IMPACT OF AIR TRANSPORT ON POVERTY REDUCTION IN NIGERIA

The study is focused on examining the air transport, economic growth and poverty reduction in Nigeria. The overall objective of the study is empirically to evaluate the relationship between air transport, economic growth and poverty in Nigeria. Specifically, the study intends to; examine the impact of air transport on poverty reduction in Nigeria; examine the impact of economic growth on poverty reduction in Nigeria; evaluate the impact of the moderating effect of air transport and economic growth on poverty reduction in Nigeria; determine the causality relationship between air transport, economic growth and poverty reduction in Nigeria. Ex Post Facto research design was adopted for the present study. The methodology is essentially as it will examine the impact of air transport (explanatory variable) on economic growth (dependent variable) in Nigeria. The dependent variable is poverty reduction which is proxied by household consumption per capital while the independent variables are air transport value added, real gross domestic product, exchange rate, inflation rate and foreign direct investment. The findings of the study reveals that regulatory air transport value added, government social expenditure, inflation rate, exchange rate, foreign direct investment are above 0.05 percent level of significance; this implies that air transport value added, government social expenditure, inflation rate, exchange rate and foreign direct investment are not significant variable to determine household consumption per capital in Nigeria. While real gross domestic product has significant impact on household consumption per capital. The study also reveals that real gross domestic product, and exchange rate has positive relationship on the household consumption per capital while air transport, government social expenditure, inflation rate and foreign direct investment has negative relationship on the household consumption per capital. The study also revealed that the rate at which the independent variables explained what happened on the dependent variable is 44.6245% which is believed to be statistically significant to the researcher. The study recommends that there is need for increased air transport businesses and operations in Nigeria. The current state of air transport business in Nigeria has not led to reduction in poverty levels as is shown by the positive relationship between air transport and poverty reduction in the study