The Impact Of Electricity Consumption On Economic Growth In Nigeria: 1981-2017

A majorfactor that drives the process of economic growth across the world is energy supply and its consumption. Being a secondary source of energy, electricity supply is obtained by converting primary energy resource such as fossil fuels involving oil resources,natural gas and wind energy as well as coal. This study is conducted with the objective of investigating the impact of electricity consumption on economic growth in Nigeria for the period 1981 –2017. Annual time series data were exploited for the study while a Distributed Lag (DL) mechanism was used to capture both the immediate and remote impact of electricity consumption on economic growth in Nigeria. The study found that both the current and past level of electricity consumption has significant impact on economic growth in Nigeria. It recommended among other things, massive investment in electricity infrastructure through diversifying into other sources of energy such as solar and thermal energy so as to meet the consumption needs of electricity and to increase the productive capacity of the economy for sustained economic growth.