Regulatory Institutions and National Economic Development in Nigeria

Abstract

The financial sector is the epicenter of productive activity of an economy as it performs the vital role of financial intermediation, provider of payment services and the arbiter of monetary policy communication and implementation. Therefore, the objective of the study is to examine the effect of CBN as a regulatory institution on national economic development in Nigeria. The study used ex-post facto research design and the study covered a period of ten years (2011 – 2020). The study employed ordinary least square (OLS) method of estimation to establish the importance of the independent variables on the dependent’s variables. The findings revealed that Monetary policy Rate (MPR) has insignificant positive (202.2958/0.2296 ˃ 0.05) effect on the National Economic Development in Nigeria; Credit to Private Sector (CPS) has insignificant negative (-208.6998/0.1319 ˃ 0.05) effect on the National Economic Development in Nigeria; Liquidity Ratio (LQR) has significant negative (-57.09290/0.0503 = 0.05) effect liquidity ratio on the National Economic Development in Nigeria; and Interest rate (INT) has insignificant negative (-274.8069/0.1717 ˃ 0.05) effect liquidity ratio on the National Economic Development in Nigeria. The study concluded that the CBN current policies has been anti-people and over the years not having significant effect on economic development in Nigeria. The study recommended among other things that CBN should critically re-examines its regulatory policies to focus more on visionary policies that would cause the financial deepening indicators, monetary policy rate and exchange rate to positively and significantly engender development of the financial system. Central Bank of Nigeria should check mate their policy rates to ensure the prevention of inflation in the economy.