Effect of Government Agriculture Investment on Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana

This study examines the effect of government agriculture expenditure on economic growth of three Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries of Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana from 1980 to 2013.The objective is to analyze the growth effect of three agriculture expenditure variables of Agricultural Raw Material Import (ARMI), Agricultural Machinery (AMACH), and Real Interest Rate (RIR) on the economies of these countries; Secondary data are sourced from World Development Indicators (WDI) online Database and analyzed, using Co-integration techniques and Vector Error Correction mechanism (ECM), at 1% and 5% significance levels.The results indicate that none of the three agriculture proxy variables show significant positive effect on growth but rather insignificant positive effect implying that government agriculture financing has a weak effect on growth in SSA.This study concludes that, the SSA countries" economies still exhibit the potentials for enhanced economic growth in the long run judging from the VECM test results.The study recommends increased budgetary allocations for importation of necessary agricultural equipment and raw materials, as well as tackle the various identified problems of the sector to enhance economic growth.