fix things that are broken.

ARCHITECTURAL ACOUSTICS

Architectural acoustics (also known as room acoustics and building acoustics ) is the science and engineering of achieving a good sound within a building and is a branch of acoustical engineering.

The first application of modern scientific methods to architectural acoustics was carried out by Wallace Sabine in the Fogg Museum lecture room who then applied his new found knowledge to the design of Symphony Hall, Boston.

Architectural acoustics can be about achieving good speech intelligibility in a theatre, restaurant or railway station, enhancing the quality of music in a concert hallor recording studio, or suppressing noise to make offices and homes more productive and pleasant places to work and live in.

Architectural acoustic design is usually done by acoustic consultants. Building skin enveloped. This science analyzes noise transmission from building exterior envelope to interior and vice versa.

The main noise paths are roofs, eaves, walls, windows, door and penetrations. Sufficient control ensures space functionality and is often required based on building use and local municipal codes.

An example would be providing a suitable design for a home which is to be constructed close to a high volume roadway, or under the flight path of a major airport, or of the airport itself.

The science of limiting and/or controlling noise transmission from one building space to another to ensure space functionality and speech privacy.

The typical sound paths are ceilings, room partitions, acoustic ceiling panels (such as wood dropped ceiling panels), doors , windows , flanking, ducting and other penetrations.

Technical solutions depend on the source of the noise and the path of acoustic transmission, for example noise by steps or noise by (air, water) flow vibrations.

An example would be providing suitable party wall design in an apartment complex to minimise the mutual disturbance due to noise by residents in adjacent apartments.

Diffusers which scatter sound are used in some rooms to improve the acoustics. This is the science of controlling a room’s surfaces based on sound absorbing and reflecting properties.

Sound reflections create standing waves that produce natural resonances that can be heard as a pleasant sensation or an annoying one. Reflective surfaces can be angled and coordinated to provide good coverage of sound for a listener in a concert hall or music recital space.

To illustrate this concept consider the difference between a modern large office meeting room or lecture theater and a traditional classroom with all hard surfaces.

Classification of the Property Market

Each group of properties, which in some measure substitute for one another, represent but the principal division are formed by location, where the estate is available for renting or sale, investment, occupation or according to use:

The property market is sub-divided into various sectors based on the following factors:

(1) Location Property Market

Not all the landed properties in the property market are localized therefore the value tends to concentrate on particular areas and become an expert in its pattern of values and general characteristics the uniqueness of location is only relevant to the extent that there may be other property offering comparable advantage of position. Olusegun (2003).

(2) Rent or Sale Property Market

The market for property rent or sale are usually through they may overlap, the do in fact merge where houses are generated at premium. As a role however, conclusion where there is tendency for properties of each type and class either to be available for purchase or renting but without the choice of both on comparable terms. Olusegun (2008).

(3) Investment or Occupation Property Market

The investment or occupation of commercial property often overlap. The position is usually determined by where the property being disposed of its occupied or vacant.

Nevertheless an occupied property may be purchased with the aim of obtaining and going into occupation. A vacant property may also be bought for investment produce periodic income from it. Olusegun (2003).

Rent

Rent is a periodic payment for the use of a property to the landlord, it could represent a return for wise spending in years gone by, a return on investment and therefore, the higher the better.

Types of Rent

1. Pappercom: This is a normal rents, reserves with no intention, on either side, that if it should paid for a common thought erroneous view that the reservation of some rents are necessity to constitute a valid lease.

It is common building in which it is often reserved for the period of building development when rental income is yet to be received by the lessee.

2. Ract Rents: This is full annual value of the property, or near to. It must be determined according to value.

3. Equality Rents: This is paid by the leasee to the landlord which varies from time depending on rents he received from sub-tenants and other occupiers.

4. Progressive or Escalating Rents: A progressive rents is one that is made to rise by amount and at times specified in the lease or tenancy agreement.

5. Sliding Scale/Indexed Rents: This is the one that provide division of profit and loss between landlord and tenant by a rents that rises or falls with the price of the produce of the property let.

6. Insurance Rents: When the landlord insured the demised premises, the lessee will generally make provision for insurance rents equal to the premium paid by the landlord.

7. Dead Rents/Royally Rents: Mining usually stipulated two types of rent-dead rent/royalty rent. A dead rents is the rents payable by a lessees whether the mines are worked or not. A royalty rent is the payment made by lessees based on the quality of minerals mined which will vary with production.

8. Panel Rents: This is an additional rent by a lessee for breach of covenants in lease. Section 20 of the land use act of 1978 stipulated payment of panel rents for unlawfully alienation of statutory right of occupancy.

Factors Affecting Commercial Property Rental Value

1. Accessibility: Commercial property that is easily accessible will have a high rental value them one sited in an area that is adjoining properties. This has to do with the effort of the other properties that surround the commercial properties. A commercial properties (that is located in an area of only residential property, the rental value of such property will be low.

2. Facilities: This is another factors of commercial property that tends to influence its rental value. A commercial property that is located where all the necessary facilities needed to make life comfortable are present in the area, the property will commands higher value than one which has inadequate facilities.

3. Location: The location of a commercial property influence its rental value to a great extend. In a situation were there is provision of good road, social amenities, infrastructural facilities and adequate convenience, the rental value will be high Udechukwu (2006).

Attribute of Commercial Property Value

Value is created by and varies with changing factors in its relationship.

(1) Utility: Utility could be describe as the usefulness of an item and this usefulness is a significant quality that greatly enhance value. It is the satisfaction the purchaser or buyer of a property derived from it.

(2) Scarcity: There must be an element of scarcity in supply in order for the property to command value regardless of its utility, otherwise, it will be a free goods.

(3) Future Satisfaction: This is the expected flow of return or satisfaction from the acquisition of a property. For example, the expected flow of return in a property may be considered in terms of the rent that will be acquired if the property is let or sell.

(4) Capable Of Ownership: Real property, apart from being bought into use, must also belong to some one either by way of purchase or long lease.

Attribute of Commercial Property Value

Property Value is created by and varies with changing factors in its relationship.

(2) Scarcity: There must be an element of scarcity in supply in order for the property to command value regardless of its utility, otherwise, it will be a free goods.

(4) Capable Of Ownership: Real property, apart from being bought into use, must also belong to some one either by way of purchase or long lease.

Concept of Value

The word “Value” does not have a specific and restricted meaning as it may mean different thing to different people. Value by its ordinary definition particularly in basic economics is the utility of satisfaction which goods and services offer.

The oxford advanced learner English dictionary defined “Value” as the worth of something in terms of money or other goods for which it can be exchanged for something being useful or important.

Hornby (1989) defined “Value” as the worth of some thing in terms of money or other goods for which it can be exchanged or by being useful or important.

The Oxford Advanced Learners English Dictionary defined “value” as the worth of something in terms of money or other goods for which it can be exchanged for something being useful or important. But the estate surveyor and valuer is concerned with the economic concept of values. He tries as much as possible to translate value into monetary terms.

He looks at it as “the worth of an investment in landed property” Real Estate appraisal defined value in the manner “value in intrinsic, it is created in the mind of the people who constitute market”.

There are many classes of value as there many classes of wants. Some kinds of values in common usages in every business are as follows: Aesthetic values, purchase values, face values, time values, probate values, mortgage values, open market values, capital value, retable value, insurance values, exchange values, book values, to the owner for the purpose of this study rental values and market values.

a. Rental Value

This is the worth on lease of a property on a periodic basis. When this sum is equivalent to what any similar property will attract, such rent is called open market rent. Rental values therefore is the worth of property on periodic occupation basis Olusegun (2003).

The process of determining capital value of property. This is by comparative method taking into consideration the condition and terms of the lease being assessed. Such rental values can be described as “Open market value”. Therefore, open market values of a property is the rent such a property would attract or similar when offered in the market on the usual tenancy or lease terms and conditions characterizing the marketing of such class and type of property.

b. Market Value

This is the worth of an interest in property which reasonable buyers and sellers would agree to when referred to market with existence of condition for competitive market application. Market value can also be defined as “the highest price in terms of money which a property should bring a competitive or open market under all conditions requisite to a fair sale. The buyer and seller each acting prudently knowledgeable and assuming the price is not affected by undue stimulus.

Factors Influencing Investment on Commercial Property Development

The following are factors influencing investment on commercial property development are:

i. Technological Factor
These are concerned with the availability of skill labour force within the metropolis and the country at large these have not constituted problem to the development of shopping complex because the existing ones are designed and excused by skilled indigenous contract and building materials are obtainable locally.

ii. Physical and Environmental Factor
These related to the topographic and the site configuration, its location accessibility and problem associated with safety, water supply and electricity.

iii. Financial Factor
This refers to the finance involve in investment either through capital or bank loan. Most commercial and development bank are willing to advance loan for investments in commercial properties such as shopping centers.

iv. Economic Factor
This influence investment in shopping center in term of occupation and the effect of general economic climate.

v. Legal Factor
This relate to town planning and building development. Town planning division any prospect investor will be permitted to undertake the construction of shopping.

a. Investment Market
The investment market is a market for purchase, sale and rising of finance for the creation of new investment, different investment have different investors. The participant in the investments market include lenders and borrowers who are private individual. Olayonwa (2000) same holder of surplus each will purchase same investors may which to turn their investments back into cash and conversely, some holding cash may wish to invest it.

The function of the investments market is to adequate these two opposing activities. If the supply of an investment at a particular time is greater than the demand for it at the prevailing price, then the price will fall and the yield will rise in consequence this will probably stimulate increase demand because of the improvement yield.

It might also have the effect of reducing the supply of investment available for purchase because the lower the price would determined existing owners of these investment from selling. This process would continue until supply and demand become equal.

At a time of economic uncertainty there may be a tendency to retain surplus capital than invest it. This may result in depress and enhance interest rate. The level of interest rate will also be influence by the minimum lending rate.

b. Land and Property as an Investment
In legal term “land” means the topsoil and all the strata below and the air space above it, a building or road or path are constructed upon land, they become practice to refers to land and building. The term real property is also used to signify “land and building”.

Real property as a medium for investment differs considerably in its quantities and characteristics compared with the other investment outlets previously mentioned.

It is naturally limited in supply and it would be extremely difficult and expenditure to create additional land to meet expanding requirement no two piece of land are exactly alike or the same in every respect. They will in size, topography, locality and condition. Real property will not be available in regular unit for investment as a stock and share. The size of the investment in the real property market may be such that, generally, it will exclude the small investors unless he wishes to invest in property, the prospective purchase must usually be considering terms thousands of thousands. Because this type of investments is on a large scale.

c. Change in Taste Demand
The rental value of a building may be reduce because the purpose of the building no longer satisfied it demand. An investor must attempt to anticipate whether or not the building will continue to be functional in its present form, and this will affect the yield he may expect from the investment.

Example of changes in the use of building in recent years are the decline in the use of local hall, the need for public houses to provide more comfortable accommodation and entertainment, in shopping trends. As the result of all this there will be need to take shopping center of the investments market. Ifediora (2009).

Types of Commercial Properties

The following are common types of commercial properties:

i. Shops
ii. Offices
iii. Filling station

i. Shop

These ranges from kiost to standard shop unit to departmental store and it may vary from small shop, with upper floors in secondary position likely to let at rent of few hundred of naira per annum. To out of town hyper market with floors areas at thousands of naira per annum.
Shop properties may be rent valuable base on good location, road and well maintenance Briton (1991).

Nature of Shopping Centre

Shopping centre is defined as a group of retail stores planned, developed, owned and manage as a unit.

Spectrum dictionary defined shopping as the activity of visiting the shops. Shops are depended upon the spending pattern of those living within their catchments areas, which depend critically upon their size, age distribution, and income level of their population, the transportation system and the degree of competition, generated by rival shopping facilities required in area in regard and its geographical distribution is largely determined by economy characteristics of the population to be served; the transport facilities available and the range of the service to be provided.

Types of Shopping Center

1) The local or neighbor center
2) The district of or community center
3) The regional or main center

1) The Local Center: – The center serves as an area within immediate walking distance (road) and up to ten thousand (10,000) people, with a convenient goods and services. It is essential to determine it distance from the customer rather than attractive in term of price center.

2) District Center: Between the local and regional center lay are district center with catchments areas of about forty thousand (40,000) people these provide for convenient goods more comparism than the local center and durable goods less than regional center so that their draw depend on a balance between road travel distance and cost / assortment attraction.

3) Regional Center: The regional center drawn up a certain area of at least one hundred (100,000) people and comparism great number and variety of shop competing within another by low price and range of assortment. It contain a complete range of shop selling durable goods and it coincided with the center of commercial and industrial expansion in its region. Richmond (1984).

ii. Offices

The types of premises used as offices may mixed converted dwelling-house part of a mixed development of purpose- built office accommodation.

In areas where restriction on the provision of new accommodation are imposed demand will increase for existing office space and rental will increase evidence can be found in the central areas of Lafia.

The following are the relevant where assessing rental value and considering the accommodation as rental value and considering the accommodation as an investment medium.

1. The premises must comply with the offices and shops.

2. Good road and services (water, electricity that means the land lord should provide certain service such as lighting, heating. Carpeting porter age and lift. The cost may be recovered as part of the rent or as a separate services change collected each six month or annually.

3. If the building is let to a number of tenants, it may command more rental value than if let to a single tenant. However, the extent of management by the land lords prefer to let to a single tenant of good standing.

4. The term of lease may differ considerably if offices in a building are let to several tenants, the landlords may retain responsibility for repairs of the structure and common part of the building.

5. In high rise buildings rent may vary from one floors to another. For example the lower floors may be considered to have more prestige value than upper floors, although this will depends upon the quality of the building and efficiency of lift services, Richmond (1984).

iii. Filling Station

According to Wikipedia a petrol filling station is a commercial property or facility who sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common petrol station sells product like gasoline, diesel fuel, petrol and also provides services such as electric energy. It also contains supermarket, discount super stores, warehouse clubs, or traditionally convenience stores, filling stations provides all this services in it premises.

Road Network Pattern and the State of Available Roads Analysis

Road network consists of large number of interwoven roads exhibiting many patterns ranging from star-like, grid-like and irregular patterns are often discernable in road networks (Zangand Lund University, 2004).

It consists of large amounts of roads that interweave with each other to exhibit a pattern. Patterns are defined as characteristics and properties found in repeated and regular manner within one object, or between a number of objects with such repetition in the form of shape, density, distribution, linkages, connection or orientation. These occur among the same kind of objects repeated with sufficient regularity.

Such repeated properties may be shape orientation, connectedness, density or distribution.

The frequency of such patterns enables development of prototypical views of geographical processes (Mackaness and Edwards 2002).

The road network consists of primary and secondary roads known as arterial roads that are below highway level of services, carrying large volumes of traffic between areas in urban centers and designed for traffic between neightbourhoods. (Lecture note on environmental resources transportation, 2012).

These works, which were carried out on regional basis, succeeded in determining the degree of accessibility and connectivity of model points of the road network in the study areas but they did not relate the degree and levels of such accessibility and connectivity to property values.

REVENUE CONTROL AND EXPENDITURE CONTROL

REVENUE CONTROL AND EXPENDITURE CONTROL

Accounting information system and its procedure is said to be achieve accurately, in a selected government parastatals if they ensure that there is a control measure in the revenue and expenditure.

Revenue control is the various checked put in place to ensure that all money due are received and accounted for. The revenue control system in the public sector is designed to have the following elements.

Periodic monitoring
The revenue administration system to ensure that services are not rendered without charges being reviled.
Timely issuance of all revenue documents
Prompt lodgment of cash into the bank of all money received and establish authority limit for revenue handling.

Expenditure control could be defined as the string of coordinated actions which have to be taken to ensure that all expenditures are wholly necessarily reasonably and exclusively incurred for the purpose which they are meant.

There are basic control exercise over government expenditures which are:

The executive control
Legislative control
The ministry of finance
The departmental control

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL AUDITING

It is important for proper audit work to be done to ensure that the accounting information system and its procedure will serve as a basis for making the financial statement to present a true and fair view.

With that we shall discuss briefly the meaning of internal and external auditing and evaluate the effectiveness of internal control system in any organization. It is also an appraisal or monitoring activities established by the management to review the accounting and internal control system as a service to the entity.

The main function of internal audit to ensure that an organization corporate objective is being achieved.

Furthermore, the function of internal auditing can be specified in relation to:

Cooperate governance
Risk management
Organizational system

It is important to know the function of the internal audit in relation to the above.

Cooperate governance which is a system in which an organization is directed and control. It is the responsibility of the management and reasonable influence by the user’s of accounting information.

It should be noted that some of the requirement of the combined codes of cooperate governance provided that an entity should have a defined process of handling the effectiveness of internal control, consider key rise and how to manage them, consider the adequacy of monitoring and the action to remedy weakness.

The internal auditor function relations to this to ensure that the accounting information system and procedure are followed properly are:

It is important for the auditor to assess the adequacy of the effectiveness of the internal audit.
Evaluate the control system and reporting finding to the management.

RISK MANAGEMENT: It should be noted that all business or organization are faced with risk be it government or private firm. This risk will prevent an entity from applauding it cooperate objectives.

Therefore the internal audit function in relation to these are:

Evaluate the board of director risk management structure and policy
Identify and prioritize key risk
Make recommendation on how to handle risk to the management.

ORGANIZATION SYSTEM: It consist of the organizational structure in line with management responsibility and communication system. It is important for the auditor to evaluate the appropriateness of the organization system.

The internal auditing is the system that measure and evaluate the effectiveness of internal control audit to know their performance of their duties. The external auditor is an independent auditor that carry out investigation or examination of the financial statement as to know whether the financial statement is free from material mis-statement and to know whether the proceed are adopted in preparing the financial statement is in line with regulating frame work.

The external auditor is empowered to demand and obtain document and information that are deemed necessary for the purpose of their audit work.

In these respect, the external auditor will visit all zones, sector offices on quarterly audited account.

Pages

Monday, 30 May 2016

LEADERSHIP QUALITY – GIVE NIGERIA AS AN EXAMPLE

ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN A DIGITAL WORLD

THE ROLE OF E-LIBRARY IN EDUCATION

Saturday, 28 May 2016

FOOD SPOILAGE

CAUSES OF FOOD SPOILAGE

COMPONENTS OF RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT

INFRASTRUCTURAL FACILITIES AS A PUBLIC AND ECONOMIC TOOL

CONCEPT AND CHARACTERISTIC OF INFRASTRUCTURE

THE IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL MARKETING ON NIGERIA ECONOMY

REFERENCES

THE ROLES OF GOVERNMENT IN MARKETING OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE

REFERENCES

AGRICULTURAL MARKETING (ACTIVITIES INVOLVED)

PREMIUM PRICING

FACTORS AFFECTING PRICE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

PRICING STRATEGY OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

Friday, 27 May 2016

MOTIVES FOR HOLDING CASH

METHOD OF EASING CASH SHORTAGE

MARKETING STRATEGIES

Cracks in Empty Building Building

ARCHITECTURAL ACOUSTICS

Classification of the Property Market

Rent

Types of Rent

Factors Affecting Commercial Property Rental Value

Attribute of Commercial Property Value

Concept of Value

a. Rental Value

b. Market Value

Factors Influencing Investment on Commercial Property Development

Types of Commercial Properties

i. Shop

Nature of Shopping Centre

Types of Shopping Center

ii. Offices

iii. Filling Station

Road Network Pattern and the State of Available Roads Analysis

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL AUDITING