Reconsidering the nexus between monetary policy and economic growth in Nigeria: The role of interest rate, money supply, and financial inclusion.

The empirical evidence on the nexus between monetary policy and economic growth remains ambiguous with mixed and differing results, depending on the country's characteristics, the choice of monetary policy variables employed, and recently, the place of financial inclusion in monetary policy formulation and transmission mechanism. This study explores the nexus between monetary policy and economic growth in Nigeria while accounting for the roles of interest rate, money supply, and financial inclusion over a base period of 2004q1 to 2020q4 and a projected period of 30 quarters. Using the dynamic simulation autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, the study finds that in the short run, only the effect of money supply on economic growth is statistically significant. However, in the long run, interest rate, money supply, and financial inclusion have statistically significant effects on economic growth. The results are supported by the plots of the dynamic simulated ARDL, where economic growth response is predicted at various time periods after forcing a ±1% change (positive and negative shocks) in interest rate, money supply, and financial inclusion. We, therefore, recommend among other things an aggressive financial inclusion strategy with clearly defined deliverables and timelines to reduce the percentage of persons excluded from the formal financial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]