THE IMPACT OF NON- OIL EXPORTS ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA

Abdulmalik Iyabo B

Abstract

The over reliance on oil export revenue by Nigeria expose her economy excessively to external shocks. Oil accounts for over 90 percent of total export in Nigeria, while non-oil account for less than 10 percent of the total export. The essence of this study is to examine the effects of non-oil exports on economic growth in Nigeria from 1984 to 2015. Vector Auto regression model along with its devices; Impulse Response Functions and Variance Decomposition Device were used. The study found that non-oil exports affects economic growth both directly and indirectly through other variables such as foreign debt, external reserves, term of trade and investment. The paper therefore suggested that government should diversify production base away from oil to non-oil exports with proper exchange rate and inflation management policies aimed at improving the performance of the non-oil sector as being adopted in recent times by the country’s monetary authorities.