Improving balance of payment in Nigeria through agricultural earnings

Abstract

The broad objective of this research is to analyse how the balance of payment management in Nigeria can be improved through agricultural earnings. Data for the study was secondary time series data covering the period 1960 to 2000 collected within the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The data were collected from relevant publications of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS). Despite the huge earnings made crude oil sales in recent years by Nigeria, the Country had a balance of payment deficit of N326,635.0 million in 1999. This was not the case, as seen in Appendix A during the 1960's and 1970's when agricultural earnings contributed significantly to the nations balance of payment. The Result of multiple regression analysis carried out indicates that exchange rate, interest rate, time factor, and foreign reserve are directly related to balance of payment while imports and exports were inversely related to balance of payment. It is strongly recommended that those factors found to significantly affecting balance of payment of Nigeria be emphasized.


(J Agric & Soc Res:2003 3(2): 42-54)