FINANCIAL DEEPENING AND SELECTED NON-OIL SECTORS GROWTH IN NIGERIA: ARDL ANALYSIS AND VECM

This paper explores the causal impact of financial deepening over the period 1993Q1–2020Q4 on the contribution of the Wholesale and Retail, Service and Construction sectors to economic growth in Nigeria, using a co-integration research method of Auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL). Managed for possible effects in these non-oil sectors of crude oil prices and openness to trade, the study identified statistically significant financial deepening to drive long-term and short-term economic growth across the three non-oil sectors. Overall, the results stress Nigeria's financial intermediary system in terms of mobilizing and allocating capital as well as stimulating private sector economic activities in non-oil sectors. Therefore, the establishment of intermediation in the financial sector may be the right strategy for raising the domination of the Nigerian oil industry.