ECONOMIC GROWTH

This study investigates the magnitude of the direction of government expenditure and its impact on the wellbeing of the people with the aim of alleviating poverty. Some social indicators were employed in the study which reflects the living standard of the people and they include health, agriculture, education, microfinance and life expectancy. By employing these indicators, the rate at which government expenditure affect the lives of people and also us relative impact on poverty reduction were determined In this study, the Ordinary Least Squares method of analysis was used with Poverty as the dependent variable and five independent variables. They are government expenditure on education, health, agriculture, microfinance and life expectancy. The data used in this research was collected from secondary data obtained from the CBN statistical bulletin. The major findings shows that government expenditure on health education and agriculture are significant and a unit increase of government expenditure in these sectors can reduce poverty level. While that of life expectancy and microfinance are insignificant and a unit increase will increase poverty level. Recommendation were proffered based on the findings of this research that government at all levels should gear up its investment in agricultural research, health and education and ensure that its expenditure are channeled towards projects that will reduce poverty level in Nigeria so as to drive the economy towards growth and development.

This study investigates the determinants of unemployment in Nigeria using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and data from 1999 to 2023. The empirical findings reveal that in the short run, population growth and real GDP have a significant
negative impact on unemployment while inflation and government expenditure exhibit a positive and significant effect on unemployment. In the long run, population growth continues to have a significant negative impact on unemployment, inflation remains positively related to unemployment, government expenditure maintains a positive relationship with unemployment
while real GDP has a negative effect on unemployment, underscoring the importance of sustained economic growth in fostering employment. Based on these findings, the study recommends policies aimed at tackling unemployment. Specifically, inflation control measures should be implemented to stabilize prices and support employment-friendly macroeconomic conditions and government expenditure should be efficiently allocated to high-impact sectors such as education, vocational training, and technology-driven industries to maximize job creation.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of microfinance banking in the expansion and development of the Nigerian economy, which is why this study uses the multivariate ordinary least square (OLS) approach to regression analysis to examine the impact of
microfinance banks on economic growth in Nigeria from 1990 to 2021. The primary microfinance bank activities that significantly and favorably influence economic growth in Nigeria, according to the OLS regression estimates, are microfinance bank loans
(MBL), microfinance bank investments (MBI), and microfinance banks' contributions to agricultural (MBCA). However, neither the microfinance banks deposit (MBD) nor the inflation rate (INF) significantly affect Nigeria's economic growth, indicating that they
did not spur economic growth in Nigeria throughout the research period. The research makes several recommendations, including encouraging microfinance bank activities, particularly lending to, investing in, and supporting the agricultural sector given its
importance to the expansion of the Nigerian economy