Educational Investment and Unemployment in Nigeria

Education is a fundamental human right and is essential for the development and progress of any nation. It is a general belief that educated individuals fare better in the labour market than the less educated. This study empirically examines investment and expenditures in education, and its influence on unemployment rate in Nigeria from 1991 to 2021. Unit root test, ARDL approach, bound test, Breusch Godfrey serial correlation LM test and the CUSUM test were employed. Unemployment rate (UER) was used as the dependent variable while Federal government recurrent expenditure (GEE), credit to private sector (CPS), average of school enrollment rate (ASE) as proxy for literacy rate, labour force participation rate (LFP) and gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) as the independent variables. Findings revealed that apart from UEM that is stationary at the level, the other variables are stationary at first difference given the 5% level of significance. Labour force participation rate is statistically significant. There is an insignificant positive relationship between government recurrent expenditure on education and unemployment rate in the long -run. On the other hand, credit to private sector, school enrolment rate, and gross fixed capital formation all conform to their a priori expectations, but are insignificant, i.e., statistically indifferent from zero. The study recommended among others that an actionable and working fiscal policy in the educational sector should be established and government should improve on the quality of institutions through better teacher training, investment in educational research development, and the establishment of vocational training centers that provide practical skills to students.