Effect of Population Growth and Human Capital Development on Economic Growth in Nigeria.

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study evaluates the impact of population growth, human capital development on economic growth in Nigeria for the period of 1988 to 2022. Secondary data were used and sourced from the World Development Indicators and United Nations World Population Prospects. Auto-regressive distributive lag was employed to analyse the long-run and short-run effects of both the population growth and human capital development on economic growth. The result of the analyses showed that population growth has a negative impact on economic growth, a 1% increase in population growth will lead to a 23988 increase in economic growth while human capital has a negative impact on economic growth with a 1% leads to 25.6998 decrease in economic growth. Life expectancy variable also have negative relationship with economic growth. The results of the fixed capital formation and the government expenditure have positive relationship with economic growth. Based on these findings, the paper concludes that the government should increase investment in human capital and provide employment opportunities to reduce the negative impact of population growth. Government should also increase spending (expenditure) on education, training and health