NIGERIA ECONOMIC GROWTH AND CAPITAL MARKET DEVELOPMENT: DOES CONTRIBUTORY PENSION SCHEME MATTER?

Abstract

Whether the contributory pension scheme (CPS) has addressed the shortage of capital for investments, the challenge of full compliance with the system and the shortage of investment outlets spurred the interest to investigate the impact of the CPS on capital market development and economic growth from 2005 to 2021. Secondary data was adopted for this study, and the data were extracted from the National Pension Commission and world development indicators. The study employed the auto-regressive distribution lag (ARDL) model as an estimation technique. The empirical results show that among the proxies for gross domestic product, total pension fund asset (TPFA) was significant in both the short and long run, which showed that a 1% increase in TPFA would produce a 0.0028% increase in the GDP. Also, among the proxies for capital market development, total pension fund asset (TPFA) was significant in both the short and long run, which showed that a 1% increase in TPFA would produce a 0.024% increase in capital market development. Based on these findings, the study concluded that CPS influenced capital market development and economic growth. Consequently, this study recommended, among others, that the NPC should continue to partner with relevant stakeholders such as pension fund administrators and custodians by making its investment regulations more flexible and encouraging increased pension fund investments.