THE ROLE OF GLOBALIZATION AND HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH OF NIGERIA

Abstract

Globalization has become a dominant force shaping economies worldwide, with profound implications for human capital development and sustainable economic growth, particularly in developing nations like Nigeria. This paper examined the relationship between globalization, human capital development, and sustainable economic growth in Nigeria. This study critically analyzed the effect of the interaction between globalization 
and human capital development on sustainable economic growth in Nigeria, covering the period from 1989 until 2022. The study utilized trade openness and human capital development to investigate the dynamics of Nigeria's integration into the global economy. Gross fixed capital formation, foreign direct investment, government expenditure, and credit to the private sector are deployed as the control variables for the study. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) was employed to analyze the long
run and short-run effects of the variables empirically. Findings suggest that globalization and human capital development have positive and significant effects on sustainable economic growth in the short run. In the long run, the effect of both variables is not significant. The synergistic effect of globalization and human capital development on economic growth is not significant in the short run and long run. The study recommends decisive policy actions to improve the quality of human capital development 
in an effort to enhance the contribution to sustainable economic growth. Also, the government should sustain the positive effect of globalization to enhance access to larger markets, increase competitiveness, encourage innovation and promote long-term sustainable economic growth. 
KEY WORDS: Credit to Private Sector, Foreign Direct Investment, Globalization, Government Expenditure, Human Capital Development, Sustainable Economic Growth.