Insurance Market Activity and Economic Growth: Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

The focus of this study is to empirically assess insurance market activities in Nigeria withthe view to determining its impact on economic growth. The period of study was 1970- 2008, thestudy made use of insurance density measures (premium per capita) as a measure for insurancemarket activity and real GDP for economic growth. It also employed control variables such asinflation and savings rate as other determinants ofgrowth. The Johansen cointegration and vectorerror correction approach was used to estimate therelationship between the variables. All thevariables used were stationary at first differenceand the result showed a long term relationshipexisting among the variables. The hallmark findingof this study is that the insurance sector did notreveal any positively and significant affect on economic growth in Nigeria within the period of study.The result shows a low insurance market activity inNigeria and that Nigerians have not fully embracethe insurance industry despite its importance to the growth of theeconomy.

Keywords

• Insurance
• Financial Intermediation
• Economic growt h
• Cointegration
• Vector error correction approach