Facilitating Economic Growth by Leveraging on Infrastructure Development

Abstract

To achieve most of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as the elimination of poverty and hunger, the establishment of good health and well-being, provision of quality education, creation of decent work and economic growth, infrastructure development is central. Thus, the study aimed at determining Nigeria’s priority infrastructure based on the endogenous growth framework. The study covered a period of forty years; from 1981 to 2020. Data was sourced from the Global Economy Data (2020) and the World Development Indicators (2020). Using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique, the study found that in the short-run, communication, electricity, education and health infrastructures had positive impact on the real gross domestic product (GDP), while transport infrastructure had a negative impact on the real GDP. In the long-run, communication, electricity and education had a positive impact on the real GDP, while transport and health infrastructures had a negative impact on the real GDP. Also, the study found that of all the infrastructure components, electricity infrastructure was most impactful as it positively influenced all the components of GDP both in the short-run and in the long-run. Therefore, the study recommended that the Nigerian Communications Commission should work on reducing the high tariff on communication infrastructure. The Nigerian Ministry of Education should review the current educational curriculum to accommodate the needs of firms in terms of the quality of labour. Finally, the Nigerian government should spend more in providing electricity, transport, education and health infrastructure; but electricity should be given priority attention.