The Boko Haram Terrorism and Nigerian Economic Contraction

Sequel to the paradigm of terrorism activities prevalent in many troubled economies, this study takes a look at the key implications of Boko Haram insurgency on the Nigerian economy and the numerous sectors that have been affected largely by the insurgency. The study uses data from Nigerian GDP contributors in evaluating the effect of the terrorism on the macroeconomy of the nation. It takes each GDP indicators into cognizance looking at their contributions to various economic sectors relatively to growth rate (real GDP), in the years of the terror. Therefore, the methodology used to pinpoint and highlight the adverse effect of terrorism on the generality of the Nigerian economy cum sectors are facts, figures and data with use of images and graphical illustrations from existing secondary data and sources. The evaluation is basically using secondary data gathered from various sources particularly, TheGlobalEconomy.com, Nigerian page as www.theglobaleconomy.com/Nigeria. More so, figures and illustrations from the detailed 2015 and 2018 reports of Global Terrorism Index, GTI published by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) are employed. Additionally, this work justifies that Boko Haram was one of the root causes of the economic recession witnessed in the Nigerian economy through 2016 to second quarter of 2017. The target year of focus for this work is the effect after 2014. Hence, data for economic sectors and contributors are from 1960-2017 while for GDP indicators and contributors span 1980-2017. The study concluded that terrorism has adversely affected the macro-economy of Nigeria, and recommended that apart from the government increasing security and defense, there is need to focus on economic indicators and growth, thereby stipulating that service industry should be enhanced as it can help the economy even in the face of terrorism, also is the need for devaluation of the currency as these can drive the economy to a state of stable growth in the presence of insurgency and attendant terrorism.