AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA

Year 2018, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, 129 - 142, 01.01.2018

O Y Akinwale A Sanusi J Surujlal

Abstract

Nigeria has witnessed a great change in information and communication
technology (ICT) as a result of the liberalisation of the telecommunication sector
in the country in the early 2000s coupled with high rate of economic growth.
Consequently, this study examines the relationship and impact of ICT on
economic growth in Nigeria. Using a secure internet server per 1 million, mobile
cellular subscription per 100 people, and investment in telecoms with private
sector participation (in current USD) as proxies for ICT, and GDP as proxy for
economic growth for the period 1997 to 2016, the outcome of the autoregressive
distributed lag (ARDL) reveals that there is a cointegration between ICT and
economic growth, which establishes the existence of a long-run relationship
between them. In the short run, only secure internet server per 1 million and
mobile cellular subscription per 100 people have a positive and significant impact
on economic growth, whereas investment in telecoms with private sector
participation was not significant. The Granger causality test shows the
bidirectional causality between secure internet server per 1 million and economic
growth. The results suggest that there is a need for a strong political will to
support an enabling environment and to propel the ease of doing business in the
sector to attract private and foreign investment into the sector, as this would
improve the secure internet server, increase the penetration of mobile usage to the rural communities, and increase the performance of other sectors of the economy
that would foster the economic growth of Nigeria.

Keywords

Information and communication technology, ARDL, Nigeria

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