This paper examines the effect of governance in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Specifically, this study investigates (i) the interacting impact of government efficiency, regulatory quality, and the rule of law alongside other socioeconomic variables to determine foreign capital inflow (FCI) based on each economic SSA bloc; and (ii) the characteristic drivers of FCI, impacting economic growth in the SSA countries. Descriptive statistics, static models, least square dummy variables (LSDVs) and the dynamic system general method of moment (GMM) were employed as the study’s estimating techniques. Based on the result of the LSDV, food security and the rule of law significantly impact FCI in the sub-economic blocs in the region. Only six countries across the four economic blocs responded to food security and the rule of law in the model. The dynamic system-GMM provided evidence of five socioeconomic variables and three governance variables contributing to FCI. The findings revealed (i) regulatory quality and the rule of law are governance variables that significantly impacted FCI; and (ii) food security failed to significantly impact FCI in the SSA region. However, inflation, life expectancy, the human capital index, exchange rate and gross domestic product (GDP) growth impacted FCI significantly. In the aggregate, inflation, regulatory quality, exchange rate and the human capital index exhibited positive relationships, while other variables such as life expectancy, government effectiveness and the rule of law appeared significant but inversely impacted FCI in the SSA region. The key policy implication recommendation from this study is that a good legal framework could moderate the flow of foreign capital in favour of growth as it creates a strong foundation for sustainable economic development in the region.

China-Africa economic integration generally looks lucid, as evidenced by rising bilateral trade, as well as Chinese FDI, aid, and debt financing for infrastructure development in Africa. The engagement, however, appears to be strategically channeled to benefit China’s resource endowment strategy. First, Chinese FDI in Africa is primarily resource-seeking, with minimum manufacturing value addition. Second, China has successfully replicated the Angola model in other resource-rich African countries, and most infrastructure loans-for-natural resources barter deals are said to be undervalued. There is also a resource-backed loan arrangement in place, in which default Chinese loans are repaid in natural resources. Third, while China claims that its financial aid is critical to Africa’s growth and development processes, a significant portion of the aid is spent on non-development projects such as building parliaments and government buildings. This lend credence to the notion that China uses aid to gain diplomatic recognition from African leaders, with resource-rich and/or institutionally unstable countries being the most targeted. The preceding arguments support why Africa’s exports to China dominate other China’s financial flows to Africa, and consist mainly of natural resources. Accordingly, this study aims to forecast China-Africa economic integration through the lens of China’s demand for natural resources and Africa’s demand for capital, both of which are reflected in Africa’s exports to China. The study used a MODWT-ARIMA hybrid forecasting technique to account for the short period of available China-Africa bilateral trade dataset (1992–2021), and found that Africa’s exports to China are likely to decline from US$ 119.20 billion in 2022 to US$ 13.68 billion in 2026 on average. This finding coincides with a period in which Chinese demand for Africa’s natural resources is expected to decline.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be viewed as the aftermath of the Millennial Development Goals (MDGs). This is due to the fact that the seventeen (17) SDGs are designed to continue the work expected to have been done by the MDGs. In other words, the failure of the MDGs to eradicate poverty birthed the SDGs. However, the SDGs seem not to be achieving the desired result. This has led to the projection for the need for a decade of action. In the African context, the questions of why the MDGs failed and the SDGs tend to be failing are yet to be asked. By projection, if the questions are not asked and answers are not provided, the projection of the decade of action may also fail. Hence, the reason for this conceptual paper which was targeted at exploring the possibility of considering the Africanization of the SDGs as remedy to ensuring sustainable development in the African continent. Different relevant sources were identified, reviewed and analysed. The findings from the reviewed and analysed sources showed among others that for Africanization of the SDGs to be a reality and practicable, glocalization must be embraced. Meanwhile, there will be need to question the use of Eurocentric curricula in African institutions of learning.

Due to the incapacity of families in Sub-Saharan African nations to satisfy basic necessities for home maintenance, this study is required to enable policy shifts in the area of consumption tax. The study looks at the impact of consumption taxes on the purchasing power of families in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on Nigeria and Kenya. The datasets used for this inquiry range from 1994 to 2022. Among the factors are purchasing power parity (PPP), value added tax (VAT), and exchange rate. We obtained the statistics from the World Bank, the Central Banks of Nigeria and Kenya, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The study used the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model established by Pesaran et al. (2001). The findings reveal that the inclusion of VAT on the prices of products and services significantly harms households throughout Nigeria compared to those in Kenya. VAT has a significant negative impact on consumer purchasing power in Nigeria but has an immaterial negative impact on household spending capacity in Kenya. The influence of the currency rate is positive and beneficial in Nigeria, whereas it is negative but intangible in Kenya. Due to economic disparity, the report suggests policy reforms in favour of families. It is also suggested that the government develop additional work possibilities, diversify the economy, and give subsidies for basic housing necessities.

Homelessness is a global social issue that has affected various nations around the world, including South Africa. The instances of homelessness began during the apartheid era in South Africa and have since risen to alarming levels in provinces such as Gauteng, Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal, as reported in the 2022 census. Despite the lack of comprehensive research on homelessness in South Africa, this study conducted a scoping review to evaluate research completed on homelessness from independence to 2020 in the country. The scoping review followed the Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and involved a systematic search of the Development Southern Africa and Urban Forum databases. A total of 72 research articles were identified, with 10 meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the review, which were then analyzed using thematic analysis. The study identified several key themes, including homelessness as a reflection of patriarchal systems, gender-based conflicts leading to homelessness, proactive and reactive interventions by non-state actors for homeless individuals, and the quantitative focus of research on homelessness in South Africa from independence to the present day. The study presents the applicability of these findings to tackle homelessness in Papua New Guinea and recommends the use of mixed methods approaches to research homelessness in South Africa to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the various dimensions of homelessness in the country.

This study analyses the long-run relationship between, and the direction and magnitude of impact of sectoral economic growth and fiscal capacity on government health expenditure. The study was carried out to validates the Wagner hypothesis from sectoral perspective and revenue-expenditure hypothesis for South Africa for the period 1984–2020. Fully modified least squares and dynamic least squares and canonical cointegration regression were used to achieve the objectives of the study. Empirical regression results showed that there is a negative impact of the secondary sector GDP on public health expenditure. Thus, invalidating the Wagner hypothesis and suggesting that secondary sector GDP cannot serves as an answer for public health expenditure. However, there was a positive relationship between tertiary sector GDP and public health expenditure. The study make case for unceasing provision of an enabling environment that continuously support growth of the tertiary sector.