Financial Inclusion for Sustainable Economy: Empirical Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

The main objective of the study is to empirically examine how economic growth is impacted upon through financial inclusion. Economic growth per capital income is the study’s explained variables while, rural deposits, private sector deposits, rural loans, private loans, and number of banks branches are proxies for the explanatory variable. Secondary data was sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin and World Bank financial indicator and span thirty-five years (1982 to 2017). From the augmented dickey fuller (ADF) test results, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) regression was adopted. Findings shows that individually, rural deposits, and number of banks branches are significant in the short-run while, only the former is significant in the long-run. However, jointly, and from the Wald test result, a no significant relationship is established between the variables in the long-run. The study thus recommends a nurturing approach from primary to tertiary level of financial inclusion.