Capital Market and Economic Growth in Nigeria

In spite of its expected role of bridging the saving and investment gap for economic growth, the impact of the Nigerian capital market on the growth of the economy remains unclear. This study looked at the influence of the capital market on economic growth in Nigeria between 1981 and 2022, using vector autoregressive (VAR) analysis. The variables used included: real gross domestic product (RGDP), market capitalization (MCAP), total value of securities traded (TVST), and gross fixed capital formation (GFCF). The study concluded that while RGDP and MCAP influenced their own outcome as well as the outcome of other variables positively in both the short and long run, TVST and GFCF influenced their own outcome as well as the outcome of other variables negatively in both the short and long run, using the VAR system tools of impulse response function and forecast error variance decomposition. Based on the findings of this study, we recommended among others the urgent need to boost the perception of local firms listed in the Nigerian stock exchange both locally and internationally in terms of the total value of their corporate assets and performance measured by price-to-earnings, price-to-sales and return-on-equity metrics. This can be improved upon when these firms are able to increase the quality of their products and services thereby making them better competitors in the global space.