S.O. IGBINEDION

This study examines the impact of poverty on economic growth in Nigeria from 1981 to 2024. Despite periods of robust economic expansion, Nigeria continues to experience high and persistent poverty rates, reflecting the country’s enduring growth–poverty paradox. Using annual time-series data obtained from the World Bank, National Bureau of Statistics, and Central Bank of Nigeria, the study employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and Error Correction Mechanism (ECM) to analyze both short-run and long-run relationships between poverty and growth, alongside other macroeconomic variables such as
unemployment, inflation, foreign direct investment, and government expenditure. The results reveal that poverty exerts a significant and negative impact on real GDP in both the short and long run, indicating that high poverty levels constrain Nigeria’s productive capacity and weaken economic performance. Granger causality tests further show a unidirectional causal relationship running from poverty to economic growth, implying that poverty significantly predicts variations in output, whereas growth alone does not substantially reduce poverty. The findings highlight that without inclusive policies targeting poverty reduction, economic growth in Nigeria will remain uneven and unsustainable. The study recommends enhanced social investment, employment generation, human capital development, and equitable income distribution as vital strategies to break the poverty–growth trap and promote broad-based economic progress.

Considering the dynamic nature of 1external debts and infrastructure 1development in Nigeria from 1981 to 2020 and the country's ever-increasing debt, this study was necessary. In particular, it examined how external debt dynamics and debt servicing impacted infrastructure development in Nigeria, and how the country's external debt stock related to infrastructure expansion. Drawing from the Neoclassical Growth Model, the Harrods-Domar 1Economic Growth Model, and the Two-Gap Model, the study sought to comprehend the workings of Nigeria's foreign debt and infrastructure development. The analysis relied on 1secondary data sourced from the 1World Development Indicator, 2020. We used ARDL, ADF, and Ordinary 1Least Square (OLS) to conduct the regression analysis. The E-views software, specifically edition 8.0, was used to analyze the data. Foreign loan servicing has a 1small negative impact on infrastructure1 development, as shown by the results. Therefore, our government must diversify our economy away from its reliance on oil if we are to lessen the blow of falling oil revenues, which usually force us to take on more debt.

This study evaluates the effect of government expenditure on economic growth in Nigeria using time series data of 30 years (1990-2020). The variables used for the study include recurrent expenditure, expenditure on highways, safety costs, education costs as the independent variables and real GDP as the dependent variable. Four objectives were formulated for the study and four hypotheses were also prepared in line with the objectives. Ex-post-facto research design was employed and the time series data was generated and analysed using regression analysis, Autoregressive Distributed Lagged (ARDL) testing technique and Error Correction Model-based, Granger Causality, unit root test, and cointegration to examine the long run causal effect relationship that exist between government expenditure and economic growth in Nigeria. The study finds that government expenditure on highway, and expenditure on safety has positive significant effect on economic growth in Nigeria at 5% and 1% levels respectively, government recurrent expenditure has positive and no statistical significant on economic growth, while government expenditure on education has negative and no significant effect on the economic growth in Nigeria. The study recommends among others that Government should appropriate lesser portion of its expenditure to recurrent expenditure and pay more attention to capital expenditure as it is the major drive to economic growth.