The Impact of the Oil Industry on the Economic Development of Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the impact of the oil industry on the economic development of Nigeria. The Nigerian petroleum industry dominates the Nigerian economy in terms of profits and revenue. According to the recent Petroleum Export Organization (OPEC) report, Nigeria currently ranks as the world's tenth-largest crude oil reserves and also the world's fifteenth crude oil producer. According to national statistics, the industry generates for the country more than 95% of the country's external revenue and about 80% of government revenue. Secondary data collected on the economic variable used in the study comes from the World Bank, worldometer, and the International Monetary Fund, Statistical Review of World Energy, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin, CEICDATA (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) from 1990 to 2016. An augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test, and autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) method, and ARDL related to the test co-integration with various other diagnostic techniques were used for the study. The result reveals that oil production contributed to economic development, but the consumption and export of crude oil did not contribute to the improvement of the Nigerian economy. The study concluded that the government should implement policies that would encourage the private sector to actively participate in the crude oil sector and sectors of the economy. In addition, the government should use the revenue generated from oil to invest in other national sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing to expand the revenue stream of the economy