Impact of Financial Sector Development on the Nigerian Economic Growth

Abstract

An efficient financial system is essential for building a sustained economic growth and an open vibrant economic system. Countries with well developed financial institutions tend to grow faster; especially the size of the banking system and the liquidity of the stock markets tend to have strong positive impact on economic growth. This study examines the impact of financial sector development and economic growth in Nigeria. It seeks to know the impacts of the sector in the Nigerian economy and whether the sector has been able to achieve its main objective of intermediation as a result of the inability of the sector to assist the real sector despite the huge profits declared yearly & also the short term lending of the banks instead of long term investment that can boost the economy. The OLS method of the regression analysis was employed; the financial development was proxied by ratio of liquidity liabilities to GDP (M2GDP), real interest rate (INTR), ratio of credit to private sector to GDP (CPGDP) while the economic growth was measured by the real GDP (RGDP).The study finds that only the real interest rate is negatively related. All the explanatory variables are statistically insignificant. Though the overall statistic shows that the independent variables were able to explain 74 percent variation in the dependent but contrary to a priori expectation, it is statistically insignificant. The link between the financial and real sector still remains weak and could not propel the needed growth towards the vision 202020. There is therefore the need for consistent, transparent, fair policy, and also a resilient& strong institutional development of the sector.