Foreign direct investment as a vehicle for economic growth in Nigeria

This research study aimed to investigate the empirical justification for foreign direct investments' relationship with economic growth in Nigeria. The study utilized time series data ranging from 1972-2020, with gross capital formation (GCF), labor proxied by population aged 14-65, and foreign direct investment (FDI) as the explanatory variables of the study and GDP growth (annual; %) as the response variable of the study. The Autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) estimation technique was employed to ascertain the presence of cointegration among the variables, to estimate the short-run and long -run coefficients and check for the significance of their individual impacts on economic growth in Nigeria. Findings showed FDI to have a positive and significant impact on economic growth on the long run, however it had negative and insignificant impact in the short run. GCF was seen to only have a positive significant impact on economic growth in the short run but its positive effect on the long run was insignificant. Labor was seen to have positive significant impact on economic growth in Nigeria both in the short run and on the long run. VAR Granger causality test was used to investigate the existence of causal relationships in among the variables and results showed the existence of unidirectional causality between FDI and economic growth, labor and economic growth, economic growth and GCF as well as FDI and labor. However, a bi-directional causal relationship was seen between FDI and GCF. It was concluded that GCF, labor and FDI are significantly influential to economic growth in Nigeria.