Effect of Sustainable Development Goals and Rural Development in Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the sustainable development goals and rural development in Nigeria, 2000-2021 with the view to appraise the trends of poverty in Nigeria, investigate the effect of sustainable development goals on rural development and determine the causal relationship between sustainable development goals and rural development in Nigeria. Annual data on manufacturing valued added gross, gross primary education, annual current health expenditure, adjusted net national income, access to electricity, and rural development are downloaded from the World Development Indicators (WDI) (2021 edition). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ARDL estimation technique. The appraisal of poverty was measured by the adjusted net national income in Nigeria from 2000 to 2021. Adjusted net national income has been unsteady as it kept increasing in 2000-2003 followed by a decrease in 2003 to 2005 and a slight increase in 2005 to 2019 after which it decreased in 2019- 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The ARDL results revealed that all determinants are not all statistically significant but most variables are jointly significant. Manufacturing value-added gross, annual current health expenditure, adjusted net national income, and access to electricity has a negative impact on rural development, while gross primary education has a positive and significant impact on rural development in the long run. The diagnostic test confirms that all variables used for the model are significant which signifies a strong relationship exists between rural development and other variables used. The study concluded that there is short-run causality between indicators of sustainable development goals used in the study and rural development in Nigeria over the study period.