MODERATING EFFECT OF POLICY IMPLEMENTERS' EXPERTISE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FISCAL POLICY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH OF NIGERIA

Abstract

This study, investigated the effect of policy implementers' expertise on the relationship between fiscal policy and economic growth of Nigeria over a period of thirty eight(38) years from 1986 to 2023. It employed time series data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF). Ex-post facto research design was employed because the data used were historical data while Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique was used to estimate the effect of policy implementers' expertise on the relationship between fiscal policy and economic growth of Nigeria. The findings revealed that with the introduction of moderator all the variables have positive signs which is consistent with our a priori expectation. The study therefore concludes that policy implementer's expertise has significant effect on the relationships between fiscal policy and economic growth of Nigeria during the period of the study. Base on the findings, the study makes the following recommendations: Federal Ministry of Finance, which is the government agency charged with the responsibility of driving the formulation, coordination and implementation of fiscal policies should consider merit in recruiting and or appointing officials. Those with the requisite expertise should be giving the job, as this will yield a better result. Furthermore, the President, who has the prerogative of appointing ministers, should consider merit above any political or primordial sentiments in appointing the minister of finance who leads the fiscal policy team. The capacity of those driving the fiscal policy process should be enhanced on a continues basis through training and retraining. This is to bring them up to speed with the realities of the times and in line with global best practices.