In view of the indispensable role of financial sector in both emerging and developing economies, there has been a notable spotlight on the financial sector development over the years in most African countries. Nonetheless, there are only a few studies on this topical issue, particularly for Nigeria. Hence, this study examines the long – run and short – run dynamic relationship between institutional quality and financial development in Nigeria over the period of 1984 – 2015 using Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test approach to cointegration. Using two different indicators (Private credit and M2) of financial development, the results consistently show that institutional factors do not have significant effect on financial development in the long – run as well as in the short – run. Furthermore, the empirical evidence indicates that regulatory quality and governance system (institutions) do not necessarily contribute to financial development in a feeble institutional environment, specifically in Nigeria. Thus, our findings suggest that whilst weak institutions could increase the risk of limiting the functioning of financial system, good governance and strong institutions are the essential ingredient of financial development in Nigeria. As a consequence, policies aimed at strengthening the quality of institutions and governance should form the major policy thrust of government (policy makers). These could help improving financial sector development in Nigeria.

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The study examines the long-run and causal relationship between stock market development and West African emerging economies in a comparative context of Ghana and Nigeria. Based on Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test approach, the findings support the evidence of long-run cointegration between stock market development and economic growth in Ghana, whereas further evidence reveals an insignificant positive long-run impact on economic growth. In contrast, there is no long-run cointegration between stock market indicators and economic growth in Nigeria. Furthermore, in the context of the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and Vector Autoregressive model (VAR) for Ghana and Nigeria respectively, the Granger causality test indicates that the direction of causality only runs from economic growth to stock market development, unidirectional) in both countries. Nonetheless, the empirical evidence on growth-led finance is specifically feeble in Nigeria. Given these results, the paper posits that stock markets could well play a crucial role in stimulating growth in West Africa. However, to attain this goal, there is a need to launch reforms that entail the overhaul of the legal and regulatory framework as well as principles underlying effective supervision. Also, Ghana and Nigeria should ensure that the stock markets are properly integrated into their respective economies and the strong integration of the two markets through robust institutional and governance structures. These could thus foster the development of stock markets in the two countries.

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