Human Capital Investment as a Catalyst for Sustainable Economic Development in Nigeria

Abstract

Human capital development presupposes investments, activities, and processes facilitating the generation of technical and expert knowledge; skills, health or values that are embodied in people. It implies maintaining an appropriate balance and key massive human resource base and providing an encouraging environment for all individuals to be fully engaged and contribute to organizational or national goals. Human capital development is necessary in order for National development to occur. In addition, human capital development teaches people how to utilize the advantages of diverse thinking styles (analytical and intuitive) so that they achieve the best holistic practical solutions. Human capital development and training are basically the same. This paper aims to examine the meaning of human capital development in relation to nation-building. The authors also took a cursory look at the concept of business education and its roles for sustainable development for nation-building. The study examined human capital investment as a catalyst for sustainable economic environment in Nigeria. The broad objective of the study is to analyze the effect of human capital investment on the Nigerian economy from 1986 to2017. The data used for the study were sourced from the central bank statistical bulletin and national bureau of Statistics. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) techniques were used to analyze the data. The findings of the study reveal that there is a positive relationship between government expenditure on health and real gross domestic product. The adjusted coefficient of determination (R2) shows that 97.3% of variations in the real gross domestic product is being accounted for by government expenditure on education, government expenditure on health and gross capital formation while the remaining 2.7% is accounted for by variables not included in the model. The study suggests that Nigerian policymakers should pay more attention to the health sector and increase its yearly budgetary allocation to it. Nevertheless, the key to achieving best results lies not in ordinarily increasing particular budgetary allocation but rather in implementing a public expenditure and revenue and ensuring the usage of the allocated fund as transparently as possible.