Financial Inclusion, Poverty Reduction, and Economic Growth in Nigeria: An Empirical Study Using SVAR Approach (1980-2020)

This study examines the empirical analysis of financial inclusion, poverty reduction and economic growth in Nigeria from 1981 to 2020 using the Structural Vector Auto-Regressive (SVAR) model for analysis, with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as dependent variable and Branches of Commercial Banks (CBBA), Automated Teller Machine (ATMAD), Mobile Phone-Based Transactions and Broad Money Supply (MS) as explanatory variables. The findings of the study reveal that the unit root test shows that Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP), Commercial Bank Branches (CBB), Money Supply (MS) and Poverty Rate (PR) are stationary at first difference. The results also reveal that in Nigeria, availability and access to money have a positive shock impact on RGDP, and CBB also has a favourable shock effect on RGDP in Nigeria. However, the PR has a negative impact on the RGDP. Therefore, the study recommends that the government should increase its efforts to promote financial inclusion and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should make commercial banks increase not only their branches but also increase the number of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).