AGRICULTURAL CREDIT, COCOA EXPORTS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA: AN EMPIRICAL PERSPECTIVE
AGRICULTURAL CREDIT, COCOA EXPORTS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA: AN EMPIRICAL PERSPECTIVE

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine the nexus between agricultural credit, cocoa exports and economic growth in Nigeria. This study was motivated as a result of current advocacy in some quarters to diversify the Nigerian downstream sector towards the direction of agriculture, because revenues from exports of agricultural products had been the life wire of the Nigerian economy before the advent of oil and the oil boom. Against this backdrop this study utilized data from CBN Statistical Bulletin and FAOSTAT from 1990 to 2016, and the objective of the study was addressed within the framework of Cointegration, Dynamic Ordinary Least Square and Granger Causality techniques. Consequently, the findings that emerged from this study is as follows: the long-run impact shows that credit disbursed to cocoa production, and cocoa exports have a significant impact on Nigeria`s Gross Domestic Product. However, the exchange rate has an inverse, but an insignificant relationship with the country`s Gross Domestic Product in the long run. Consequently, there is neither a feedback effect between agricultural credit and economic growth nor cocoa exports. Therefore, due to the paramount findings that surfaced in this study, it is expedient for this paper to recommend that the Nigerian government should as a matter of fact see sustainable disbursement of agricultural credit to cocoa crop production as a viable catalyst that has the capacity to propel the expansion of the country`s GDP through cocoa exports. Also the policy makers in the country should embark on policy formulation and implementation that will revamp cocoa production through adequate and sustainable credit to cocoa farmers in the country. In the same vein, aggressive exports of agricultural products could serve as a panacea to the current useless and valueless Naira in the global market.

• Details
• Contents