Economic Growth Amidst Insecurity: The Nigeria Experience

Abstract

The study focused on economicgrowth amidst insecurity in Nigeria. Efforts were made to explain the impact ofsecurity on Economic growth, Time series data were collected from 1981 to 2014 onReal Gross Domestic Product, Total Expenditure on security, Gross Fixed CapitalFormation, Total Labour Force, corruption perception index and poverty index toshow the relationship empirically with the use of multiple regressions [OLS] method.It was found out that 90% systematic variation in Real GDP is caused by variationin total labour force, total expenditure on security, corruption perception index,poverty index, unemployment rate, inflation rate and gross fixed capital formation.The study showed that security and other related variables do not only contributepositively to economic growth in Nigeria, but its impact on economic growth is strongand statistically significant. Also Nigeria potential GDP growth rate is 11% whythe actual growth rate is 6%, which implies that Nigeria economy if efficient duethe level of insecurity, corruption, unemployment, and poverty.  Therefore based on the findings we conclude thatthe structure and trend of allocation to security is still inadequate to face thechallenges of boko haram. Security funding and also reduction in unemployment ratehas to treated as matter of urgency in Nigeria i.e. increase in security fundingwill lead to increase in economic growth. The study therefore recommends. Governmentshould as a matter of priority implement the policy of EFCC in order to reduce thelevel of corruption in the country. The donor agencies like the World Bank, UNDP,UNESCO, etc. should also be encouraged to inject funds into the security sector.Keywords: Insecurity, Economic growth, Inequality, Poverty