Nigeria’s palm oil processing industry poses significant environmental pollution risks, jeopardizing the country’s ability to meet the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Traditional processing methods generate palm oil mill effluent (POME), contaminating soil and shallow wells. This study investigated water samples from five locations (Edo, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Delta, and Imo states) with high effluent release. While some parameters met international and national standards (WHO guidelines, ASCE, NIS, and NSDWQ) others exceeded acceptable limits, detrimental to improved water quality. Results showed, pH values within acceptable ranges (6.5–8.5), high total conductivity and salinity (800–1150 µS/cm), acceptable hardness values (200–300 mg/L), nitrite concentrations (10–45 mg/L), excessive magnesium absorption (> 50 mg/L), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) indicating significant pollution (75–290 mg/L), total dissolved solids (TDS) exceeding safe limits in four locations, total solids (TS) exceeding allowable limits for drinking water (310–845 mg/L), water quality index (WQI) values ranged from “poor” to “very poor”. POME contamination by metals like magnesium, nitrite, chloride, and sodium compromised shallow well water quality. Correlation analysis confirmed robust results, indicating strong positive correlations between conductivity and TDS (r = 0.85, p < 0.01) and pH and total hardness (r = 0.65, p < 0.05). The study emphasizes the need for environmentally friendly palm oil processing methods to mitigate pollution, ensure safe drinking water, and achieve Nigeria’s SDGs. Implementation of sustainable practices is crucial to protect public health and the environment.

Poverty, as a phenomenon, remains an obstacle to global sustainable development. Although a universal malaise, it is more prevalent in underdeveloped countries, including Nigeria. However, because of its devastating impacts on the Nigerian economy, such as increasing death rates, high crime rates, insecurity difficulties, threats to national cohesion, and so on, successive administrations have implemented poverty alleviation programs to mitigate the consequences of this disease. Worryingly, despite a multiplicity of projects and massive human and natural resources invested to match global standards, Nigeria remains impoverished. The curiosity at how these programs fail, either because of implementation hiccups or because elites’ wealth and power influence these programs spurred the paper to assess poverty alleviation policies and elitist approaches in Nigeria. The study employed the desk study approach, as it examined secondary sources such as books, journals, articles, and magazines. Its theoretical underpinning was the elite theory. The paper discovered that several factors such as corruption, the elitist nature of the policies which in disguise reflect public interests, lack of continuity, lack of coordination and monitoring system, misappropriation of public resources, and others, led to the poor performances of government in alleviating poverty in Nigeria. The paper concludes that, while the rate of poverty index in Nigeria rises year after year, poverty alleviation efforts in Nigeria have had little or no influence on the Nigerian economy, since most of these projects are purely reflective of the elites’ interests rather than the masses. Therefore, the paper recommends that for there to be a reduction in poverty incidence in Nigeria, a holistic developmental approach should be adopted, the policies formulated and implemented should sync with the needs of the citizens, and quality and viable programs should be sustained and financed irrespective of change in government; public accountability should be instilled; proper coordination and monitoring system should be domesticated, etc.

The primary objective of this paper is to explore the impact of household policies in both Saudi Arabia and Nigeria towards achieving efficient and sustainable economic growth in the 21st century. Fundamentally, the objective of the study was sparked by the basic factors of comparison the importance of culture in international relations, challenges related to terrorism which impede adequate implementations of economic policies, trade facilitation and logistics to enhance economic growth and cross-border movement of goods and services. Systematic literature review (SLR) and content analysis (CA) were used as methodological approaches of the paper. The articles explored for review were accessed using visualization of similarities (VOS) by exploring different database such as: journals, core collection of Web of Science (WOS), peer review sources and library sources. The findings demonstrated that Saudi Arabia and Nigeria have different policies regarding households in achieving sustainable economic growth. On one hand, in Saudi Arabia, the focus is on the economic burden associated with chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and the out-of-pocket spending among individuals diagnosed with these diseases. In addition, the study found that households with older and more educated members, an employed head of household, higher socioeconomic status, health insurance coverage, and urban residency had significantly higher out-of-pocket expenditure in achieving sustainable economic development. On the other hand, Nigeria’s policy is centered around trade liberalization and its impact on household welfare as an integral part of sustainable economic development. The policies implemented in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria have implications for the well-being of their citizens. In Saudi Arabia, the household policies have significantly impacted the quality of life (QoL) of households, particularly those with low income, large size, male-led, urban, and with elderly heads. In Nigeria, trade liberalization policies have mixed welfare implications for households in the aspects of real income, they also induce unemployment in key sectors, such as agriculture and industry. To mitigate negative effects, it is suggested that Saudi Arabia should effectively address chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among the households while Nigeria should efficiently pursue trade liberalization on a sectorial basis, focusing on sectors that do not severely undermine household welfare.

Financial inclusion and social protection have been recognised as the primary essential stimuli from the potential they carry as avenues for economic development, especially with respect to reduction in poverty and inequalities, the creation of employment and the enhancement overall welfare and livelihood. However, inclusive access to financial resources and equitable access to social protection interventions have remained a significant concern in Nigeria. In addition, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the weakness of Nigeria in all sectors of the economy such as energy, health, education and food systems and low-level inclusive access to financial resources and social protection coverage. On the other hand, this study argues that financial inclusion and social protection has the potential to mitigation shocks orchestrated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study empirically examines how social protection interventions and access to financial resources responded to COVID-19 pandemic. The study made use of data sourced from the World Bank’s COVID-19 national longitudinal phone survey 2020 and applied the logit regression. The findings show that social protection and access to financial resources significantly associated with the likelihood of shock mitigation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that social protection intervention reduces the probability of being severely affected by shocks by 0.431. Given this result, the study recommends that the government should put more effort into proper social protection intervention to mitigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The menace of road traffic accidents (RTAs) has become a major constraint to development in most developing countries because of driving behaviour. This study examines the effects of road users’ education programmes on driving behaviour toward RTA reduction in Nigeria. Data for the study were collected by random sampling of 287 respondents. The respondents comprising road safety officers and drivers were selected at six (6) zonal headquarters of the Federal Road Safety Commission. The questionnaire presented seventeen (17) statements in a 5-point Likert scale for the respondents to rank in order of importance as they have influenced driving behaviour. The data collected were analysed using exploratory factor analysis to identify the most significant effects of road user education on driving behaviour. The study found that road user education programmes have influenced driving behaviour by improving bad driving acts, maintaining good vehicle conditions, and obeying road communication signs. The finding implies that appropriate driving behaviour will reduce road traffic accidents.

The target date for achieving the 2030 UN Agenda [Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)] is fast approaching. The construction sector is critical to achieving many SDGs, including Goal 5. Studies regarding achieving Goal 5 (Gender Equality) in the construction industry, especially women’s consultancy participation in developing countries, are scarce and complexly interrelated. Societal problems and divergence may have contributed to this. Therefore, this study explores issues hindering gender equality and suggests measures to promote more women construction consultants through policy to improve achieving Goal 5 in Nigeria. The research employed face-to-face data collection via a qualitative mechanism to achieve this. The study covered Abuja and Lagos. It accomplished saturation at the 20th participant. The research utilised a thematic method to analyse the collected data from knowledgeable participants. The perceived hindrances facing Nigerian construction consultants’ gender equality were clustered into culture/religion-related, profession-related, and government-related encumbrances. Achieving Goal 5 will be a mirage if these issues are not addressed. Thus, the study recommended measures to motivate women to study construction-related programmes and employment opportunities, including consultancy services slots through programmes and policy mechanisms to achieve Goal 5. As part of the implications, the study suggests that Nigerian construction consultants and other stakeholders need to make feasible improvements to achieve gender equality (Goal 5).