Purpose: Financial inclusion entails the delivery of financial services to individuals and businesses at segments of the society at a reasonable rate that meets their desired transactions. In view of this, the paper examined financial inclusion and economic growth in Nigeria from 1981-2018. Methods: The ARDL model was used to analyze the annual time series data collected from the CBN Statistical Bulletin and the World Bank report. The augmented Dickey Fully (ADF) unit root test, to test for stationarity of the variables preceded the ARDL model.    Results: The ADF unit root test results showed that the dependent variable was stationary at order zero I(0), while the independent variables were stationary at order one I(1). Based on the first-hand results, it was revealed that both in the short-run and long-run, access and effective usage of financial services bring about a significant increase in economic growth. But per capita income has a negative but significant relationship with economic growth.  Implications: The study conforms to finance-led growth theory which averred that the financial system is a positive function of economic growth. Based on these findings, the paper recommended that more efforts needed to be done to enhance and extend financial inclusion services such as electronic transaction in the form of POS, ATM, mobile money, etc to all rural communities in Nigeria as well as financial literacy and engagement of low-income people in the formal financial services in order to increase economic growth.

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The study examined the determinants of agricultural output in Nigeria from 1985-2016. It employs the econometric techniques of co-integration test and ECM approach to analyze the data obtained from the CBN statistical bulletin. The Augumented Dickey Fuller unit root test results showed that all the variables were stationary at first difference. The Johansen co-integration test results showed that co-integrating equations exist which fit the model for the ECM. Meanwhile, the ECM results showed that; government funding in agriculture is positively and significantly related to agricultural output, agriculture credit has positive and significant impact on agricultural output. Also, climate change has a positive and significant effect on agricultural output. The findings from the study showed that agricultural funding; agricultural credits as well as climate change are key determinants of agricultural output in Nigeria. Based on these findings, the study recommends amongst others that there should be increase infrastructural funding in the yearly budget in order to provide infrastructural facilities to the rural areas where bulk of farm products are produced. Also, credit to the agricultural sector via the rural farmers should be encouraged.

This paper empirically examined the effects of selected external sector aggregates on economic growth in Nigeria from 1981 to 2016. Time series data on Real Gross Domestic Product as proxy for economic growth, and on Imports, Exports, Exchange Rate and Foreign Direct Investment were collected from secondary sources. The data sets were analyzed using descriptive statistics, unit root test, co-integration test and error correction technique of model estimation. The result of the analysis revealed that Imports, Exchange Rate and Foreign Direct Investment negatively related with economic growth while Exports positively related with economic growth in Nigeria within the reviewed period. Also, except Exchange Rate all the other explanatory variables – Imports, Exports and Foreign Direct Investment did not impact significantly on economic growth in Nigeria within the period of study. Based on these findings, the study recommends that government should encourage export diversification, especially the non-oil sector exports. This can be achieved through value addition in both the agriculture and manufacturing sub-sectors output.

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