Economic Growth in Nigeria: Assessing the Effect of Agriculture and Transport Sectors

The purpose of this study was to empirically examine the effect of transport infrastructure and agriculture sector development on the economy of Nigeria. The study covers the periods from 2000 to 2022 and applied the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test, ARDL bounds testing method, and Canonical Cointegration Regression (CCR) model in analyzing the time series data used. From the result of the analysis, it was discovered that agriculture sector development has a positive significant effect on economic growth. Road transport infrastructure quality (LNROADQ) was positively signed as expected but has no significant impact on Nigeria’s economic growth. Therefore, it is proposed that the Nigerian government should focus more on upsurging the transport infrastructure for higher economic development by continuously investing and constructing roadways, railways, seaports, and airports. In this regard, there is a need to increase and encourage private participation in the provision of transport infrastructure. Also, more budgetary allocation will help address issues relating to mechanization, rehabilitation of irrigation facilities and dams, storage, and research and development among others that have continued to negatively impact agriculture sector productivity.