THE MODERATING ROLE OF HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN BANKING SECTOR DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH NEXUS: THE CASE OF SUB-SAHARA AFRICA (2000 – 2020)

Abstract This study examined the interactive effect between human capital development and banking sector development on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for the period 2000 to 2020. Specifically, the study investigated the long-run and short-run relationship between banking sector development and economic growth and the long-run and short-run relationship between human capital development and economic growth in SSA. Using an ex-post research design, the study analysed data of 28 selected SSA countries obtained from World Development Indicators, (2022). The dependent variable was economic growth captured by GDP per capita growth. The independent variables were education, health, Physical Capital, Broad Money, Bank Credit to Private Sector, Interactive effect of health and education, Employed labour force, Openness to trade, Terms of Trade and Inflation. The panel Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was used for estimation and the findings show that, human capital development and banking sector development both impacted economic growth positively and significantly in the long run. Also, a higher rate of economic growth was observed when human capital development was interacted with banking sector development. However, the variables did not have a significant effect on economic growth in the short run. The study suggested the need to invest more in human capital development as a means to maximise the effect of banking sector development on economic growth.