Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences: Home

Article Title:
Government's Commitment to Capacity Building: A Sine Qua Non For Improved Economic Performance of Nigeria
by Amaefule Leonard Ifeanyi (Ph.D)

Abstract:
This study evaluated the nexus between capacity building and economic performance of Nigeria. It examined the interplay between government?s commitment to human and community capacity building and the nation?s gross domestic product growth rate. Data were sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistic Bulletin, World Bank reports and Global Data Lab for periods of 1991-2017. Data collected were committed to stationarity test using the Augmented Dickey Fuller and subsequently subjected to Johansen co-integration analysis. The Vector Error Correction Mechanism was employed in establishing significance among the variables. Results revealed that government capital expenditure on economic services has a short-run significant positive effect on real gross domestic product growth rate; a short-run negative but insignificant relationship exists between government capital expenditure on social community services and gross domestic product growth rate; human development index has short-run significant positive relationship with gross domestic product growth rate; and capacity building proxies jointly exert significant effect on real gross domestic product growth rate at both short-run and long-run. It was thus recommended (among others) that governments at all level in Nigeria should give priority to capacity building in terms of human and physical infrastructural development.

Keywords: Capacity building, Government Capital Expenditure, Economic Performance, Real Gross Domestic Product, Human Development Index

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