Human Capital Investment and Economic Growth in Nigeria: the Role of Education and Health

This study looked at Human Capital Investment and Economic Growth in Nigeria – the Role of Education. Even though there are different perspectives to economic growth, there is a general consensus that growth will lead to a good change manifested in increased capacity of people to have control over material assets, intellectual resources and ideology, and obtain physical necessities of life like food, clothing, shelter, employment, e.t.c. This is why some people have argued that the purpose of growth is to improve peoples’ lives by expanding their choices, freedom and dignity. The belief in human capital as a necessity for growth started in Nigeria during the implementation of the 1955-60 Development Plan and today, with the importance of knowledge in the economy, human capital has increasingly attracted both academic and public interest. This study made use of the Unit Root and Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) tests and found out that a positive relationship exists between government expenditure on education and economic growth while a negative relationship exists between government expenditure on health and economic growth. Therefore, based on these findings, the study recommended that the Government should increase not just the amount of expenditure made on the education and health sectors, but also the percentage of its total expenditure accorded to these sectors. The ten percent benchmark proffered by the present national plan should be adopte

The Impact of Liberalized Financial System on Savings, Investment and Growth in Nigeria

For the past twenty years, an enhanced financial sectoral deregulation has been a major economic tool in the agenda of most less developed economies and Nigeria is no exception. The discouraging level of growth with reference to the savings and investment culture of the people and government involvement in these economies has call to question whether financial sector liberalization have an impact on savings and investment in the economy and by extension on the level of growth and development of such economies. This study attempted to take a cursory look at the issue by examining the impact of financial system liberalization on savings and investment and by extension growth and development in Nigeria between 1997 and 2008. Some of the policy recommendations centred on the government creating an enabling environment for private investment to thrive. This will go a long way in helping to promote private investment with significant benefits in the long run for growth and development to the advantage of the citizenry and the economy at larg

Nigerian Stock Exchange and Economic Development

The need to critically analyze the efficiency of capital market on the Nigerian economy for the period between 1979 and 2008 as a reference point for developing economies is the bedrock of this work. The results indicate that the stock market indeed contributes to economic growth as all variables conformed to expectation. The Nigerian Stock Exchange has not been having the best of times as an aftermath of the global financial crisis after an unprecedented surge in returns on investment which has resulted in a continuous downturn in market capitalization. Multiple regression method of econometric analysis was used for the work. The major findings revealed a negative relationship between the market capitalization and the Gross Domestic Product as well as a negative relationship between the turnover ratio and the Gross Domestic Product while a positive relationship was observed between the all-share index and the Gross Domestic Product. These findings led to some policy formulations aimed at an improved and developed market for potential gain to the benefit of rational investors even across national borders

Trade Liberalisation and the Formal-Informal Sector Dichotomy in Nigeria

This study assesses the role of trade liberalization on the formal-informal sector of Nigeria It looks at whether or not the trade liberalization process have any effect on both the reduction in the wage differential between registered and non-registered roughly formal and informal workers and the fall in the proportion of registered workers The study uses both secondary and primary data via the administration of questionnaires to discuss the channels through which trade liberalization could affect these two variables and put forward an empirical approach to test the existence of any correlation between them The results suggest that the fall in the wage gap between registered and non-registered workers in the manufacturing sector was affected by trade-related variables particularly by the import penetration ratio However we do not find robust evidence that trade liberalization had a substantial effect on the fall in the proportion of registered worker