Export Concentration and Sectorial Performance: A Re-Examination of the Empirical Evidence

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines to what extent export concentration can be tailored towards promoting economic growth in Nigeria. A deeper understanding of the interrelationship among various sectorial units, as well as the investment channel that better stimulates the economy is the thrust of this paper. As a consequence, the study wants to answer to the question whether it “is there any linkage between export concentration, and various sectorial output share (agricultural, manufacturing, and service sector) on growth performance?”. The methodology we made use of is a Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model for the various sectoral analysis of export concentration in Nigeria. The estimated results show that export concentration has an important role to play in driving economic growth and that this role emanates from the Agricultural and manufacturing sectoral channels. These channels account for about 93 percent and over 3 percent respectively of the total variation of export concentration contribution to economic growth. The result also indicates that one standard deviation shock to export concentration results in a peak on agricultural sector quarterly after shock. As a result, the study recommends that government ought to make available incentive to the agricultural sector to further enhance the contribution of the sector to the economic growth in the Nigeria economy.