Sectoral Gas Demand and Sustainable Economic Development in Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of sectoral gas consumption on economic development in Nigeria from 2010 to 2020. Gas demand for power, industries, homes, transportation, and gas costs were used as the independent variables for sectoral gas demand, and the misery index was used as the dependent variable for sustainable economic development, in order to achieve the purpose of the study. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Nigeria Gas Company, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) were the sources of data on sectoral gas demand and economic development. The Autoregressive and Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique was used to analyse the data after carrying out the unit roots test. The result shows that gas demand for transport, industrial, and power sectors as well as its cost contributed to a rise in the global misery index, which ultimately hampered long run sustainable economic development. On the other side, household demand for gas decreased the misery index and, over time, hence promoted long run economic development in Nigeria. The study also found an insignificant nexus between demand for gas by the various sectors and economic development in the long run. In the short run, gas demand for transport and cost of gas had significant impact on economic development. Based on these results, the study concludes that gas demand had serious implication on economic development in the short run than long run. Consequent upon the findings, the study recommended: an increase in gas demand for household use and for transportation through a stable and competitive price of natural gas in order to enhance sustainable economic development in Nigeria.