GOVERNANCE AS A CORRELATE TO INDUSTRIALIZATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The query for governance in Nigeria has attracted remarkable attention since her independence. It was on this premise that this study investigated the correlation between governance and industrialization of the Nigerian economy using an Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model for the period 1996 to 2020. Data covering these period were collected from the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), Transparency International and Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin, and annual publications. The analysis involved disaggregated good governance indicators viz- the rule of law index, government effectiveness index, regulatory quality index, voice of accountability index, political stability index, and control of corruption index, as independent variables while using manufacturing sector output as a measure of industrialization.  The estimated result indicated that one-period lag of rule of law index and current value of control of corruption index significantly improved industrialization in the long run. The short run result showed that current values of rule of law index, regulatory quality index and control of corruption index significantly promoted industrial output in the country. Amongst others, it was recommended that Nigeria should focus more on the control of corruption as corruption make other indicators of governance less effective thus hindering industrialization. More so, the Nigerian government should observe the rule of law and ensure good regulatory quality in other to harvest its numerous industrialization endeavours.