What are the Drivers of Human Capital Development in Nigeria
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Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa
Abstract
Human development is worrisomely weak in Nigeria despite several efforts by the government to improve it. Specifically, about half of the citizens still live under $1.9 a day. Consequently, the World Bank ranked Nigeria low among human development countries in 2016. This study employs Sen’s capability approach to investigate the drivers of human development. To gain a deeper understanding of how human development is influenced by its drivers, the components of human development—education, health and income indexes—are modelled and estimated using data covering 1990 to 2016. Results from the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method show that human development is affected, albeit differently, by these drivers both in the short run and in the long run. Specifically, funds from international donors and remittances show evidence of “fungibility” while control of corruption is good for human welfare. Immunization against measles raises health status but much still need to be done in this area. Carbon emission is detrimental to human development and so, it is recommended that this should be addressed with effective rules of law.
Keywords: Human Development, Education Index, Health Index, Income Index, Autoregressive Distributed Lag