Citation: Ojomolade, Dele Jacob , Ugwulali, Ifeanyi Joseph &Adejuwon, Joshua Adewale (2022) National Budget Management and Economic Development in Nigeria, European Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance Research, Vol.10, No. 3, pp.18-30
Abstract: This study examines the impact of national budget management on economic development in Nigeria emphasising the controversial issues of whether its impact is visibly seen or not on Nigeria’s development. Secondary data were sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin, 2020 and the data were analysed using co-integration and descriptive statistics. The results revealed long run relationship among the variables with ARDL bound test of F-statistic of 9.4 which is greater than the upper and lower bound while the R-squared is 85.2 and Adjusted R-squared is 70.4 which show those explanatory variables are jointly significant and estimated model is of good fit .The Durbin Watson is 1.7 and the Prob.(F-statistics) is less than 5% denoting absence of serial correlation. The study found out that Education and health have negative relationship with economic development in the Nigerian budgeting system, implying that increasing annual budget allocation results in decreasing proportion of education and health in the total national budget estimates. It was further found out that budget estimate and public debt payment services have positive relationship, implying that the more the budget estimates, the more the proportion of public debt services. The study concluded that the Nigerian government does not have enough budgetary allocation to education and health while substantial amount is being allocated to debt servicing. It is therefore recommended that Nigerian government should endeavor to develop human capital by increasing budget allocation to education and health to create a wealthy nation and sustainable development.
Keywords: Development, Economic, Government, Nigeria, national budget
