Innovative Journal of Business and Management

The Brazilian economy throughout its history has had emphasis on certain parts of the territory, which still concentrate most of the country’s GDP, while most regions have low levels of productivity and lack ability to attract both financial and human resources. Many economists  throughout  the  twentieth  century  have  studied  the  issue  of  poor  land occupation and regional inequalities and produced a theoretical framework that served to support the "Developmental Policies", which were public policies aimed at fostering economic development (Furtado, 1967).    Many of these policies affirm that public investment in infrastructure is a central pillar to promote development (De Souza, 1981). Based on this approach, this paper uses location theories from economic geography as the underlying foundation to propose a methodology for implementing multimodal logistic platform as a means to reduce transport and storage costs so that certain regional products can have lower prices and be more accessible to other markets. Thus, if logistic platforms are implemented in inner regions of Brazil in a way that caters for the particular features of each region, these platforms can promote national integration as well as enable all surrounding locations to export their products, which, in turn, can potentially promote regional development.

This study examined the relationship between macroeconomic variables dynamics (such as gross domestic product, prime lending rate, exchange rate and consumer price index) and commercial bank lending in Nigeria. Time series data on the study variables were sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin for the period 1985 – 2014. The study employed Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) technique to analyze data. The study found that gross domestic product, exchange rate and consumer price Index had positive correlation with commercial bank lending in Nigeria. While prime lending rate had negative relationship with commercial bank lending in Nigeria. The study recommended a policy shift towards infrastructural development and an increased productive base of the notion in order to improve the financial sector performance by stabilizing the macroeconomic variables. This it is hoped would not only help in enhancing the profitability of banks in the country but would also improve the standard of living of the Nigerian people.