ABSTRACT

The purpose of this project is based on the effect of monetary policy on economic growth in Nigeria. This work discussed the meaning of monetary policy as monetary management techniques put in place by the government through the central bank to control money stock in order to influence broad macro-economic objectives. The data used is a secondary data collected from central bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin between the periods of 1981 to 2014, and multiple regression analysis of ordinary least square (OLS) were used. The variables of the model includes: GDP Growth as the dependent variable and broad money supply, interest rate, and monetary policy rate as the independent variables. The result shows that money supply is statistically significant, which means that money supply influences growth positively in Nigeria. On the other hand, interest rate and monetary policy rate are statistically insignificant showing that interest rate and monetary policy rate are negatively influences economic growth in Nigeria. Government should increase its expenditure on productive sectors to boost economic growth alongside with monetary policy.

Background Information

Monetary policy are monetary management techniques put in place by the government through the central bank to control money stock that is supply of money in order to influence broad macro-economic objectives which include price stability, high level of employment, sustainable economic growth and balance of payment equilibrium. These broad objectives are achieved through the use of appropriate instruments, depending on which objective the policy formulated want to achieve on the level of development of the country.

Over the years, the major goals of monetary policy have often been the two later objectives namely: Inflation targeting and exchange rate policy. These objectives have dominated the Central Bank of Nigerian’s monetary policy focus based on the assumption that these are essential tools of achieving macroeconomic stability (Ajayi, 1999).