FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA
The study investigated financial intermediation and economic growth in Nigeria for the periods 1970-2018. Banks are essential institutions through the financial services they rendered. Their intermediation role in the savings-investment process has been widely acknowledged as engine that propels economic growth. In an attempt to carry out this study, Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration were employed. Variable that causes one another was tested using the Granger causality test. The variables used in the analysis are real gross domestic product (RGDP), credit to private sector ratio real gross domestic product (CPSRGDP), broad money supply ratio real gross domestic product (MSRGDP), trade ratio (TRADER), inflation rate (INFR) and interest rate (INTR). The data were sourced from the central bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin 2019. The results indicated that insignificant positive relationships were found among credit to private sector ratio real gross domestic product, trade ratio and interest rate. While money supply ratio real gross domestic product and inflation rate depict positive and insignificant relationship with the growth of the economy. The causality test showed unidirectional causal link flowing from real gross domestic product to credit to private sector ratio, to money supply ratio, and from inflation rate to real gross domestic product. While no causal link was found among trade ratio and interest rate. In line with this result, the study concluded that the depth of financial system is low and this invariably affects economic growth of Nigeria. Since most financial intermediary variables were not statistically significant, the…