EFFECT OF COMMERCIAL BANK LENDING ON SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA, 2015-2024: (AUTOREGRESSIVE - DISTRIBUTED LAG MODEL)

This paper study’s the influence of commercial bank lending on economic growth in Nigeria, 2015-2024. The precise intentions were to: ascertain the implications of aggregate bank credit, determine the influence of Prime lending rate and survey the association between broad money supply and economic growth in Nigeria. This study used ex post-facto research design. Data used were from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the World Bank, analyzed using Augmented Dickey-Fuller Unit Root test statistic, Johansen Co-integration test, Autoregressive -distributed lag Model. The major findings of the study are that aggregate bank credit (ABC) has positive and significant implications on economic growth in short run with [t-statistics; 6.9881; P-value (0.0029) > (0.05) significant value. Prime lending rate has negative and non-notable influence on economic growth in short run with [t - statistics; -1.2040; P-value (0.8400) > (0.05) significant value. Broad Money supply (BMS) has positive and notable influence on real gross domestic product (RGDP) because its probability value of 0.0028 which was less than 0.05 in short run. The study recommended that monetary authorities should review its credit policies by regulating interest rate more and try to supervise how bank rate is charged by different banks to make the key economic sectors to uplift output and their scope utilization since interest rate rises in Nigeria affect the execution of key economic sectors.