Causal Relationship between Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in Nigeria: 1970-2013

Foreign direct investment is presumed to play immense role in economic growth in both developed and developing economies. This assumption has motivated the army of studies to actually determine the nexus between foreign direct investment and economic growth in Nigeria. But these studies were not unified on the direction of the causation, hence the need for the study. To effectively analyze the result, the study employs vector error correction model method of causality to analyze the annual data for the periods of 1970 to 2013. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test show presence of unit root at level but stationary after first difference. The Johansen cointegration test confirms that the variables are cointegrated while the granger causality test affirms that foreign direct investment and economic growth reinforce each other in the short run in Nigeria. Also, it is reported that foreign direct investment granger cause economic growth both in the short and long run in Nigeria. Based on these findings, the study advocates the adoption of aggressive policy reforms to boost investors ’ confidence and promotion of qualitative human capital development to lure FDI into the country. It also suggests the introduction of selective openness to allow only the inflow of FDI that have the capacity to spillover to the economy. These will attract FDI and boost economic growth in Nigeria