Financial Markets Investments and Economic performance: Nigerian Evidence

Abstract:This study was motivated by the need to examine the link between financial markets investments and economic performance in Nigeria. Treasury bills, commercial papers, total equity, total government securities and corporate bonds were the employed financial markets investments channels while economic performance was proxied by gross domestic product. The study employed the longitudinal research design and data sourced from the Nigerian Apex bank statistical bulletin from 1986 to 2023. The Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) with its associated bond test was employed for data estimation given that a fractional order of integration was recorded in the stationarity test. Findings from results revealed that treasury bill, total equity and total government securities were positive and significant while corporate bond was negative and insignificant. The study conclude that treasury bills, total equity and total government securities were important variables in explaining the performance of gross domestic product in the short and long run in Nigeria. The study recommends among others the need for financial markets regulators to help corporate organization to raise investment fund through the issuance of corporate bond by removing bottleneck bureaucracy and stringent policies that hinders issuance of corporate bond as such fund raised will impact the overall performance of the economy.