MIGRANTS’ REMITTANCES AND PUBLIC EXPENDITURE ON EDUCATION NEXUS: EVIDENCE FROM AN OIL-DEPENDENT ECONOMY

Abstract

This study examined migrants’ remittances, public expenditure on education and their implications for educational development in Nigeria, using Secondary School enrolment rates (SSER) as a proxy for the latter for the period 1981 to 2017. The study utilised Cointegration and error correction modelling approach in order to minimise the likelihood of producing explosive regression estimates. The empirical findings of the study indicate that Migrants’ remittances received, Public expenditures on Education and Per Capita Income growth rate exert statistically significant positive impacts on educational development in the country, while the association turned negative in the case of population growth rate. The fundamental role played by both migrant’s remittances received and Public expenditures on Education in stimulating educational development was evidently established in the study. The study therefore recommends, among others, the adoption of strategic measures that will help boost the rate of school enrolment in the country by encouraging migrants’ remittances through continuous engagement of Nigerians in the Diaspora in the country’s political and socio-economic affairs, progressive increment in budgetary allocations to the nation’s education sector, as well as enhancing the per capita income of the country through investments in key sectors of the nation’s economy.