Erondu, Ihunanya Ngozi, Taiwo, Joseph Niyan, Madugba, Joseph Ugochukwu, Erondu, Chinyere Iheoma, Oladipo, Adenike Omowumi, and Erondu, Udochukwu Iheanacho
The study investigated financial technology investment and poverty reduction in Nigeria spanning from the year 1981 to 2020. In other to determine the kind of relationship that occurs between the variables of the study, secondary data sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin was employed. The study employed public sector investment in financial technology and private sector investment in financial technology as proxies for financial technology investments, while Human Development Index was adopted as a metric for poverty reduction. However, the study adopted ex-post-facto research design. The descriptive test, normality test, test for outliers, and unit root test to establish the stationarity of data were carried out. The Cointegration method was adopted to test the hypotheses using the e-views 9 statistical software. The study showed that only public sector investment in financial technology impacted negatively and significantly on poverty reduction which was measured by Human Development Index in Nigeria. While private sector investments in financial technology were positive and a significant determinant of Human Development Index. This implies that an increase in financial technology investments, will lead to an increase in poverty reduction in Nigeria. Therefore, the study concludes that the impact of financial technology investment on poverty reduction is positive and significant. Therefore, the study recommends that government should spend more in developing efficient financial technology framework, so that it can significantly reduce poverty in Nigeria by incorporating financial technology into their poverty intervention programs, as it helps to reduce poverty. Also, the government should enact policies that will encourage private sector investment in financial technology and provide funding for FinTech startups, as this will allow citizens to benefit from lower costs while capitalizing on perceived positive gains from private sector investments in financial technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]