Does Female Education Promote Economic Performance? Evidence from Nigeria

The paper examines whether female education promotes economic performance in Nigeria, using the co-integration and error correction techniques for the period 1975-2008. The augmented Solow model is used to incorporate the gender dimension. The unit root tests conducted indicated that all variables are stationary at first difference and are also co-integrated. This shows that a long-run equilibrium relationship exists among them. Furthermore, it was revealed that the male education has a significant and positive impact on the Nigerian economy, while female education does not. Contrary to expectations, the results also revealed that investment to GDP ratio and government investment on social and community services have no significant effect on real GDP when lagged by one year. It is implied that instead of promoting growth, investment efforts have not been beneficial to the economy. The result shows that trade openness is an effective policy for promoting economic performance in Nigeria. The policy implication of the study is that if the country wants to achieve sustainable growth which would engender structural transformation of the Nigerian economy, the issue of gender equality in access to education should be taken seriously. Thus, government should pay more attention to educational policies that enhance female enrolment rates, participation in educational institutions and literacy in order to enhance women contribution to growth and economic transformation in Nigeria. This should be done in a stable macroeconomic environment which has a tendency to enhance domestic investment in Nigeria.