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The need for economic development has preoccupied policymakers over the years. Especially the global south such as Nigeria, which is plagued with infrastructural deficit and less foreign direct investment and financial development attraction. This has drawn the attention of stakeholders and government officials for exploration of alternative routes for sustainable development, which is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals‐8 (UNSDG's). Thus, the current study focuses on the FDI‐led economic growth hypothesis if it holds or not for the case of Nigeria. The present study is distinct from previous studies in terms of scope by incorporation of more covariates, which has seemed to have been overlooked in the FDI argument. To this end, the current study re‐investigates the connection between FDI, financial development, total labour force, gross capital formation, and economic growth using Nigeria as a representation for Africa and Sub‐Saharan states specifically. Annual time‐series data from 1970 to 2018 is adopted for the econometrics analysis. Our study interest variables are foreign direct investment, economic expansion (GDP). The present study inculcates two additional financial development indicators; from the banking, and financial sectors. Using a battery of unit root and stationarity tests the study explores the stationarity properties of the outlined variables. Subsequently, the novel and recent robust Bayer and Hanck (2013) combined cointegration test in conjunction with Pesaran's ARDL bounds test was used to investigate the equilibrium relationship and regression analysis. While the Toda‐Yamamoto Granger causality was used to detect the direction of causality analysis among the variables. Empirical investigation traces a long‐run equilibrium relationship among the variables over the sampled period. Furthermore, empirical results show that FDI influences GDP, which suggests that FDI influences economic growth which is indicative of policymakers. Similarly, empirical outcomes establish a significant relationship between GDP and Financial Development from banking‐sector which is also corroborated in the causality results as an indirect causality is seen running from GCF to the financial sector. These outcomes suggest that FDI and Financial development are good predictors for sustainable economic growth in Nigeria. All aforementioned results have its inherent policy implications which are elucidated in the concluding remark of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]