D.E ORIAKHI

Nigeria, as one of the largest economies in Africa, has long faced significant challenges in harnessing its public debt for sustainable development, particularly in human capital development. The role of governance quality in shaping the relationship between public debt and human capital development is a fundamental but often overlooked aspect of the discourse. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between public debt, governance quality and human capital development in Nigeria. The data used in this study were collected from secondary sources including Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletins, World Development Indicators and World Governance Indicators (WGI) databases. The study employed a vector autoregressive (VAR) model and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimations using annual data from 1997 to 2024 to estimate three models corresponding to the study’s hypotheses.The study found that in the absence of effective governance systems, the long-term effects of public debt on human capital were more detrimental. Shocks to debt variables showed persistent negative response in human capital indicators, particularly in settings were governance quality was weak. Conversely, better-governed environments exhibited more resilient and favourable human capital outcomes, demonstrating the pivotal role of institutional quality in mitigating debt-related vulnerabilities. The study recommended strengthening institutional quality, prioritizing productive debt use and restructuring debt servicing frameworks to free up fiscal space for social investment

This study investigated the impact of monetary policy on the growth of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria, with a focus on determining the dynamic responses of each policy on SMEs growth in Nigeria. The model employed in this study is the Autoregressive Distributed lag model (ARDL model) due to the distinction in order of integration. The time frame for this study spanned the years 1981-2019. The study found that money supply has a positive and significant impact on growth of
SMEs at the 5% level of significance, as well as inflation and interest having a negative but significant impact, while exchange plays out not to be a significant factor determining the growth of SMEs. The implication is that the interplay of these variables is important to keep SMEs alive in Nigeria. In response to the dynamics of domestic and global economic events, the policy suggestion is that monetary policy should be designed in such a way that the goal it seeks to attain is clearly and transparently specified. Also, there is a need for a consistent monetary policy framework that should bring about a realistic exchange rate with emphasis on its role to directly promote output and productivity of the SMEs. Exchange rate measures should be considered as a long-term solution to the problem of rising foreign products demand.