Study on the Effects of Maritime Piracy and Sea Robbery on Economic Growth in Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of the level of global and local attacks against ships on economic development in Nigeria. It also examined the effects of volume of cargo pilfered in Nigeria ports as a result of insecurity on the economic growth in Nigeria. The study employed secondary data sourced from from the Nigerian ports authority, the National bureau for statistics (NBS) and the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), levels of pirate attacks against ships in local and global waters, and volume of cargo pilferages in ports. The multiple regression analysis method was used to analyze the dataset obtained using GDP as the dependent variable while global attacks, local attacks and volume of cargo pilfered were used as independent variables. It was found that the effect of maritime piracy and sea robbery on economic growth and development is expressed by the equation: GDPt = 1638944 + 5745.61GLOTAKSt – 34587.7LOTAKSt + 193.25VOCARPt. This implies that economic growth in Nigeria increase with increase in attacks against ships in global waters, it decreases with increase in attacks against ships in Nigerian maritime domain and increases with increase in volume of cargo pilfered from the ports. A unit increase in level of global attacks increases the GDP by 5745.61 units while a unit increase in local attacks against ships trading in Nigerian waters decreases the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 34587.7 units. Similarly, a unit increase in volume of cargo pilfered from the ports increase the GDP by 193.25 units. It concluded that maritime piracy and sea robbery attacks against ships have significant impact on economic growth and development in Nigeria.