HUMAN CAPITAL INVESTMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA: THE ROLE OF EDUCATION AND HEALTH

This study looked at Human Capital Investment and Economic Growth in Nigeria – the Role of Education. Even though there are different perspectives to economic growth, there is a general consensus that growth will lead to a good change manifested in increased capacity of people to have control over material assets, intellectual resources and ideology, and obtain physical necessities of life like food, clothing, shelter, employment, e.t.c. This is why some people have argued that the purpose of growth is to improve peoples’ lives by expanding their choices, freedom and dignity. The belief in human capital as a necessity for growth started in Nigeria during the implementation of the 1955-60 Development Plan and today, with the importance of knowledge in the economy, human capital has increasingly attracted both academic and public interest. This study made use of the Unit Root and Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) tests and found out that a positive relationship exists between government expenditure on education and economic growth while a negative relationship exists between government expenditure on health and economic growth. Therefore, based on these findings, the study recommended that the Government should increase not just the amount of expenditure made on the education and health sectors, but also the percentage of its total expenditure accorded to these sectors. The ten percent benchmark proffered by the present national plan should be adopted.