EXAMINE THE BI-DIRECTIONAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIO-ECONOMIC WELFARE AND SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA.

This study examined the bidirectional relationship between socio-economic welfare and sustainable economic growth in Nigeria within the context of the Renewed Hope Agenda. Despite ongoing economic reforms, Nigeria continues to face a development paradox in which economic growth has failed to generate commensurate improvements in socio-economic welfare, while gains in welfare have not translated into sustained long-run economic growth. This disconnect underscores the need to empirically examine the reciprocal relationship between both variables. Annual time-series data covering the period 1990–2024 were analysed using the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) estimator. Data were sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the World Bank's World Development Indicators (WDI). Sustainable economic growth was proxied by GDP per capita growth, whereas socio-economic welfare was measured using the Human Development Index (HDI). Human capital development, gross capital formation, inflation, trade openness, and income inequality were incorporated as control variables. The empirical findings reveal that socio-economic welfare exerts a statistically significant negative effect on sustainable economic growth, while sustainable economic growth likewise has a significant negative effect on socio-economic welfare, suggesting the existence of a structural disconnect between welfare enhancement and long-run economic