Revisiting the growth effects of government bonds in the emerging capital market.

Abstract

We revisited the effects of government bonds for the growth on the Nigerian capital market. Utilising time-series data obtained from the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) annual reports for the period from 2010 to 2017, this study through the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) regression estimator found that the value and the number of listed government bonds’ positively and significantly affect capital market growth in Nigeria. Furthermore, low capitalisation of government bonds negatively affects the growth of the market. The null hypothesis of the Hansen J-statistics is accepted; hence this implies that the IVs used in the GMM model is valid. We concluded that government bonds have positive and significant effects on the growth of the Nigerian capital market, thus government bonds have made the NSE All-Share Index grow over the period under investigation. Following the findings from the study, it was recommended, inter alia, that there should be more issuance of government bonds to the public and further to enhance the efficiency of the capital markets, both primary and secondary, while the funds raised from the capital market through government issuance should be channelled towards Nigeria’s productive sectors to promote an all-inclusive growth in the Nigerian economy.