ABSTRACT
Several studies have been made at different times towards human capital investment, poverty and economic development in Nigeria in order to establish a link between these variables. Recent reports have not only shown Nigeria to be one of the countries with the highest poverty rate in the world, as a developing country, the number of out-of-school children is also high, which highlights a major concern in the foundation of the country’s human capital.
The objective was set to study human capital, poverty and economic development in Nigeria. The review of theoretical and empirical literature provided a basis for the selection and specification of model which was used to show if and how poverty and human capital impact on each other as well as on economic growth.
The data used in carrying out this research was sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin, 2018 and the World Bank’s data page. The sample size employed for this study covers a period of 29 years (1990-2018). Preliminary tests were done such as Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test for stationarity of the variables, the Johansen co-integration test and the ARDL Bounds test for co-integration was used to ascertain if there’s an equilibrium long run relationship between the variables. This study also uses ARDL regression model to determine the impact of poverty and human capital investment (education and health) in Nigeria.
The results of the study show that both human capital investment and poverty have a net significant impact on Nigeria’s economic development. On the strength of this evidence, this research recommends that government should introduce policies to improve the quality of the country’s human capital stock as well as reduce poverty. If these recommendations are efficiently implemented, Nigeria’s economic development would vastly improve in the long run.
