Total Debt Service and Economic Growth in Nigeria: The Empirical Nexus

This study examines the relationship between debt service and economic growth in Nigeria in the period 1990-2022, utilizing time series data from the World Development Indicator and CBN Statistical Bulletin. The issue of debt servicing has become difficult for developing countries like Nigeria, and has not only stifle economic growth, but also increased the rate of poverty and unemployment in these countries. The study explores the empirical nexus between total debt service and economic growth in Nigeria, employing GDP growth rate as the dependent variable, while the explanatory variables involved; are total debt serving, inflation rate and capital expenditure. The variables were estimated with autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method, among other, after the stationarity tests conducted on them Indicate that the variables were of mixed integration. Evidence suggesting a long-term equilibrium relationship among the variables was also established given the cointegration result. The ARDL results reveal that the inflation rate has an inverse and significant impact on GDP growth. Total Debt services variable also exhibited a similar impact on GDP growth. However, the results indicated that capital expenditure variable has a direct and significant impact on GDP growth. Based on the findings, this study recommends that the Nigerian government should implement robust monetary policies aimed at controlling inflation and revisit its debt management strategy to ensure sustainability. It is also recommended that the government should not only increase capital expenditure but also ensure that these investments are directed towards sectors with the highest economic growth potentials. Keywords: Debt service, economic growth, inflation, capital expenditure and GDP growth