Chinenye, Okafor Joy2023-12-142023-12-142019-12-19A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, NASARAWA STATE UNIVERSITY, KEFFI, IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTERS OF SCIENCE DEGREE (M.Sc) IN PUBLIC SECTOR ACCOUNTINGhttps://keffi.nsuk.edu.ng/handle/20.500.14448/7306ThesisThis study examines the effect of bank lending on economic growth in Nigeria for the period of thirty years, covering 1988 to 2017. This study adopts ex-post facto research design, secondary data were obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin. The population of the study is the twenty one commercial banks registered by the Central Bank of Nigeria as at 31st December, 2017. Census sampling technique was utilized to sample all the population of the study because the study utilized aggregate time series data. This study utilized the ordinary least square multiple regression analysis to analyse the data. The properties of the time series data for the period of study was investigated in order to test its stationarity using the Augmented Dickey Fuller test statistics. The results revealed that there is no unit root after first difference. The result of the regression showed that credit to productions sector has positive significant effect on economic growth while credit to services sector has a significant negative effect on economic growth, likewise, bank credit to general commerce has no significant effect on economic growth in Nigeria. The result of the cointegration test indicates there is cointegration among the variables. The Vector Error Correction Model showed that there is long and short run influence of credit to productions sector, credit to general commerce and credit to services sector on real gross domestic product. The study concludes that bank credit has a significant effect on economic growth in Nigeria. .Based on the findings of this study, the study encouraged commercial banks to grant more loans and advances to the production sector of the economy. The study also recommends that Commercial banks should put more stringent conditions on credit to the general commerce sector as the credit granted to that sector does not improve the economy.enThesis