The relationship between financial development and economic growththe case of ECOWAS from 1975 to 2020

Financial development has long been seen as an important factor of economic growth in the history of developmental economics. Additionally, substantial data from scholarly literature indicates that financial literacy and awareness are prerequisites for any real economic progress. In the case of ECOWAS, the notion of financial development as a prerequisite for economic growth is critical to macroeconomics. However, none of the studies specifically examined the level of financial development in ECOWAS member countries from 1975 to 2020. On this account, this master's thesis investigates the relevance of financial development in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member nations' pursuit of economic progress. In the attempt to answer the research questions, the World Bank database was used to obtain the data for this quantitative investigation. GDP growth rate, Net Domestic Credit, Government Expense and Trade Openness were the four primary factors included in the statistics of this study for each ECOWAS member state. This study analyzed the data using STATA to test the hypothesis of interest, which is ideal for interpreting panel data studies. The research discovered a substantial relationship between economic growth and financial development across ECOWAS member nations. Keywords: Economic Growth, Financial Deepening, Financial Development Financial Institutions, Political Instability, Price Stability.