ICT, Economic Prosperity and Financial Development: New Evidence from Nigeria

The inquiry investigates the influence of Information Communication Technology (ICT) variable and economic progress on financial development in Nigeria. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) was used to estimate data series from 1886 - 2021. The results revealed that the technology variable (ICT) measured by integrating mobile phone subscriptions and internet usage has a positive and important influence on financial development (FD). Thus, technology arising from enhanced ICT variable is instrumental in stimulating FD. The consequence is that financial markets require the use of internet and mobile broadband to be effective. Equally, the results of the impact of mobile subscriptions and the internet by excluding the ICT variable revealed that mobile phone subscriptions and the use of the internet have positive effects on FD. Moreover, the results revealed that economic growth positively and significantly impacts financial development. This implies that an advanced level of economic growth stimulates FD. Additionally, FDI also influenced FD. Thus, an increase in FDI facilitates financial development. Nevertheless, human capital has an inverse impact on FD. Policy implications were also provided.