HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA (1980-2015]

Human Capital Development is an Integral pait of any Country’s Development and Economic Growth, and cannot be over Emphasized and has been the Fulcrum of aid and assistance by International Agencies and Developed Countries, Furthermore, Evidence from Developed Countries Suggests that Human Capital has been the major driver of their Development Process. This notwithstanding, Human Capital Development and the Nigeria Economy has been a subject of debate. The main aim of this Paper is to carryout Empirical Investigation on Human capital and economic growth in Nigeria using time series data from 1980-2015. This Paper Employs Trends Analysis, the Johansen Co integration and Ordinary Least Square Technique (OLS). Based on the Findings, the Policy Implications are in three directions (i) to retain the continuous long run relationship with GDP and Human Capital Development, Effort should be made to harmonize the Activities in the Health, Education Sector with much Attention on Funding. The harmonization of the activities in these two sectors will have long run effect on the economy, (ii) As one of the factors of human capital development, government expenditure on education was found to have positive effect on the economy. In the light of this government should try as well to meet up with world standard benchmark on education expenditure in the annual budget. In so doing this will improve on the economy (Hi) government expenditure on health was found to have negative effect on the economy. Therefore, effort should be made by government to address the agitations by the health, and education sectors which always resort to frequent strike actions. The recommendation drawn from the study centered on revisiting the workable policies which should be put in place to bring about an overall economic growth, expenditure on health and public education should be utilized effectively and efficiently so that the country would experience quality health care services and quality education system. Effort should be made to equip our health and education sector so that capital flight in the name of foreign medical treatment is reduced.